This was not some haphazard show of frustration where we all celebrated the fact that we’d caused a disruption. As reported in Diane Deitz’s May 31 article, we went so far as to apologize to Gottfredson for having to interrupt his ceremony during the microphone check.
The fact is that it was one of the few times when we were even sure of where the president was going to be. Gottfredson has repeatedly ducked or avoided our groups’ requests for meetings. He has canceled scheduled meetings with campus workers after people had already shown up.
To anyone who is familiar with our new president, none of this should come as a surprise.
Not only has Gottfredson abandoned the interests of the students in proposing the tuition hike while raising administration salaries, but he has also abandoned the faculty of our beloved university (specifically sharing governance with them, and particularly on academic matters).
Jacklin’s LESST group’s website has more. Gottfredson’s public records office, which charged me $108 to see 6 months of his official calendar, is now trying to charge the students $240 for the most recent 5 months. Last I heard they were still trying to scrounge up the money. And the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education is reportedly questioning the efforts of Assistant Dean of Students Chicora Martin to move the demonstrators from Knight Court to some sort of unconstitutional “free speech zone”.
Meanwhile Gottfredon’s new chief of staff Greg Rikhoff still won’t say who is on Gottfredson’s “Budget Advisory Group”, much less produce copies of their charge or minutes. It’s been almost 3 weeks Greg. Update: Rikhoff just sent me the list of members, but not the committee’s charge. I’ve got a request in to Moffitt and Shelton, who co-chair it, for that and the minutes.
Thank you for shining a spotlight on this. Because our group is still in the process of building awareness, we need all of the help we can get in disseminating information. This blog is highly respected amongst both student and faculty, so again, thank you for all of your help.
Dog barks
Yes its good for the students to be exposed to the ideas, rhetoric, mud slinging and/or general bullshit that is published in UO Matters. Its also
good for the students to see how faculty can behave.
However, I seriously doubt this blog is actually “respected” by the Faculty -its loathed by many, it has value to others, its a forum for anonymous opinions to be expressed (this is mostly a good feature) and it does uncover important stuff from time to time. But as far as “respected scholarship” –
well no (although I think Mr. UOMatters should be given a service award for
this blog) but many think that this blog is merely a Platform for Ranting –
but its a lot more than just that.