declares he will not support Autzen Stadium expansion or new football offices unless boosters can show they will also give to the academic side. Register Guard story here.
Wait, never mind, that was President Paul Olum in 1985. Thanks to the interesting Benzduck site for the history. 9/2/2012.
It was a treat to read that article about Paul Olum.
A brilliant mathematician–Feynman admitted that Olum was the brightest guy he ever met–Olum had a clear sense of the university’s academic mission. He also interacted with faculty and student, regularly eating lunch at a large table in the EMU.
I often wonder what Olum would have thought of the changes in the university in the years since he was president.
It’s a shock to see how sophisticated the public discussion in this article is, in comparison to what we saw in the discussions about Matt Court, the Jaqua Center and the new Autzen expansion. Olum recognized that there were donors who would support either academics or athletics, wanted to be sure that a dome wouldn’t siphon off money from academics, had a proposal for trying to minimize the damage, and wasn’t afraid to talk publicly about the issues.
Paul Olum was in many ways a fine Prexy, but it should be noted that he wasn’t the only guy to be declared by Feynmen as the smartest he had ever met. An identifiable weak spot was Paul’s ego that made him susceptible to sycophancy.
“Feynman admitted that Olum was the brightest guy he ever met”
The only place you ever hear this story is in Eugene.