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Updated with coaches’ gift to Uncle Phil: Rob Mullens lays off janitors, groundskeepers to pay greedy Duck coaches

4/30/2020 update: A few hours after this post, the Duck’s strategic communicators responded:

In light of the ongoing challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic, all University of Oregon head coaches have voluntarily agreed to take a 10 percent salary reduction for the 2020-21 academic year … Additionally, all UO head coaches have also agreed to forego all academic, Pac-12 and postseason performance incentives for the 2020-21 academic year.

“We appreciate the leadership role taken on by our head coaches as we deal with this unprecedented crisis,” said Mullens. “This speaks to the selfless nature of our Oregon coaching staff and their desire to help us navigate the current challenges and those on the horizon.

“Our goal is to accelerate from this situation well-positioned to continue to achieve our goals of broad-based excellence and of providing an exceptional student-athlete experience, and we are thankful to our head coaches for their collective and consistent actions in supporting our mission.”

It’s a strange plan. For example, Assistant Football Coach Moorehead keeps all his $900K plus bonuses, while $160K Head VB/Beach VB Coach Ullmer gives up $16K and his bonuses.

Where will these savings go? Presumably not to rehire staff or reduce the subsidies from the academic budget. Instead they will reduce the amount that Mullens takes from the sinking fund that Phil Knight set up for the Knight Arena bonds and other athletic expenses, when he was lobbying the legislature to issue $230M in debt financing. Last I looked that fund was down to $60M or so.

So, assuming Knight keeps filling it up, these pay and bonus cuts should be thought of as a gift to Uncle Phil from his grateful head coaches. For that matter the money Mullens saved by laying off the staff is also ultimately a benefit to Knight, who is the Duck’s “residual claimant”, to use the Coasian term.

4/29/2020: Rob Mullens lays off janitors, groundskeepers to pay greedy Duck coaches

Earlier this year Duck AD Rob Mullens gave Coach Dana Altman a $25K bonus, to top off his multi-million contract. This month he laid off 75 classified staff, saving maybe $70K each in pay and benefit costs.

Where’s the rest of the money going? Here are the Duck’s big earners – note that these numbers leave out millions in bonuses, car stipends, country club memberships, and other perqs:

LAST_NAME FIRST_NAME ACADEMIC_TITLE PAY_DEPARTMENT  BASE_SALARY APPT_PERCENT
Altman Dana D Head Men’s Basketball Coach Athletics  $2,900,000 100%
Cristobal Mario Head Football Coach Athletics  $2,700,000 100%
Moorhead Joseph M Assistant Football Coach Athletics  $900,000 100%
Avalos Andrew Assistant Football Coach Athletics  $815,000 100%
Mullens Robert A Dir Intercollegiate Athletics Athletics  $798,133 100%
Graves Kelly L Head Women’s Basketball Coach Athletics  $700,000 100%
Salavea Joseph Assistant Football Coach Athletics  $650,000 100%
Heyward Keith Assistant Football Coach Athletics  $600,000 100%
Stubblefield Anthony G Assist Men’s Basketball Coach Athletics  $500,000 100%
Williams Donte A Assistant Football Coach Athletics  $450,000 100%
Mastro James E Assistant Football Coach Athletics  $375,000 100%
Johnson Robert A Head Coach M&W Track Field Athletics  $350,000 100%
Mirabal Alejandro J Assistant Football Coach Athletics  $350,000 100%
Williams Robert Assistant Football Coach Athletics  $350,000 100%
Wilson William K Assistant Football Coach Athletics  $350,000 100%
Bouknight Jovon M Assistant Football Coach Athletics  $335,000 100%
Lombardi Melissa K Head Softball Coach Athletics  $335,000 100%
Wasikowski Mark P Head Baseball Coach Athletics  $325,000 100%
Feld Aaron W Strength & Conditioning Coord Athletics  $310,000 100%
McKenna Kevin R Assist Men’s Basketball Coach Athletics  $300,000 100%
Mennenga Michael M Asst Men’s Basketball Coach Athletics  $300,000 100%
Roedl Eric L Deputy Athletic Director Athletics  $280,836 100%
Davis Lorraine G Special Assistant to AD Athletics  $239,350 10%
Martin Casey M Head Men’s Golf Coach Athletics  $235,000 100%
Campbell Mark J Assoc Head Women’s BB Coach Athletics  $216,000 100%
Peterson Lisa L Deputy Athletic Director/SWA Athletics  $208,719 100%
Davidson Craig J Director of Athletic Medicine Athletics  $200,004 100%
Cohn Henry J Sr Assoc AD for Development Athletics  $200,000 100%
Duncan Michael P Sr Assc AD Operations & Events Athletics  $184,870 100%
Radcliffe James C Head Strength Coach Athletics  $184,800 100%
Berry Jodie R Asst Women’s Basketball Coach Athletics  $179,152 100%
Stanton James T Senior Assoc Athletic Dir Communications Athletics  $172,001 100%
Hawkins Jeffrey N Ar Assc AD/HDC Admin & Ops Athletics  $164,671 100%
Ulmer Matthew D Head VB/Beach VB Coach Athletics  $160,000 100%
Yamanaka Herbert S Associate AD Athletics  $151,213 100%

