Partying with our students’ scholarship money

Update: Rebecca X gives a student viewpoint on this excess and extravagance, in the OC.

5/8/2012: Sam Stites of the ODE has a great expose of the administration’s Rose Bowl junket. How can 56 people spend $120,000 on airfare to LA? Believe what you want about Duck football attracting students to UO or encouraging alumni to give to the academic side. But why should we pay for top administrators (and some of their families, and some student leaders) to have a big party in LA? Looks like the bill was about $4,000 each.

This is from an athletic department that tells the Senate IAC they can’t afford to make the contributions to academic scholarships that Moos and Frohnmayer agreed to in 2006. And Rob Mullens has said he has no plans to get his budget into shape to do this. He needs some oversight to help him get with the program.

Meanwhile the new Berdahl/Geller public records fee-waiver crackdown will make it harder for reporters like Mr. Stites to get these kinds of documents from the UO administration. Less transparency, less trust.