Two years since Pres Karl Scholz started and he still seems to have no effective internal controls on administrative spending. Apparently only the little people have to book their travel through Concur.
Read all the amazing details at https://dailyemerald.com/166936/features/abroad-sojc-dean-flies-high-back-home-his-school-spirals-into-deficit/
A very thorough investigative report from Tristin Hoffman:
Juan-Carlos Molleda, dean of the School of Journalism and Communication, is facing scrutiny by University of Oregon officials over his extensive university-funded international travel. Meanwhile, his school’s budget has spiraled into a deficit under his management, a six-month investigation and review of hundreds of financial and travel documents by The Daily Emerald has found.
UO Provost Chris Long told The Emerald on June 5 that Molleda is being internally audited for his travel spending. The audit was launched after The Emerald reported on Molleda’s Feb. 21 email about his travel. His email to SOJC faculty was sent on his own command after The Emerald filed public records requests for his travel records.
Molleda, 60, has served as dean since 2016. He has many official reasons to travel as the leader of the SOJC, from attending professional conferences to raising funds from donors. He receives an annual travel budget of $30,000 from his job, and university travel rules often have allowed him to draw on endowment funds from the UO Foundation, which are separate from his school’s budget, to pay his additional travel costs.
The cost of Molleda’s travel and first-class flights dwarf those of two other UO deans. In the 2023-2024 school year, Molleda’s travel expenses rose to $46,000, according to travel documents obtained by The Emerald under Oregon’s Public Records Law.
Over the same period, then-Dean of Students Marcus Langford spent just over $11,000 on travel. Then-law school Dean Marcilynn Burke spent $3,700.
In the past two years, Molleda has traveled to Paris, Lisbon, Madrid, Medellín, Querétaro and other international cities. He often flies first-class and adds personal days to many of his trips without disclosing them to UO, nearly 700 pages of his travel records obtained by The Emerald show. …
I’d love to see the gift numbers he’s brought in. If his schmoozing skills bring in significantly more than he spends, there’s some leeway to be had.
Also, I wouldn’t use the Dean of Students as a litmus test, surely there are other school or college deans that are a closer comparator.
Well he apparently isn’t bringing in enough to offset a 2 million dollar deficit for the department.
If the idea is that JC is overall a productive fundraiser for his unit (unknown) therefore he should be rewarded with perks like business class extended European holidays, fine. But I can promise you there is minimal real fundraising going on with his trips abroad (or to wilds of Alaska). The amount of Paris-based alum that have the potential for major gifts to SOJC that would require his presence are slim to none. In Columbia? Zip.
Thumbs up if Juan Carlos Molleda should no longer remain dean (either due to voluntary resignstion or involuntary dismissal).
Thumbs down if he should stay in his position.
Is he really flying first class, or business? Many airlines don’t even have first class any more. United and American, for instance, only have business. UO regulations allow for business class travel for flights over 8 hours, which Paris, Lisbon, Madrid, and so on would certainly be. And about adding personal days, the question is whether the UO is paying for those personal days, or whether he is.
Like a lot of Emerald reporting these days, extremely valid topic, if not always as well researched or sourced as would benefit the subject. What is the travel budget for CAS and Business Dean’s, for instance and how are they spending these funds in relation to JC, and each other, bears a further more detailed look.
In terms of JC, even the undergrad students in the unit widely know that he has a habit of tagging along to their trips to NYC, LA, Alaska, Paris, etc. (although not sitting in coach with them), briefly show up in time for the School’s social posts, and then disappear for the rest of the trip (apparently to dose himself with psychedelics) and then rationalize it as leading ‘experiential learning’ opportunities. Whether or not that legitimizes his trips in terms of state expenditure and concur travel rules would take some more digging, but what is definitely clear is that he has a pattern – it’s all about him, and it costs the University quite a bit money.
It is also clear that if UO administrators are going to make ‘difficult decisions that must be guided by our commitment to fiscal responsibility’ then they shouldn’t be very surprised when questions are raised about their own questionable patterns of expenditure. Happy hunting!