Last updated on 09/06/2025
The latest on the meltdown of UO’s leadership, from the Eugene Weekly. This is about the Dean who accused a sophomore of harassment, over an art project. Five months later UO’s investigation concludes:
“Taken as a whole, the information gathered in the investigation is such that no reasonable decision maker could find that Respondent violated the discrimination policy,” the August 27 notice says. “Therefore, at the threshold review, the Complaint is dismissed.”
That’s a pretty high bar. They could have cut Zaretsky a little slack – maybe “no more than 5% of reasonable decision makers …”.
But they went with zero. Nada. Zilch.
Which doesn’t stop Zaretsky from laying down a marker for anyone – e.g. UO President Karl Scholz – who might think about giving her some quiet time to work on her scholarship:
“Time will tell whether the debilitating coordinated and extensive campuswide antisemitic harassment, intimidation and threats I and other members of the Jewish campus community have endured for 22 months, continue this next academic year.”
Then to top it off we’ve got UO’s lawyer begging the student not to exercise their First Amendment rights or UO’s policy on academic freedom to talk to the press, lest Dean Zaretsky comes back with another expensive complaint:
On August 27, Nicole Commissiong, the UO’s chief civil rights officer and Title IX coordinator, told Steuerwald to “please be aware that the disclosure of the outcome of the investigation to third parties could result in harassment towards the complainant, as the complainant’s name [Which, for the record, is Adrian Parr Zaretsky: UOM] was previously disclosed in violation of the expectations for the investigation.”
You gotta love that “please”.
Thanks to U of O Matters for updating people.
This whole investigation was a massive—and expensive—waste of time that should have never happened. Cassy was charged with anti-Semitism for a four-day art exhibit that seven people saw, and which was approved by, observed by, and promoted by the Design School’s director of galleries without objection. This is like charging a student with anti-Semitism for a term paper that their professor assigned, read, and then recommended to others. For this reason, when I became involved with the case I immediately asked that it be dropped, and if not, that it be informally resolved. Everyone, including the Dean, would have been better off if that had happened.
But Nicole Commissiong would not hear of it. So instead, a young undergraduate—attending the U of O on an academic excellence scholarship–was subjected to five months of harassment, involving six hours of “interviews”/interrogations, by an outside attorney from Ohio who did not know who Phil Knight was, or of NIKE’S relation to the U of O (also a target of Cassy’s exhibit).
And the upshot of it all was–“Never mind”. By the way, what happened to the U of O’s budget problems? We don’t yet know how much the Administration will be billed for this misguided, incompetent farce. We do know that Nicole’s contract with the outside attorney specifies that the amount “cannot exceed $200,000”. All for a case that could have been informally resolved with one frank conversation between the parties. But dialogue is the last thing the Administration was interested in.
On a larger scale, but related, is a very interesting story in Times of Israel — maybe not usual reading — about national and international commotion about Jewish Studies and related matters at U of O, including a letter to the Administration. Here’s a bit of the flavor; the link to the extended article is easily found.
‘ “Why don’t UO’s administrative leaders want UO students to learn about Jews?” the scholars wrote to Oregon’s president, provost and board of trustees on August 24. “Why don’t they want UO faculty to study Jews?”
The letter — whose signatories include faculty chairs and directors at more than 100 schools, including Harvard University and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem — comes as Oregon prepares to announce sweeping cuts to its humanities programs to curb what it says is a $30 million budget deficit.’
I wonder whether this has some connection to the larger financial difficulties at UO. I don’t claim to know much about the atmosphere for Jewish students at UO. But I hope it’s better than at some places that appear in the news. One can easily find that about 10% of UO students are Jewish, historically, at least by estimate. I bet that is largely or mostly high tuition students from California and similar places. Are significant numbers of such students staying away, at cost to the general funds budget? I haven’t a clue. But it seems like a reasonable question.
It’s a great article. It was written by Andrew Lapin and originally published by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Lapin’s employer. The Jerusalem Post picked it up, too, among other Israeli news outlets. Meanwhile the Berliner Zeitung reported on the looming demise of the Department of German and Scandinavian at the University of Oregon. This whole business is yield a TON of bad press for Scholz & Long, nationally and internationally.
