11/24/2013: In an op-ed in the RG, here:
To enhance student participation with the board, the selection of student members should be determined by their peers. At Portland State University and Oregon State University student leaders allowed their colleagues to apply for the position, an opportunity all Ducks should be afforded as well. The UO should mimic OSU and PSU and establish a committee of students to facilitate this process.
Gov Kitzhaber appointed law student and ASUO President Sam Dotters-Katz to the student slot on the board. He was not on Gottfredson’s kitchen sink list, here. According to this September ODE Op-Ed, he nominated himself for the position.
Sam is an ambitious young man. As ASUO pres, he got the email asking for nominations. So “he saw his opportunity, and he took it.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W._Plunkitt
Sam is a nice guy with strong opinions. He is however the most right wing, pro-administration ASUO president in over a generation. We have had several University Senate Presidents including the current and immediate past office holders who were completely co-opted by the Administration, but this is the first ASUO pres who has also fallen prey to coercion by the Administration.
So according to Plunkitt, this is a clear case of ‘dishonest graft’. ‘Honest graft’ would have been to run a full blown search with all the works, and if the result had been to nominate Sam, – fine, no objections. Mark my words, as things stand now, Sam has all the talents to become a successor of Mr. Bean (of course, I don’t mean the English comedian)…whether he will be a worthwhile representative for UO students, or if this is just decoration for his CV, – we shall see.
Well and good if he’s been coopted. They can give him a seat on the Board and feel unthreatened. But after that it will be embarrassingly obvious when they try to deny the next, more independent-minded, ASUO present a seat on the Board.