Just kidding. UO has no effective internal audit operation and is no longer subject to state audits. Our administrators can do whatever they want. It was Molleda’s own students who caught him and published it in the student newspaper. If they hadn’t he’d still be a dean.
And while President John Karl Scholz has been busy firing UO’s teaching faculty, things are a little different for his administrators: A research leave followed by the “opportunity to re-engage with my scholarship and prepare to return to the classroom.”
Thanks to a reader for forwarding the most ineffectively self-serving email I’ve seen in quite awhile. The comments are open:
From: Juan-Carlos Molleda <jmolleda@uoregon.edu>
Date: July 8, 2025 at 10:27:23 AM PDT
To: All School SOJC <sojc-allschool@lists.uoregon.edu>
Subject: [SOJC-AllSchool] A message of gratitude and transition
Dear SOJC community,
As the provost announced today, I’m stepping down as dean of the SOJC, with my term officially concluding on July 30, 2025. After nearly a decade in this role, I’ve taken time for deep reflection. With immense gratitude for this transformative chapter, I believe now is the right moment to make space for new leadership, foster a more united community, and welcome fresh ideas.
Following a research leave in fall ’25 and winter ‘26, I’ll return to the faculty. The time away will allow me to re-engage with my scholarship and prepare to return to the classroom after nearly a decade in academic administration.
I’m extremely proud of the things that the SOJC accomplished as a collective during nearly decade’s run.
Strategic Growth
- Raised over $22M in private funding and secured a $5M endowment from the UO Presidential Fund for Excellence to launch the Center for Science Communication Research. This led to increased research grants, a seed fund program, an associate program, a thriving minor, and a strategic partnership with the Knight Campus. During this period, the school’s endowment grew from $50M to over $76M, the student body expanded by 48%, and almost half of the current full-time faculty were hired. Additionally, seven instructors were reclassified as professors of practice, and 29 faculty members were promoted across ranks.
- Strengthened the SOJC’s reputation as a leading legacy program through two successful national re-accreditations and the certification and re-certification of the public relations program in 2018 and 2025—boosting visibility, reinforcing academic excellence, and continuing to attract top students and produce highly sought-after graduates.
- Streamlined processes and increased funding to expand financial support for undergraduate and graduate scholarships, experiential learning opportunities, and faculty research and teaching innovation.
Academic Innovation
- Designed and continuously refined a transformational curriculum that shifts from traditional media approaches to a forward-looking model—blending conceptual and practical learning to equip future professionals and scholars for success in rapidly evolving media communication and creative fields. This includes donor-funded, specialized courses such as Hostage Diplomacy, Media Innovation, and River and Rural Stories, as well as hands-on publication projects like the recently launched Ascend sports magazine.
- Modernized the school’s production facilities and student services, providing students with integrated academic and career advising, professional-grade multimedia studios, editing suites, data visualization tools, and virtual reality labs—positioning the SOJC as a national leader in undergraduate and graduate education and research in both Eugene and Portland.
- Launched professional master’s programs in Advertising and Brand Responsibility and in Immersive Media Communication—a Portland-based online degree supported by the Oregon Reality Lab and the Immersive Communication Advisory Network, featuring leaders in this emerging field.
- Increased the cohort size and placement of PhD students, expanding our academic and industry national and international reach.
Student Engagement and Partnerships
- Expanded global and experiential learning programs with increased funding, integrating real-world projects and client-driven work into curricular and co-curricular activities—enhancing graduate job readiness and strengthening the school’s growing alumni and industry network.
- Refocused the mission of the Agora Journalism Center to strengthen the local news and information landscape in Oregon and beyond by championing community-centered journalism.
- Engaged over 75 students in the World Athletics Championships Oregon22, producing media content and supporting World Athletics Production with 20+ students serving as loggers and runners.
- Facilitated collaboration across the university’s two campuses through initiatives such as:
- Partnering with the Lundquist College of Business (LCB) and its Warsaw Sports Business Center to collaborate with students and faculty on women’s and men’s basketball campaigns, supported by continued financial backing from a distinguished SOJC alum.
- Co-creating the Oregon Accelerator with LCB—a program designed to educate students and athletes on Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) projects, a rapidly evolving area shaping the future of sports business, marketing communication, and athlete branding.
- Establishing a memorandum of understanding with the Knight Campus to share expert science communication faculty.