If you get a chance, check out a story published in The Chronicle of Higher Education on the supposed “consultation” of faculty in the planning and execution of tenured faculty layoffs.
Found here:
https://www.jta.org/2025/09/03/united-states/jewish-studies-faculty-at-u-of-oregon-rally-to-protect-their-jobs-from-feared-budget-cuts
Email just came out to staff 20 minutes ago saying no degree programs have been eliminated and no filled tenure-track positions have been cut. Nothing more specific than that, but worth noting that “sweeping cuts to humanities” may have been an exaggeration.
Not an exaggeration. Plans developed by CAS involved sweeping cuts to the humanities. Thank goodness some things were reversed, yet very sorry for all the losses.
Wait, so UO spent up to 200k to find out what a reasonable person would think?
They couldn’t find anyone in Johnson Hall.
I’ve personally had unpleasant dealings with Commissiong and her office in the past. They are clearly on the side of keeping UO from getting sued and are no advocate for anyone else other than the “university”, despite what BS their emails say. Cheyney is correct – such a complete waste of time and $$$.
Dean Parr has harassed and retaliated against scores of faculty and staff and enabled her staff to do the same, and rarely holds anyone accountable, so long as they are in lock-step with her. That an outside investigator would find that no reasonable person would agree with her is unsurprising, given how petty and thin-skinned she is.
The politics happening in the College of Design right now are BIZARRE to view from the perspective of an employee outside the college. I can’t believe how much weird favoritism she gets away with.
You have come to the right place to anonymously post the details of this behavior. What are they?
Adrian is married to the head of the Architecture Department: https://www.aiaoregon.org/leadership-messages/2022/4/21/message-from-the-uo-architecture-department-head
As a consequence, the mid-level leadership in her office does not feel like they can do anything that may be perceived as a slight to Architecture. Michael reports to someone who reports to Adrian, which is a conflict of interest. The other programs are constantly losing staff – the Landscape Architecture program has a super high turnover rate because they are denied funding, space, and other resources in favor of them being given to the Architecture department. Adrian also doesn’t allow them to use any of the studio space assigned to Architecture, despite them being very similar types of courses, and relegates them to the worst of the studio spaces in the building.
All this has created a culture where the Architecture faculty are genuine prima donnas, and refuse to be institutionally minded about anything. Those in the dean’s office (other than Adrian) appear visibly distressed when administrative things involve discussion with any Architecture faculty.
Look who was awarded ‘outstanding department head’ by the Office of the Provost.
https://provost.uoregon.edu/outstanding-department-head-award
“ Deans are invited to nominate one department head from each school or college or division, as appropriate for their infrastructure.”
Well, to be fair, he did the dishes and raked the leaves in the yard without being told twice…
A couple of comments on the Weekly article are appalling.
Spent much time on the internet?
No layoffs of tenured faculty? That is very good news, if true. It would have been a horrible blow to UO if it had been happened.
I always thought that the size of the deficit was too small to necessitate such a drastic move. Calling it a “structural deficit” doesn’t change things. A “structural deficit,” whatever that means, doesn’t mean the boogey man has got you and there’s no escape. It just means an economist has talked himself into a corner, or is trying to talk other people. Maybe several economists, in several groups — trustees, admin, union?
This is a concerning look at UOs administration and potential biases. The spending on legal counsel and the issues surrounding Jewish studies and faculty treatment are alarming. Seems like a lot of wasted money and hurt feelings over something that could have been resolved more reasonably.
Where are you, UOMatters? It’s been a few months now. I miss your posts!
Dark and rainy here. On my morning row I saw many small birds and one seal. There were some humpbacks out, but I missed them in the fog. Spent the afternoon machining an Acme thread for a vise.
You got out alive, and found a way to thrive. Five and a half years to go for me…
If you’re thinking about winding the site down (or even if you’re not) I would love to read a retrospective (as a full blown post, not just a comment). What caused you to start it? What were key moments — good, bad, ugly — of the site? What are things that happened behind the scenes over the years that might surprise people?
There’s no question that this site has changed and shaped the trajectory of the University of Oregon; I would argue, on net, for the better. Tell us the full story for those of us who were in diapers back in 2007.