Press "Enter" to skip to content

Senate Budget Committee demands greater accountability from UO Foundation

That was in  2010, from their report to the Senate on the proposal to give UO an independent board: http://senate.uoregon.edu/files/SBCNewPartRep20101109.pdf

3) Transparency and accountability. If the UO achieves a new degree of
autonomy from the OUS and the Oregon Legislature, we are concerned that the
UO be held to high standards of administrative transparency. Section 9 of the
Legislative Concept states that

“The UO would continue to be subject to[…]the public governance provisions of state
law: The Public Records and Meetings Law, Government Ethics, Investment of
Public Funds, the Public Employees Collective Bargaining Act, Public Retirement,
and the Oregon Tort Claims Act. But the UO would be exempted from many of the
business regulations applicable to state agencies, such as the Administrative
Procedures Act.” (p30)

The New Partnership financial plan would create a large endowment to be
managed by the UO Foundation. It would thus shift oversight and accountability
from the Oregon Legislature and the OUS to the Foundation. This shift should
not occur without increased transparency from the Foundation. Donors, faculty
and students, and Oregon citizens should all demand greater scrutiny of the
Foundation’s investments and its administrative expenditures.

Needless to say the Foundation has done the opposite. They didn’t even put out an annual report this year, just the mandatory auditors statement. If the SBC has done any followup, I haven’t heard it, and what I can tell this 2010 report was their last report to the Senate, although their charge calls for annual reports on UO’s financial status etc.

Be First to Comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *