4/16/2013 update: Gottfredson’s first month or so at UO. The ratio of meetings cleary about sports to meetings clearly about academics is 5 to 11:
3/6/2013: Nearly 2 months late, and after a $108 public records charge, President Gottfredson’s official calendar finally arrived. You can download all 57 pages here. A snippet?
Yes, Geller has redacted the name of the Portland restaurant where, on November 16, 2012, UO President Michael Gottfredson ate lunch with Ron Saxton. Hmm.
Other than that, my first reaction is that $650,000 is not nearly enough to pay this man for the meetings he has to sit through. Mullens, O’Fallon, Ms Moffitt, Mr Moffitt, Bean, Blandy, Pernsteiner, Chip Kelly, Gleason, basketball game, football game, FAC, state legislators, Senate, sociologists. It never ends.
Sort of weird though – I don’t see any meetings about the union, or with Sharon Rudnick. Let me know if I missed any. Because I’m pretty sure that Oregon’s public records law wouldn’t allow Geller to redact that information from an official document.
Update: Out of curiosity (and, I’ll admit, some self-doubt inspired by some of the comments) I did a google search for “president calendar site:edu”. Many presidents just post these online, e.g. Oregon Tech President Chris Maples, here.
1/11/2013: President Gottfredson has been on campus for more than 5 months, and I’ve met very few faculty who have yet had a real conversation with him about any of the many serious issues that UO faces. Who does he meet with? How often does he talks with donors, coaches, boosters, deans, NCAA officials, lawyers, department heads, OUS, Kitzhaber, and so on? Why speculate – let’s get some data:
This is a public records request for a copy of President Gottfredson’s official calendar, from Aug 1 2012 to the present.
The office estimates the actual cost of responding to your request to be $107.64. Upon receipt of a check made payable to the University of Oregon for that amount, the office will proceed to locate, copy, and provide the records you have requested that are not exempt from disclosure. Your check may be sent to the attention of Office of Public Records, 6207 University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403-6207.
| $5 to pay UO’s public records fees |
I’ve got $50 so far, thanks! I’ve mailed off a check for the records, any additional contributions will be used for future requests.
No PayPal?
click on the button, paypal should pop up.
Paypal pops up but not at all clear how to direct it to your cause.
Worked for others, but I changed it a little, please let me know if you still have problems.
That one worked. Thanks for your site. $5 … please people, chip in.
I feel like I am falling into the rabbit hole. How ridiculous can get this get? The contrast between Lariviere and Gottfredson in terms of visibility and actively trying to get to know the campus is stark and so terribly disappointing. I watched his arrival and heard his initial greetings to the Faculty Senate with great hope about his tone, message, and priorities. Now nothing, no meets and greets with those of us in the trenches. Why? Rudderless or cowardice?
Yes, no meets and greets, why is he not schmozing me? If he does not personally come to my office and ask my advice, then he is an awful admin. Let’s get his schedule, if it is not filled with useless meetings and PR events, then by God fire the bastard!
Personally I think he’s engaging in rational self-preservation by avoiding all possible sources of conflict except for those that simply cannot be ignored. Which would rational for him, and sometimes good for some of the UO as well. But who knows? That’s why I want to see his calendar.
I am recently reminded of the need to choose human dignity, decency, and truth over the stigmatization, demonization, and dehumanization of those with whom we disagree. There is no conflictless Eden from which we will be delivered from the strife and uncertainties of economic and political competition.
Agreed, but boy demonization, dehumanization and stigmatization sure bring in the blog readers and make one feel important don’t they? They are great for feeding one’s ego.
Nice idea – I gave $10. No assumption it’s bad, just curious to see what’s up.
Hey UOM, how about you post your calendar (from the same date)? I’d like to make uninformed value judgments about how you spend your time vs. how much the University is paying you.
Great idea. Maybe I’ll start a fund so we can pay UO matters the money to print it out.
Actually it would be interesting to know if UOM’s calendar was subject to a public records request.
It could be, as could calendars for any UO employee. Same for email.
UOM, how much you still need?
I’m just asking $5 each – there will be other giving opportunities! So far I’ve got $20.
I’ll match that…can’t wait to see how many are marked “private”.
more money to our tinhats! are then any others ways to waste my money? maybe a superpac or two?
I like UOM, but this is really silly. Are we all going to post our calendars? Do we expect that the president’s should say “Important stuff, 3-5pm”?
There is a vast difference in “our” calendars and his. More to the point… faculty participate in regular periods of evaluation, something few admins ever experience. Our FAR hasn’t seen an evaluation for some twenty years. When has Jim Bean ever been evaluated. (Wait… maybe he just has, and is moving on in response?)
Important public offices report what those holding that office are up to. http://www.whitehouse.gov/schedule/complete/2013-01-11
While you’re busy thinking UOM is silly, Gottfredson is hanging with the coaches and swinging clubs with donors, selling your career to the highest bidder. Yea… so silly.
I missed your explanation of how sharing a calendar is equivalent to a performance review. And I love the White House link: are we to nonsensically conclude from it that the President of the United States only worked from about 10-2pm on Jan 11, and even less on the days before?
I didn’t tae that away from the link. The point is that public office comes with responsibility. Pretty hard to miss, I would have thought.
No one’s say Gottfredson isn’t working. This is about what he’s working on, and who he is getting his information from.
Yeah, 50 bucks! I am one-tenth of your best friends. :-)
Once all your targets move on who will you shoot arrows at anymore…oh wait, it’s already begun. Really these continued attacks should demonstrate to your loyal readership what you are really about. You know I once watched in a Denny’s as a woman sent back her food three times because she wasn’t satisfied. I’m not sure you will ever be satisfied here. Your standards, whatever they are, appear to be just too high. Give the man at least a year unless he does something really outlandish.
High standards? I am sorry I thought this was a flagship AAU university… oh, wait. My bad.
A list of aspirational peers for your viewing pleasure.
http://www.aau.edu/about/article.aspx?id=5476
I understand that many here are less scientific in their approach to understanding empirics, but please do revisit your undergrad econometrics classes before making unsubstantiated claims that imply bias. You really have no clue. Where does this ‘give the many a year’ some from, anyway? Are you serious? What do we hold university administrators to such low standards… lower than you would (I’m guessing) be inclined to hold those your pension is invested in.
People should also keep in mind that what UOM actually posts is a fraction of what fodder is available around this campus. I’m almost inclined to dare you to push him further. Not a good idea.
That is a lot of donor luncheons for only a $450M endowment which has never given more to UO academic side of campus than the paltry sum the state kicks in.
Still want to know where the One Billion Dollars! DF raised is
http://www.oregonquarterly.com/spring2009/feature1.php
I’ve only read about a months worth of the schdule so far. But, I am wondering on what legal basis the UO is redacting the information provided?
One of the notable redactions seems to involved financials and fundraising. And, curiously, I haven’t seen Phil Knight’s name pop up once in the calendar. As one the most famous alumni of the UO, and one of its largest benefactors, it would only make sense that Gottfredson meet with Knight. But, is there any legal basis for concealing that?
I just finished this. And, most of the redactiosn seem to time correlated with Duck sports. My guess is that Phil Knight’s name pops up on the un-redacted version a minimum of 20 times.
I still fail to see the legal basis for the redactions. And, as I have noted before, mutilating and concealing public records is a misdemeanor.
I’ll go out on a limb here and speculate that the redactions concern Gottfredson’s time spent doing UO Foundation-directed fundraising. The Foundation promises anonymity to its donors.
Even if that’s true, I don’t think that a third party non-profit’s promises have any binding on the UO and its compliance with Public Records Law.
rudnick’s name is mentioned on 10/2/12
What makes you think it’s a restaurant, and not a private residence? Looks like he walked to this place, had lunch, and was picked up from there for the drive back.