Last updated on 08/26/2014
Update: (Posts on prostitute warning, public records, and panel history here.)
Two weeks after my public records request, UO has finally disclosed what it is paying the panelists Gottfredson, Mullens, and Holmes appointed to review their response to the rape allegations and UO policies. $10K each, plus expenses:
Honorarium
The University of Oregon is paying the travel and incidental expenses of the panelists. The UO has offered an honorarium of $10,000 to the panelists to cover the substantial time and expertise dedicated to this review effort.
I think this is for four day-and-a-half meetings. Presumably Bob Berdahl will decline on the grounds that he’s already got plenty from UO, and only took the job to help out Mike. Trustee Mary Wilcox probably cannot accept this even if she wanted it. As he has noted in the comments, Judge David Schuman has turned down the honorarium and is acting as a volunteer.
8/25/2014: Gottfredson’s Sexual Assault Review Panel Chair denies panel is a response to basketball rape allegations
The panelists come to town Tuesday for their second secret meeting in an undisclosed location, and will then accept brief public comments on Wednesday, 10-11 at the Ford Alumni Center. KMTR TV had this report a few days ago, interviewing Chair Mary Deits (a former judge and expert on business/construction law, now working as a mediator for hire):
KMTR says Deits is claiming that the panel is not a direct response to the basketball rape allegations. Seriously? She expects people to believe that? Here’s the guy who appointed her to his panel telling the UO Senate why he set up the panel:
Not exactly trust inspiring. How much tuition money is this charade costing UO? I sent in a public records request two weeks ago asking for how much we’re paying for expenses and to the panelists:
Dear Ms Thornton and Mr Rikhoff –
The attached public records on former President Gottfredson’s “External Review Panel” note that panelists should contact Mr. Rikhoff for information about “the financial elements of this work”.
This is a public records request for copies of any documents showing policies for expense reimbursements for members of the panel, honoraria, of other “financial elements”.
I ask for a fee waiver on the basis of public interest.
No response yet. Any guesses on how much of the bill, and the time of Rikhoff and Jane Gordon (Law), who appears to actually be running things, will be covered by the athletic department?
Meanwhile Gottfredson appointee Javaune Adams-Gaston (Ohio State) has left the panel after one meeting, replaced by Jackie Balzer (Willamette):
Jackie Balzer
Jackie Balzer has been a leader in student affairs for higher education institutions in the state of Oregon for two decades. In August 2014, she was named the associate dean of Campus Life at Willamette University. She previously served as the vice president for Enrollment Management and Student Affairs at Portland State from 2011-2014, vice provost for Student Affairs at Portland State from 2008-2011 and as the dean of Student Life at Oregon State from 2003-2008.
Javaune Adams-Gaston
Javaune Adams-Gaston is the vice president for student life at The Ohio State University, where she oversees university operations including the student judicial process and student advocacy and crisis intervention. Prior to her arrival at Ohio State in 2009, she served in a variety of positions, including associate dean of academic affairs, assistant athletic director, and equity administrator at the University of Maryland. She earned her Ph.D. in psychology from Iowa State University.
What a UO embarrassment. They just cannot get out of their own way. And as for Ms. Balzer? Her judgement is totally suspect.
Few took this episode seriously with Gottfredson at the helm, but now it’s turned into a circus.
Or is it a new high? $10K each, and Gottfredson and co. can’t see what that looks like?
” UO has finally disclosed what it is paying Gottfredson’s eight panelists. $10K each, plus expenses…” because serving the common good costs/deserves/requires *that* much. Sick. No … I mean really sick.
I’m sure Coltrane will pay the Senate Task Force members the same, if they’ll also agree not to dig into the coverup efforts.
U of O paid Wily Lyles at least $25k for scouting reports on dead high school football prospects. One can only imagine the quality of what y’all are going to get for your >$80k…..
$10k? Peanuts!
I just hope they have diligently disclosed their Conflict of Interest to their various employers, just like the UO expects from us for everything we receive above $5-10k from non-UO sources (don’t even recall, I just click through it without reading). – Actually since over 5 years, I had to file that rubbish COI declaration because I was raking in unheard-of sums – as much as $0k every year. I am so conflicted….
I am not accepting the honorarium because I am still an active Senior Judge (unlike Mary Deits, who is no longer active), and accepting the honorarium could be a violation of state law.
Dear Judge Schuman:
Thanks for this information and for volunteering to help with this review.
I hope your panel will be able to get access to the unredacted documents that UO has so far refused to make public and that your report will include an analysis of what went wrong with Dana Altman’s vetting process and with the response by Johnson Hall to the rape allegations – including whether or not the redactions were really required under FERPA.
Thanks for posting some of the primary documents you have obtained so far on the web, and I hope that you will provide more, and augment this with agendas and minutes from the panel’s meetings.
Bill Harbaugh
The charge to the president’s panel is to review policies related to sexual harassment/assault generally. But it seems to be ignoring issues of faculty-student relations, which have also been the subject of great concern nationally.
Some of us have been asking a review of these policies for some time. I am a co-author of the current faculty-student policy, and have been complaining publicly for at least four years that the administration had adopted an incoherent interpretation of it, that distorts its original intent.
No effort has been made by the president’s panel to reach out to those of us involved with these policies over the years, or hear our concerns. I guess I have three minutes to explain them if I attend tomorrow.
On the other hand, the senate task force has already been discussing these issues. My hope is that this will lead to a renewed discussion of these matters among faculty and students generally.