(interim). And then appoints Allyn Ford as chair of search committee for permanent President, with no consultation with the faculty. Throw the dog a bone? Aren’t we still paying off his Ford Alumni Center debt? The gift that keeps on taking. Berdahl’s opinions on OUS board members like Allyn Ford are crystal clear:
… The chancellor and board have recklessly ignored the wishes of donors, alumni, faculty and students. They have signaled the academic community throughout the nation that innovative, courageous leadership will neither be sought nor tolerated.
If you want to be president of the University of Oregon, be prepared to knuckle under to the chancellor and the board and be wary of the promises of the governor.
It will be interesting to see how these two work together in their joint search to help UO find a new, innovative and courageous president. As one commenter below notes, let’s hope Ford runs interference for Berdahl with the more rabid board members.
Berdahl is *interim*. The Board doesn’t care that he might have an innovative agenda, Berdahl is temporary, and Ford is going to pick the real next leader of the UO.
More protest ahead!
Can Berdahl also be considered for real President?
RB should appoint RL as Provost…
In your linked piece on the Alumni Center, they say ‘With an Alumni Center (we’re the only school in the pac 10 without one), the UO will only be able to raise MORE money for scholarships and important academic programs’ Anyone know how this has turned out? Has the amount given to scholarships and academic programs shot up in the last year and a quarter?
Berdahl is the bone. See how happy you are now? See Spot run.
Why would the board need to consult the faculty before appointing a chair of a committee to search for the president? The faculty don’t run the system.
Come on, the faculty got their man with Berdahl. The governor and board had to eat a lot of you know what, and smile while they’re at it. Yes, it’s fun to watch. (And it will be a while before it’s forgotten that it’s not a great idea to piss off the faculty too much.)
Who should the board have picked to run the committee? Someone else from the board? Who? Someone not on the board? Are you kidding?
Let’s hope Berdahl has enough of what it takes to get “the plan” enacted in some form.
(Interesting that Berdahl didn’t mention “New Partnership” in his opening statements. That already shows some sense.)
Data on how the high costs of the Ford Alumni Center have led to lower scholarships is at
https://uomatters.com/2011/10/uo-foundation-cuts-scholarships-15.html
Maybe Allyn Ford is sincerely contrite, if not about Richard’s firing, then about the way it was handled, and wants to make amends. The best way to do this would be for him to signal early on that he’ll take Berdahl’s lead and the UO community’s lead in the search and run interference with his fellow board members for whatever candidate they come up with. In the meantime, though, it’s critical to maintain a state of yellow alert, because it could well be that the board thinks that naming Berdahl is conciliation enough — which is emphatically not the case.
Sit, UO, sit!