Here are the jobs of the people Mullens laid off, with their date of hire:

Trades/Maintenance Worker 2 11/24/14
Refrigeration Mechanic 3/10/14
Food Service Worker 2 10/31/16
Laborer 2 8/5/91
Office Specialist 2 1/28/08
Office Specialist 2 7/9/18
Custodian 3/18/08
Accounting Technician 10/2/09
Custodian 10/15/15
Administrative Program Assist 1/20/04
Trades/Maintenance Worker 2 8/20/90
Electrical/Control System Tech 9/18/17
Laborer 2 8/14/17
Athletic Equipment Coordinator 7/3/17
Laborer 1 10/14/88
Grounds Maintenance Worker 2 3/16/98
Maintenance Electrician 8/20/07
Trades/Maintenance Worker 2 6/26/17
Food Service Worker 2 7/15/13
Cook 1 1/9/20
Info Technology Consultant 7/3/17
Electrical/Control System Tech 11/15/10
Food Service Worker 3 6/11/05
Laborer 2 1/12/11
Electrical/Control System Tech 11/18/06
Cook 2 6/9/15
Accountant 1 6/1/15
Videographer 1 2/19/19
Grounds Maintenance Worker 2 10/31/06
Food Service Worker 1 8/29/16
Laborer 2 11/17/09
Custodial Services Coordinator 1/8/13
Administrative Program Assist 1/7/19
Trades/Maintenance Worker 2 6/24/19
Program Technician 1 7/23/18
Laborer 2 5/10/17
Custodian 7/23/15
Office Specialist 2 12/17/07
Info Technology Consultant 1/22/14
Custodian 11/1/18
Administrative Program Assist 9/13/94
Cook 2 2/27/20
Laborer 2 1/14/11
Hvac Control Technician 2/18/20
Office Specialist 2 6/16/16
Custodian 10/15/10
Custodial Services Coordinator 7/9/13
Laborer 1 4/29/15
Office Specialist 2 8/22/94
Athletic Equipment Coordinator 1/2/10
Videographer 1 4/15/19
Trades/Maintenance Worker 2 11/4/19
Equipment Systems Specialist 1/15/97
Custodian 10/6/06
Athletic Equipment Coordinator 10/9/17
Custodian 8/14/13
Custodian 9/24/12
Custodian 6/22/17
Videographer 1 8/26/19
Oper Systems-Network Analyst 9/20/12
Custodian 4/1/13
Food Service Coordinator 9/1/10
Trades/Maintenance Worker 1 12/14/09
Office Specialist 2 6/11/12
Custodian 3/10/16
Grounds Maintenance Worker 2 8/16/10
Office Specialist 1 9/22/08
Office Specialist 2 6/2/15
Custodian 1/20/04
Warehouse Coordinator 8/20/15
Laborer 2 2/10/10
Cook 1 7/1/13
Administrative Program Assist 6/22/15
Trades/Maintenance Worker 2 1/10/11
Custodial Services Coordinator 1/5/04

31 Comments

  1. Ragin Duck 04/29/2020

    What a complete disgrace. Thank you for posting. Schill should demand cuts from the salaries of these coaches to cover the rent for the workers just laid off.

  2. Ralph S. 04/29/2020

    People lie, they cheat and steal
    For wealth and what it will buy
    Don’t they know …

  3. Amy Adams 04/29/2020

    I see more than one videographer in that list of classified layoffs.
    I would think that they’d be in high demand in this time of live and pre-recorded classes, lectures, presentations…

    • uomatters Post author | 04/29/2020

      I think that, under the SEIU contract, some of these people will indeed get priority of other jobs at UO, if there are openings. Not really sure how transferable Cristobal’s particular skill set would be to teaching a remote class though.

      • Dog 04/29/2020

        Cristobal 101

        -How to Grunt
        -How to Dominate
        -How to Grunt More

        • Environmental necessity 04/29/2020

          Don’t forget “Upping Your Warrior”

          • uomatters Post author | 04/29/2020

            Please Enviro, I try so hard to keep this blog family-friendly.

            • Fishwrapper 04/30/2020

              Family-friendly? You keep posting obscenities here all the time!

              (But you call them “salaries,” so that’s OK?)

