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Ducks rehire failed Fresno State AD Jim Bartko – or did Mike Andreasen?

Last updated on 08/08/2018

8/8/2018 update:

The Oregonian’s John Canzano has a weepy puff piece about the Bartko hire here. Apparently this is all about doing a solid for Phil and Penny Knight. They can’t get Nike to hire him?

More on how much Bartko cost Fresno State’s academic side here:

Fresno State president Joseph Castro is funneling another $1.6 million in university support to the Bulldogs’ athletic department so that new athletic director Terry Tumey will have a balanced budget to work with in his first year.

But that commitment only highlights a daunting task for Tumey and the university, which must cover a $2 million shortfall in 2017-’18 in a department that has struggled to keep pace with the escalating costs of college athletics.

With that additional $1.6 million, university support in the 2018-19 budget that will go to the Athletics Corporation for approval this week is up to $19.1 million.

In 2013-14, the year Castro was appointed, it was $9.6 million.

Meanwhile, Duck Communicator Klinger is not interested in helping me get a copy of Bartko’s  contract, but Bartko’s new boss, VP for development Mike Andreasen, did forward this:

From: Mike Andreasen
Sent: Thursday, August 2, 2018 2:07 PM
To: Advancement – All Staff <[email protected]>; Dev Officers and Staff <ADV.DevOfficers&[email protected]>
Subject: Jim Bartko

Advancement Colleagues:

I am pleased to share with you that Jim Bartko will be joining the Advancement team for a six-month assignment beginning this month. Many of you know Jim from his more than 25 years of service to UO Athletics. In this special assignment, Jim will be working remotely from central California where he will be assisting us in Development activities for that region. During this assignment, Jim will be reporting to Greg Jones and will be working with many of our school and college fundraisers to assess and build a portfolio of prospects/donors. To be clear, though Jim has a deeply rooted base and experience in athletics, this is a targeted effort to grow the number of donors and volunteers who are passionately supportive of our academic goals both at an institutional and unit level. Jim brings a unique background and knowledge base to jump-start this effort in a previously underexplored region of California.

Jim can be reached at:
[email protected]
Cell: [redacted, because nobody deserves more robo-calls]

Please join me in welcoming Jim back to UO for this temporary assignment.

Mike

8/7/2018 update: 

Just 24 hours later, and UO’s directory still lists Bartko, but not as an Executive Senior Associate Athletic Director, or anything else. He does have a UO email address though:

I wonder how well that pays. Lets find out:

Subject: Bartko hire
Date: August 7, 2018 at 10:55:46 PM PDT
To: [email protected]

Hi Tobin,

I’m writing as the editor of UO Matters to ask about the re-hiring of Jim Bartko. You’re quoted in the Fresno State student newspaper as saying that

And according to spokeswoman Tobin Klinger, “actually, he has been hired by advancement to develop prospects in California and work with school and college fundraisers to assess and build a portfolio of prospects/donors.”

Klinger further added: “While Jim has a deeply-rooted base and experience in athletics, this is a targeted effort to grow the number of donors and volunteers who are passionately supportive of our academic goals both at an institutional and unit level.”

However, until sometime today, UO’s directory info said that his new job was “Executive Senior Associate Athletic Director”. And, as of tonight, the directory just gives his name and email, with no job title.

I’d appreciate it if you could let me know if you have anything to add to your comments above, and if you’d also pass on a copy of the job description and contract for Mr. Bartko.

Thanks,

Bill Harbaugh
http:/uomatters.com

8/6/2018:

Bartko was one of the many of Rob Mullens’ blustery Executive Associate AD’s who used to show up at Senate IAC meetings to blow smoke. Bartko was earning $212K from UO when he left in 2014 to become AD at Fresno State. Matthew Kish in the Portland Business Journal, at the time:

Longtime Nike and Phil Knight liaison Jim Bartko is leaving the University of Oregon athletic department. Fresno State University on Nov. 21 named Bartko as the school’s new athletic director.

“I have known and worked with Jim Bartko for 20 years,” Knight said in a statement provided to Fresno State. “He has played a significant role in the growth and improvement of the University of Oregon athletic department. As an Oregon alum and contributor, I hate to see him go, but Fresno State has made a great hire.”

