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Give Treetops back to the heirs

2/19/2011: The RG editorial board nails it:

The state is no longer keeping faith with the spirit of Church’s gift. In accord with Church’s terms, the gift should be returned.

President Lariviere uses his state provided home, McMorran House, regularly for all sorts of official functions. President Frohnmayer did the same when he lived there.

In contrast, Chancellor Pernsteiner has never used Treetops for its intended purposed. Instead he let his kids and their friends stay there, while the state paid $7,000 a year for their maid service. At the same time he insisted the state pay him $26,000 a year in “housing allowance” for his house in Portland. This has gone on for 6 years now, at a cost to the state of over $400,000. Your tax and tuition dollars at work.

Pernsteiner got this job through an interim appointment by Neil Goldschmidt in 2004, then was given the permanent job after the sex scandal, because no one had the energy to do a open national search. He leads Oregon state higher education, but he doesn’t even have a PhD. This is unique.

The OUS Board and its President Paul Kelly need to fire George Pernsteiner, and Governor Kitzhaber needs to take a close look at what else is going on in that agency. It’s broken.

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