Press "Enter" to skip to content

UO Matters

President Scholz fires J-School Dean Juan-Carlos Molleda after UO auditors catch him padding his expense accounts

By uomatters on 07/08/2025

Just kidding. UO has no effective internal audit operation and is no longer subject to state audits. Our administrators can do whatever they want. It was Molleda’s own students who caught him and published it in the student newspaper. If they hadn’t he’d still be a dean.

And while President John Karl Scholz has been busy firing UO’s teaching faculty, things are a little different for his administrators: A research leave followed by the “opportunity to re-engage with my scholarship and prepare to return to the classroom.”

Thanks to a reader for forwarding the most ineffectively self-serving email I’ve seen in quite awhile. The comments are open:

From: Juan-Carlos Molleda <jmolleda@uoregon.edu>
Date: July 8, 2025 at 10:27:23 AM PDT
To: All School SOJC <sojc-allschool@lists.uoregon.edu>
Subject: [SOJC-AllSchool] A message of gratitude and transition

Dear SOJC community,

As the provost announced today, I’m stepping down as dean of the SOJC, with my term officially concluding on July 30, 2025. After nearly a decade in this role, I’ve taken time for deep reflection. With immense gratitude for this transformative chapter, I believe now is the right moment to make space for new leadership, foster a more united community, and welcome fresh ideas.

Following a research leave in fall ’25 and winter ‘26, I’ll return to the faculty. The time away will allow me to re-engage with my scholarship and prepare to return to the classroom after nearly a decade in academic administration.

I’m extremely proud of the things that the SOJC accomplished as a collective during nearly decade’s run.

Strategic Growth

  • Raised over $22M in private funding and secured a $5M endowment from the UO Presidential Fund for Excellence to launch the Center for Science Communication Research. This led to increased research grants, a seed fund program, an associate program, a thriving minor, and a strategic partnership with the Knight Campus. During this period, the school’s endowment grew from $50M to over $76M, the student body expanded by 48%, and almost half of the current full-time faculty were hired. Additionally, seven instructors were reclassified as professors of practice, and 29 faculty members were promoted across ranks.
  • Strengthened the SOJC’s reputation as a leading legacy program through two successful national re-accreditations and the certification and re-certification of the public relations program in 2018 and 2025—boosting visibility, reinforcing academic excellence, and continuing to attract top students and produce highly sought-after graduates.
  • Streamlined processes and increased funding to expand financial support for undergraduate and graduate scholarships, experiential learning opportunities, and faculty research and teaching innovation.

Academic Innovation

  • Designed and continuously refined a transformational curriculum that shifts from traditional media approaches to a forward-looking model—blending conceptual and practical learning to equip future professionals and scholars for success in rapidly evolving media communication and creative fields. This includes donor-funded, specialized courses such as Hostage Diplomacy, Media Innovation, and River and Rural Stories, as well as hands-on publication projects like the recently launched Ascend sports magazine.
  • Modernized the school’s production facilities and student services, providing students with integrated academic and career advising, professional-grade multimedia studios, editing suites, data visualization tools, and virtual reality labs—positioning the SOJC as a national leader in undergraduate and graduate education and research in both Eugene and Portland.
  • Launched professional master’s programs in Advertising and Brand Responsibility and in Immersive Media Communication—a Portland-based online degree supported by the Oregon Reality Lab and the Immersive Communication Advisory Network, featuring leaders in this emerging field.
  • Increased the cohort size and placement of PhD students, expanding our academic and industry national and international reach.

Student Engagement and Partnerships

  • Expanded global and experiential learning programs with increased funding, integrating real-world projects and client-driven work into curricular and co-curricular activities—enhancing graduate job readiness and strengthening the school’s growing alumni and industry network.
  • Refocused the mission of the Agora Journalism Center to strengthen the local news and information landscape in Oregon and beyond by championing community-centered journalism.
  • Engaged over 75 students in the World Athletics Championships Oregon22, producing media content and supporting World Athletics Production with 20+ students serving as loggers and runners.
  • Facilitated collaboration across the university’s two campuses through initiatives such as:
    • Partnering with the Lundquist College of Business (LCB) and its Warsaw Sports Business Center to collaborate with students and faculty on women’s and men’s basketball campaigns, supported by continued financial backing from a distinguished SOJC alum.
    • Co-creating the Oregon Accelerator with LCB—a program designed to educate students and athletes on Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) projects, a rapidly evolving area shaping the future of sports business, marketing communication, and athlete branding.
    • Establishing a memorandum of understanding with the Knight Campus to share expert science communication faculty.
    • Forming an agreement between the UO Athletics Video Department (QuackVideo) to support the production of broadcast content for various school-produced B1G+ streams.
    • Signing an MOU between the College of Design and SOJC Portland, granting Sports Product Design and Architecture students access to the new Multimedia Production Studio.

These achievements reflect your talent, passion, and commitment to excellence. I’m confident that the SOJC is in a strong position to continue pushing the boundaries of journalism, communication, and media education and scholarship for years to come.