Or maybe not so great.

Bartko added wrestling and water polo, both money losing NCAA sports, failed to deliver the donors to pay for a football stadium renovation, and left Fresno State’s academic side holding his budget bag. President Joseph Castro was not happy with the economics. From the Fresno Bee:

Q: At the time, it was an interesting decision. On one hand, you’re now trying to support 21 sports programs, so more space and facilities improvements would be a necessity. On the other, you’re now trying to support 21 sports programs, so you need to generate more revenue and that could be done through a renovated stadium. Can you take me through the decision to move in this new direction?

A: Well, the vision that we had earlier … had a lot of potential. It was a bigger vision. But when we looked at the economics around it, we just couldn’t make it work. It would have required significant private dollars, more than we had committed at the time, and more financing by the university, and we just couldn’t make the economics of that vision work.

Economics was not Bartko’s only problem, and in November 2017 Castro paid him $75K to leave (just 0.08 Gottfredsons). Bartko cashed the check, but then had second thoughts and now is threatening to sue. The Fresno Bee:

In one version of what occurred last November, Jim Bartko walked into the office of Fresno State President Joseph Castro and abruptly resigned for personal reasons.

In another, Castro was a manipulative, unsupportive boss who praised his subordinate in public while he and other administrators engaged in a “whisper campaign” meant to label Bartko as an “incompetent alcoholic” in the days leading up to his forced resignation.

Which version will hold sway in a courtroom? That’s up to a judge and jury to decide, provided the two parties don’t settle.

In a 13-page claim filed with the Cal State University chancellor’s office, Bartko is asking for $3 million in damages for wrongful termination, retaliation, defamation, discrimination on the basis of mental disability/mental condition and a bunch of other mean things that paint an ugly picture of how Fresno State handled his departure. …

And now the Ducks have rehired him. Dan Waterhouse of the Fresno State Collegian gets some priceless Klingerisms:

The news was confirmed by Oregon State [sic] spokesman Jimmy Stanton, who said Bartko is working in the university’s advancement office.

And according to spokeswoman Tobin Klinger, “actually, he has been hired by advancement to develop prospects in California and work with school and college fundraisers to assess and build a portfolio of prospects/donors.”

Klinger further added: “While Jim has a deeply-rooted base and experience in athletics, this is a targeted effort to grow the number of donors and volunteers who are passionately supportive of our academic goals both at an institutional and unit level.”

A targeted effort. Yeah sure Tobin.

FWIW, as of tonight the UO’s directory thinks Klinger is wrong, and lists Bartko as back working for Rob Mullens:

So was he really hired by UO VP for Advancement Mike Andreasen on the academic side’s dime, without a job posting or open search?

8 Comments

  1. Bled to death, monthly 08/07/2018

    SHARED SACRIFICES EVERYONE!

  2. Permanent Skeptic 08/07/2018

    Everything about this story feels like someone at ESPN should be starting a file for a future episode of 30 for 30.

  3. Vhils 08/07/2018

    Meanwhile back at a ranch that actually matters to most of us, CAS creates a brand new ‘Associate Dean of Strategic Initiatives’ and hires someone for it without a search, someone who also left the university for supposed greener pastures, and UO Matters barely says ‘boo’. Playing favorites?

  4. Dan 08/19/2019

    An update on Bartko’s $3 million wrongful termination and discrimination claim: Fresno State quietly settled it earlier this summer for a little over $500,000.

  5. Dan 08/20/2019

    One shouldn’t blame Bartko for the financial problems at Fresno State. The athletic program has bled red ink for literally two decades. Bartko reportedly was hired in order to bring Nike bucks to California. It didn’t happen.

    The decision to add wrestling and women’s water polo is squarely on the university president, Dr. Castro. When Castro became president in 2013, he was cornered by wrestling community folks and, before he found out any facts, promised to reinstate wrestling. Women’s water polo was added because of Title IX concerns. Reality was and is that Fresno State can’t afford either sport. However, wrestling attendance is among the highest in the country-the Central Valley loves blood sports.

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