              • uomatters Post author | 04/30/2020

                Like

  4. It's classified. 04/29/2020

    OSU AD, BBX and FB coaches “donating” 7% of their salaries to OSU Foundation
    WSU President, AD, FB and BBX coaches taking 5% cut through the end of 2020-21 academic year.
    Kansas BBX and FB coaches take 10% reductions, $500,000 savings
    Syracuse BBX and FB coaches, and several other univ officials taking 10% reductions
    Rutgers BBX and WBBX taking 10% cuts (for 4 months) and AD 5% reduction
    Minnesota coach taking 1wk furlough
    Boise St employees making over $150k/yr get 10 furloughs
    Iowa State athletic pay reductions saving $3million, suspending coaching bonuses, $1million savings
    Louisville 10% coaching pay reductions
    UWyoming AD taking a 10% cut for a year

    Where are Cristobol and Altman on this list??

  5. Hippo 04/29/2020

    Don’t worry, since the UO needs to remains “flexible” during this unprecedented crisis, they will be laying off all these folks since the fall and winter NCAA season is going to be cancelled for safety reasons, to prevent the resulting flare-ups of COVID-19. The good news is that sports is totally non-essential for the mission of the University, which I think might be teaching and research.

    Oh sorry, I was just in a daze from all the Zooming. Never mind.

  6. Don't call me a duck 04/29/2020

    If Rob Mullens isn’t a Backpfeifengesicht, then I’ve never seen one.

  7. Just Another Volunteer 04/29/2020

    At some point I hope our benefactor Mr. Knight realizes that he can’t own a set of semi-professional sports franchises associated with the Pac 10 and other “college” venues with an academic institution to home those programs. If he wants to preserve his investment he may want spread a little love to the folk who make the UO a University…

  8. just-peachy 04/29/2020

    Dear Pres. Schill — I read your impressively worded missive about shared responsibilities, fiscal belt-tightening and engagement with transparency within the institution. Rob Mullens laying off 75 classified workers this month while keeping his (close to) $3 million dollar salary intact tanks all of the above. Want an example of shared support of the university? How about all Ducks making over $500,000 per year taking a 10% cut. Make that happen and I’ll believe you and the administration again.

  9. thedude 04/29/2020

    But the janitors are getting a UI bonus for the next couple of months.

  10. Pissed off SEUI member 04/29/2020

    being directly affected by the “chop from the bottom” this is sickening – and furthermore being told by the athletic director that “if there is no football in the fall, you won’t be coming back”

    apparently during a pandemic the rich are supposed to get richer to pay for their lifestyles they are accustomed to. Meanwhile, I will go stand in the food line

  11. Inquiring minds 04/29/2020

    How about our Board of trustees?? Bueller Bueller? Is anybody out there?

  12. Anonymous 04/29/2020

    I work in the dorms. No bonus No hazardous pay. It is sickening what’s happening on so many levels. Some have been laid off sadly. I know of people who was quitting soon yet they laid off others who wanted to stay. It’s just sad all around.

    • uomatters Post author | 04/30/2020

      Thanks, I’ve updated the post at the top to reflect this generous gift to Uncle Phil from his head coaches.

    • It's classified. 04/30/2020

      90% of 3.5 million is still 3.15 million. Altman might need to cancel his Netflix subscription.
      Maybe in a sign of good faith, they could compete for taking the largest voluntary reduction?

  13. pissedoffunionmember 04/30/2020

    it is DISGUSTING that the rich continue to get richer off of a pandemic. Zero support, only to have UO champion the “idea” of layoff…BUT WE say you can keep your insurance. UMMM no, this was NOT UO, this was Cares Act, and don’t be fooled, they don’t give a s*** about employees.

    • Inquiring Minds 04/30/2020

      Pissedoff: Can you provide citation or info about what you mean when you refer to the UO gaining from keeping insurance up while laying off employees? Not doubting you, I just haven’t seen that provision.

  14. Props 04/30/2020

    If the University Presidents are worried about losing their coaches to poaching, why don’t they collectively ban it and then adjust coach salaries and bonuses to a reasonable level?

    • uomatters Post author | 04/30/2020

      It would be a violation of anti-trust law. They could, however, agree to limit the number of assistant coaches, drop non-revenue sports, etc. through the NCAA. Instead they just keep upping those limits.

      • Props 04/30/2020

        As far as I can tell anti-trust laws are no longer enforced.

        • uomatters Post author | 04/30/2020

          Good point.

  15. charlie 04/30/2020

    Since we’re talking about gifts, what about the $40 million The Guv wants to give to subsidize a currently non-existent HF track meet? Asking for a friend…

  16. Curious Otter 05/02/2020

    According to Willamette Week, Portland Public Schools is implementing a 1 day per week (20%) furlough for teachers and their pay will be backfilled “by using the Work Share program of Oregon and federal CARES Act funding.” Is this a strategy the UO could employ to cut the budget?

    Perhaps faculty could be relieved of our service requirements (which in my department is 20%) and have our pay backfilled accordingly.

    https://www.wweek.com/news/schools/2020/05/01/portland-public-schools-asking-teachers-to-take-one-furlough-day-per-week-for-rest-of-year/

  17. eugenenative 05/04/2020

    Herb Yamanaka at 86 still pulling in $151K/yr.

    Nice work if you can get it.

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