- Forming an agreement between the UO Athletics Video Department (QuackVideo) to support the production of broadcast content for various school-produced B1G+ streams.
- Signing an MOU between the College of Design and SOJC Portland, granting Sports Product Design and Architecture students access to the new Multimedia Production Studio.
These achievements reflect your talent, passion, and commitment to excellence. I’m confident that the SOJC is in a strong position to continue pushing the boundaries of journalism, communication, and media education and scholarship for years to come.
I know that navigating change—especially in turbulent times—is never easy. Yet, you have consistently shown resilience, creativity, intellectual strength, and deep dedication. These qualities have enabled the SOJC to overcome major challenges, including the disruption of the pandemic, and emerge stronger.
With deep admiration and full confidence in the bright future of the SOJC community,
Juan-Carlos
Juan-Carlos Molleda, Ph.D.
Edwin L. Artzt Dean and Professor / School of Journalism and Communication
217 Allen Hall, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403-1275
541-346-2233 / jmolleda@uoregon.edu
This is the best possible outcome for the SOJC. Every email he sends is just as self-serving as the one you posted above. Absolute nightmare to work with and an insufferable narcissist. Didn’t care about the faculty, staff, or students and was only ever concerned about spending UO funds for his personal gain. Good riddance.
I don’t use “twat” much. I quite like it here, though.
You don’t fool the informed, you Twat. May your welcome have the appropriate number of bumps in it.
redraft his resignation letter to acknowledge the facts
ChatGPT said:
Here’s a redrafted version of Dean Molleda’s resignation letter that acknowledges the facts more directly, while remaining professional and appropriately contrite:
Subject: Stepping Down as Dean of the SOJC
Dear SOJC Community,
After careful reflection, I have decided to step down from my role as Dean of the School of Journalism and Communication, effective immediately. I will return to the faculty following a research-focused sabbatical.
Recent reporting and an internal audit have brought to light errors in how I managed travel and expense reimbursements. I take full responsibility for these mistakes. While I did not intend to violate university policy, I acknowledge that I failed to adhere to the standards expected of my position — both in substance and in judgment.
I regret that my actions have diverted attention from the important work we do as a school. Leadership requires trust, transparency, and accountability, and I recognize that I have compromised those values. Stepping aside is the right thing to do — for the School, for the University, and for the continued progress of our students and faculty.
It has been a privilege to serve this extraordinary community for nearly a decade. I remain committed to our mission and look forward to contributing in a different capacity.
Sincerely,
Juan-Carlos Molleda
Are Scholz and Long going to include something like this in the search announcements for their new deans?
“We especially encourage applications from corrupt incompetents with an interest in scamming the university as administrators for a few years and then retiring to collect a full professor’s salary after a paid leave.”
Or is this just implicit?
Is the College of Design Dean the next to go? Four months ago, Dean Adrian Parr Zaretsky filed charges against a sophomore undergraduate claiming that the student’s four-day art exhibit (titled “Dykes Against Fascism”) had so traumatized her that it impeded her ability to do her job. The administration has hired an Ohio law firm to investigate this, at the cost of several thousand dollars an hour; someone in the law firm estimates its ultimate cost will be $70,000–$100,000. But money is no object when administrators’ hurt feelings are concerned! If our administrators get so freaked out at being called names by 19-year-old art students—no wonder they have trouble standing up to the Trump administration and defending the values of higher education, which presumably include artistic freedom.
I have been supporting the student under investigation by the administration for offending the Dean of the Design School. The whole enterprise has been a farce, whose details will come out in time. For example, the outside Ohio attorney hired at great cost to do the investigation did not know who Phil Knight was (a target of criticism in the art display), she did not know that Oregon’s mascot was a Duck (also a target of criticism), and constantly confused Portland and Eugene. Her firm was presumably hired for its close connections with JD Vance, to curry favor with the Trump administration.
But there is a truly ugly side to all this. The investigation is meant to address the alleged trauma to the Design School Dean caused by an undergraduate art exhibit. (Why didn’t they just spend all that money to send her on her on a foreign trip for R&R, a la the Journalism Dean?) But the U of O administration has shown absolutely NO concern for the feelings of the undergraduate art student in question, who has had the full weight of the U of O investigation apparatus bearing down on her for four months now.
If only the stated values of the institution included a line like this: We value academic freedom, creative expression, and intellectual discourse.
.
Oh, sure, it’s already there…but what if it was more than feel-good words on a webpage?