I know that navigating change—especially in turbulent times—is never easy. Yet, you have consistently shown resilience, creativity, intellectual strength, and deep dedication. These qualities have enabled the SOJC to overcome major challenges, including the disruption of the pandemic, and emerge stronger.

With deep admiration and full confidence in the bright future of the SOJC community,

Juan-Carlos

Juan-Carlos Molleda, Ph.D.

Edwin L. Artzt Dean and Professor / School of Journalism and Communication

217 Allen Hall, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403-1275

541-346-2233 / jmolleda@uoregon.edu

Continue reading and commentPresident Scholz fires J-School Dean Juan-Carlos Molleda after UO auditors catch him padding his expense accounts

What does a professor have to do to get their obit in the NYT?

By uomatters on 07/07/2025

I only know of two UO professors who’ve made the cut: Economics Professor Ray Mikesell, who died in 2006 at 93, and now Biology Professor Frank Stahl, who died this April at 95. Please post a link if you know of others. Ray’s brief obituary – which I’m happy to claim some credit for persuading them to publish – is here.

UO’s normally effusive PR flacks have not seen fit to note Frank Stahl’s passing, but the NYT more than makes up for that with an obituary that goes into an impressively detailed explanation of the work that made him deserving:

 

Continue reading and commentWhat does a professor have to do to get their obit in the NYT?

President Scholz wants to make it illegal for you and me to rummage through UO files

By uomatters on 07/02/2025

I’m sure he’s got “business reasons” for this:

…

What did the old policy say? I’d search for it, but that might be a crime.

Here’s the email, with many other policy changes, some documented and some not:

Begin forwarded message:

From: UO Policy <uopolicy@uoregon.edu>

Subject: UO Policy recommendations posted for Public Comment

Date: July 2, 2025 at 3:36:40 PM PDT

You received this email because you have signed up for university-level policy notifications. If you wish to unsubscribe, please send an email to the following address with UNSUBSCRIBE (no quotes) in the subject line: policy-notification-request@lists.uoregon.edu.

Good afternoon,

The following four policies have been posted for a public comment period until July 16, 2025, end of day. During that time, UO community members are invited to send feedback or questions to: uopolicy@uoregon.edu.

    • V.11.02 Prohibited Discrimination and Retaliation policy has been recommended by the Policy Advisory Council for revisions and long-term enactment (currently, this policy is in effect as a temporary emergency policy).

The policy concept form, redline version of the current policy and clean version with proposed revisions are now posted at:https://policies.uoregon.edu/content/policies-open-comment-0

Comments on the proposed policy revisions and enactments and general questions can be directed to: uopolicy@uoregon.edu.

Thank you,

University of Oregon Policy Notifications
Office of the University Secretary
uopolicy@uoregon.edu
https://policies.uoregon.edu/

Continue reading and commentPresident Scholz wants to make it illegal for you and me to rummage through UO files

Dean Poulsen announces CAS layoffs, more to come.

By uomatters on 06/18/2025

Dear CAS colleagues, As you know, our college faces a $3.65 million budget deficit this fiscal year (FY25). As a result, we have made the difficult decision to eliminate approximately 42 positions across four CAS employee groups: officers of administration, classified staff, career faculty, and undergraduate student employees. (Graduate employees…

Continue reading and commentDean Poulsen announces CAS layoffs, more to come.

UO Daily Emerald follows SOJC Dean Juan-Carlos Molleda’s money trail

By uomatters on 06/10/2025

Two years since Pres Karl Scholz started and he still seems to have no effective internal controls on administrative spending. Apparently only the little people have to book their travel through Concur.

Read all the amazing details at https://dailyemerald.com/166936/features/abroad-sojc-dean-flies-high-back-home-his-school-spirals-into-deficit/

A very thorough investigative report from Tristin Hoffman:

Juan-Carlos Molleda, dean of the School of Journalism and Communication, is facing scrutiny by University of Oregon officials over his extensive university-funded international travel. Meanwhile, his school’s budget has spiraled into a deficit under his management, a six-month investigation and review of hundreds of financial and travel documents by The Daily Emerald has found.

UO Provost Chris Long told The Emerald on June 5 that Molleda is being internally audited for his travel spending. The audit was launched after The Emerald reported on Molleda’s Feb. 21 email about his travel. His email to SOJC faculty was sent on his own command after The Emerald filed public records requests for his travel records.

Molleda, 60, has served as dean since 2016. He has many official reasons to travel as the leader of the SOJC, from attending professional conferences to raising funds from donors. He receives an annual travel budget of $30,000 from his job, and university travel rules often have allowed him to draw on endowment funds from the UO Foundation, which are separate from his school’s budget, to pay his additional travel costs.

The cost of Molleda’s travel and first-class flights dwarf those of two other UO deans. In the 2023-2024 school year, Molleda’s travel expenses rose to $46,000, according to travel documents obtained by The Emerald under Oregon’s Public Records Law.

Over the same period, then-Dean of Students Marcus Langford spent just over $11,000 on travel. Then-law school Dean Marcilynn Burke spent $3,700.

