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Bob Berdahl forgave millions in athletic department debts, and tried to hide it. Coltrane?

At Berkeley. Full report from the UC-Berkeley faculty investigators, here.

Along with these challenges, Kasser had two more important issues to deal with: the completion of Haas Pavilion and reducing the athletic budget. When Tien stepped down in 1997, the cumulative deficit for the combined programs was over $8 million. By 1999, his replacement, Chancellor Robert Berdahl, forgave the total accumulated debt, which had reached more than $18 million. Increasing tuition as a result of the economic downturn during Tien’s term added substantial cost to the several hundred athletic scholarships. The department also needed to address Title IX compliance by adding three new women’s sports and improving facilities. Finally a central campus “tax” on all auxiliary programs called “full costing” and myriad problems associated with the completion of the Haas Pavilion all played some role in the generation of these deficits.

Then Berdahl tried to hide what he’d done from the Berkeley faculty:

The Coley report was such an eye-opener for the administration that Berdahl’s head of public affairs, Matt Lyon, insisted the report remain confidential for fear of a negative faculty reaction.

At UO, we’re probably close to $50M by now. What will Coltrane do?

One Comment

  1. Sun Jian 10/24/2014

    In short, nothing. He’s a temp. In China, the party would have had Berdahl’s head by now.

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