Reporter hot on trail of Duck Vegas Bowl junket scandal

2/23/2018:

Senate President Sinclair broke the first rule of Vegas when he mentioned the Ice Bar escapade at a recent Senate meeting – on video. Now the press is on the trail:

Thanks Chris, next year was my turn, and you’ve gone and ruined it. How is the Senate going to find a new president-elect with this kind of scandal out there?

Fortunately our Public Records Office are experts at delaying and frustrating public records requests. I wonder what their excuse is for denying this one? Some of the long history of Duck junkets and public records is below:

3/31/2015: Hubin’s PR office finally gives Tublitz the BCS championship junket lists

It took a month or so – presumably they were hoping people would forget about it. Full dump here. Check the manifests to see who actually went. Senate President Kyr didn’t. Presumably he understands that taking this sort of largess from the athletic department, while the Senate is taking up legislation to get some money back from the Ducks for the academic side, would be a conflict of interest. And indeed, state law forbids the UO Trustees, and their relatives and household members from taking these sorts of gifts from the Ducks:

But for our Johnson Hall colleagues, who are now considering whether or not to implement the Senate legislation, it’s a family vacation opportunity:

12/4/2014 8:00 PM update: UO admins evacuate for family bowl-game junkets, as GTF strike mediation drags on

As mediated talks drag into Friday, a photographer captured the chaotic scene as Interim President Scott Coltrane’s executive assistant Dave Hubin packed UO’s top administrators, lawyers, consultants, and their family members into the last helicopter to leave Johnson Hall for Dec 5th’s PAC-12 Football Championship festivities at Levi Field in Santa Clara:

The university, devastated by years of corrupt puppet governments and a series of coups d’etat orchestrated by athletic department extremists, faces a long, uncertain period of rebuilding, as collateral damage from infighting for the vacant presidency increases.

The careers of several administrators were last seen clinging to the Huey’s skids.

Update: Word tonight from the ODE that opposition forces managed to infiltrate the Johnson Hall perimeter and approach the presidential bunker, in a desperate attempt to get help for their 8AM Monday poli-sci final.

11/25/2014: Free bowl game junkets for UO admins and families. Think of it as a parental leave policy on steroids.

This year should be particularly fun for them, and costly for us. The Ducks are a lock for the PAC-12 championship to be played Dec 5th in San Francisco. Then, if all goes well, there will be a College Football Championships playoff game at some sunny location, to be followed on Jan 12th by the championship game in Texas. Many JH nomenklatura have contracts guaranteeing free junkets to these games not only for themselves, but also their families.

The street price for good tickets is typically $1000-$2000, and when you add in airfare, hotels, and per-diem, it’s maybe $5,000 per couple, more if they bring the kids. Here’s the contract clause for our interim General Counsel Doug Park, who insisted on getting it in writing, after Gottfredson panicked over a potential IRS investigation last year, and took away Randy Geller’s free trip:

Of course these junkets are a conflict of interest for people like Park, who help the athletic department hide public records, or VPFA Jamie Moffitt, who controls the athletic department’s budget and subsidies. But for some people a COI isn’t a moral dilemma, it’s a family vacation opportunity.

What’s UO’s policy for dealing with these conflicts? Last time I asked, there was none:

From: “Thornton, Lisa”

Date: February 1, 2013 12:28:59 PM PST

Dear [UO Matters]-
The University does not possess records responsive to your request for ” a copy of UO’s policies and/or procedures on paying for travel and tickets to away games and/or postseason games”, made 1/28/2013.

Thank you for contacting the office with your request.
Sincerely,

Lisa Thornton
Office of Public Records

Given the problematic nature of these junkets Dave Hubin’s public records office typically does its best to hide the cost and the names of the people taking them. But here is some info Daily Emerald reporters and I have been able to get over the years. More on this here.

And more here, from the 2012 Rose Bowl.