In the past two years, Molleda has traveled to Paris, Lisbon, Madrid, Medellín, Querétaro and other international cities. He often flies first-class and adds personal days to many of his trips without disclosing them to UO, nearly 700 pages of his travel records obtained by The Emerald show. …

Continue reading and commentUO Daily Emerald follows SOJC Dean Juan-Carlos Molleda’s money trail

Pres Scholz and Prov Long on UO budget situation

By uomatters on 05/20/2025

Dear Colleagues: We have a difficult message to share with you today about the financial outlook for our institution. Over the last several months, the university’s budget has been adversely affected by several factors, including sweeping changes to federal research funding, limited state support, and shortfalls in non-resident enrollment projections.…

Continue reading and commentPres Scholz and Prov Long on UO budget situation

Philosopher-Provost Chris Long distraught as student strike disrupts Conversation on Democracy’s Future

By uomatters on 05/02/2025

At the Wayne Morse Center, “with invited faculty from Stanford.” OMG. From Stanford. How embarrassing. Of course to quote Senator Morse speaking about the campus protests against Vietnam, which really did “create disruptions and threaten health and safety”:

“I don’t think you have any idea of the power that you exercise on issues before the Congress. My plea is we’ve got to think of the future…your future, and we’ve got to come to grips with the issues that are going to confront your generation.”

But that was then. Now? President Scholz wants Provost Long to earn his paycheck by putting his name to this email from UO’s lawyers and PR flacks, and apparently Long needs the money:

Response to Student Worker Union Disruptions

Dear UO employees,

The University of Oregon firmly supports free expression, peaceful protest, and legal strike activities. These are essential rights protected by the First Amendment and core to our identity as a public institution of higher education. But those rights do not extend to behaviors that intimidate others, obstruct essential operations, or create conditions of physical threat or other harm to those in our community.

Over the past several days, protest activities organized by the University of Oregon Student Workers union (UOSW) have disrupted three important university events, two of which were private: the first hosted by the Division of Equity and Inclusion and the Office of Human Resources about employee engagement, the second, by Admissions designed to deliver college preparation resources to high school students, including those from underrepresented backgrounds, and the third, a Conversation on Democracy’s Future, sponsored by the School of Global Studies and Languages and Department of Political Science–as well as the Global Studies Institute and the Wayne Morse Center for Law and Politics–with invited faculty from Stanford and members of the public.

During these disruptions, protesters created a threat to health and safety by exceeding fire marshal occupancy limits, blocking exits and intimidating participants, which included invited guests and minors. Protestors also used amplified sound indoors and at volumes that not only violated the sound policy but also intimidated and caused physical pain to some attendees, including those with hearing devices.

In addition — and notably — protesters have interfered with the delivery of food and essential medication, affecting fellow students who depend on these deliveries. This includes interrupting and preventing a planned distribution of produce to food-insecure students.

These disruptions violate university policy, community norms, health and safety codes, and, potentially, applicable law. They are neither protected speech nor part of lawful protected work stoppage action. Actions taken by these protesters also threaten the integrity, safety, and inclusivity of our campus. They are especially troubling when they target programs aimed at supporting our most vulnerable and historically underserved communities.

The university is actively reviewing these incidents and will take all appropriate action, including possible legal and disciplinary action.

Our commitment to free speech is unwavering, but so is our responsibility to maintain a secure, respectful, and welcoming campus for all. These actions cross a line between peaceful protest and actions that infringe upon the rights and safety of others.

The university continues to come to the bargaining table in good faith. The most recent bargaining updates and FAQs can be found on the HR website.

Sincerely,

Christopher P. Long
Provost and Senior Vice President 

Mark Schmelz
Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer

Continue reading and commentPhilosopher-Provost Chris Long distraught as student strike disrupts Conversation on Democracy’s Future

UO student union succeeds where GC Kevin Reed failed: shutting down the faculty club.

By uomatters on 04/30/2025

UO General Counsel Kevin Reed in 2019:

… Indeed, the Faculty Club has earned a reputation on campus as being an exclusionary group, dominated by white men.  Exactly the sort of “good ole boys club” I think the Senate would want to distance itself from. …

This was received with well deserved ridicule – see the comments here, e.g.:

John Harvard04/04/2019

Wait, could this possibly be the SAME Kevin Reed whose SUV (parked in a privileged spot at the heart of campus) is ostentatiously plastered with “old-boy” Harvard and UVA stickers?
I wonder if poor Kevin actually objects to clubs, or if he’s just ticked off that there’s a club to which his extraordinary privilege doesn’t gain him entry?
Sour grapes anyone?

But now UO’s Student Workers have shut it down – not because they think pretending to be woke will help them, but simply because they want more money:

University of Oregon
Dear UO faculty,
The UO Faculty Club meetings tomorrow, May 1, and on May 8 have been canceled due to a lack of catering availability on campus.
Reminder: A new Faculty Club Listserv has been launched to provide faculty members more regular information about upcoming meetings and cancelations, as well as our programming and meeting themes.
If you are interested in being added to the listserv, please email: otp@uoregon.edu 
Sincerely,
UO Faculty Club Organizing Group
Continue reading and commentUO student union succeeds where GC Kevin Reed failed: shutting down the faculty club.