10/7/2015: Check their website. No press release, no agenda, no notice they are meeting.
As for actual data and information? No chance:
9/24/2015: UO Foundation’s report hides athletic spending and endowment returns
Posts tagged as “UO Foundation”
Rich Read has the report in the Oregonian, here. Read it all. Lots of optimism about the future, with new President Schill in charge.
Update: UO’s public records office has been sitting on the RG’s request for documents about the championship bidding process since June 15. PR log here: 4/16/2015 update: IAAF sells 2021 Track Championships to Eugene w/o public bidding The BBC has the surprising news here: The 2021 World Athletics Championships will be…
There’s some good news coming out of the UO Foundation regarding fundraising for the 2014-15 FY, now posted on “Around the 0”. While the secretive UO Foundation releases only the barest breakdown, gifts (or more accurately, a mix of gifts and pledges) to the academic side are way up: The…
Today’s devastating Civic Stadium fire prompted me to look at the agreements between UO Foundation CEO Paul Weinhold, UO Presidents Frohnmayer and Lariviere, and Duck Athletic Directors Bellotti and Mullens for the UO Foundation guaranteed loans that financed PK Park, which became the Eugene Emerald’s replacement field. One interesting clause shows that UO is…
Not the UO Foundation. The OSU Foundation. Their helpful public records person sent me their 990 the day after I asked for it, here. In comparison, as in past years, the University of Oregon Foundation seems determined to drag out the release of their IRS 990 non-profit reporting form until…
Jane Cramer and John Davidson have an Op-Ed in the RG, here: The resolution calls on the UO Foundation to: Sell its current investments in fossil fuel extraction companies. Refrain from any future investment in fossil fuel extraction companies. Create a process for groups to put policy proposals to the…
12/31/2014 update: The PBS News Hour uses the Frohnmayer family tragedy with Fanconi’s Anemia and the UO/FSU Rose Bowl game as a hook to examine the larger issue of research on rare diseases, here: HARI SREENIVASAN: Dr. Summar, that attention, focus, there are 7,000-plus rare genetic disorders out there. And I’m going to feel a little…
I’ve got a bunch of new data on the UO Foundation from various sources, but haven’t had time to put it together. Fortunately Matthew Kish of the Portland Business Journal is on it, with several recent stories: http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/print-edition/2014/10/31/cover-story-can-2b-help-uo-take-flight.html http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/blog/2014/11/woeful-endowments-oregon-universities.html
Christian Hill has the story in the RG, here. This development process will raise lots of questions about the secretive foundation, and perhaps will prompt some transparency from them. I’ll have more coverage in the coming weeks.
Chuck Lillis, the Chairman of UO’s new Board of Trustees, wants to raise $2 to $3 billion to get UO back on the AAU track. Gottfredson is not delivering. The word is his style does not go over any better with alumni than it does with students and faculty. Now UO’s strategic communicators…
6/21/2014 update: The Arizona Republic has the story here. No word on how much Duck money was involved.
2/1/2013: No Policy Update: Duck administrators fly south for Felony Bowl
UO has no policy on free tickets or travel – not exactly “best practices” when it comes to claiming it’s exempt income, folks.
From: “Thornton, Lisa”
Subject: Public Records Request 2013-PRR-185Date: February 1, 2013 12:28:59 PM PST
02/01/2013
Dear [UO Matters]-
The University does not possess records responsive to your request for ” a copy of UO’s policies and/or procedures on paying for travel and tickets to away games and/or postseason games”, made 1/28/2013.
Thank you for contacting the office with your request.
Sincerely,
Lisa Thornton
Office of Public Records
1/28/2013: Ever wonder how the Ducks get our administrators to look the other way about the accounting tricks that leave the academic side holding the bag for millions in athletic department costs? Free junkets are part of it. The Fiesta Bowl has a long history of corruption, see here.
5/15/2014 update:
More on these later.
5/14/2014 update: The UO Foundation has told me that they will release their IRS 990 form tomorrow. This should have been made public no later than November 15, but the foundation requested and received two 3 month extensions from the IRS. Tomorrow is their final deadline. The form will include information on expenses, salaries for their highest paid employees such as Paul Weinhold and Jay Namyet, and some rudimentary information on what the foundation does with the money it manages for UO. Probably not much clarity on how much goes to the Ducks and how much to UO academics, but I’ll post what there is, when I get it.
11/20/2013 update: Two weeks ago I received a “demand for retraction” from Thomas Herrmann, legal counsel to the University of Oregon Foundation, regarding this post which I first published on 10/25/2013. (Page down to read the original post in its entirety.)
Great news – the Daily Emerald has the story, here. Not clear how much of this is for athletics, e.g. Knight’s ~$125M “Legacy Fund” or the $5M Robin Jaqua endowment that Johnson Hall let the jocks hijack. The recent OUS audit of the Foundation – with a weird $7M exception…
Good news from the UO Foundation. Their 13.8% return on endowment investments last fiscal year was in the top quartile for college endowments. Around the O has the story, here.