What if you had a public meeting the day after graduation? Nobody shows.

6/18/2014 update:

This worked out pretty well for Randy Geller with his random pot testing policy, so now Gottfredson’s Chief of Staff Greg Rikhoff has tried it. Sure enough, no one showed at the June 17th meeting. More info as it becomes available. The Administration’s policy website has nothing.

5/7/2014: UO administration to repeal all OUS OAR’s, adopt some as UO Policies

In times like these it would be very helpful to have a President who had the faculty’s trust. All this will be done with supervision by Randy Geller, who keeps his job until 7/1/2014 when this process must be complete.

The notice of a public meeting, required by the Oregon Secretary of State, is here. June 17, 3PM, 150 Columbia. Lots of policies. I think this requires Senate approval, no?

MEMORANDUM

TO: Campus Community

FROM: President Michael Gottfredson

RE: UO policies transfer

The University of Oregon’s new governance structure, enacted by the state legislature, becomes effective on July 1, 2014. At that time, the UO will no longer be a part of the Oregon University System (OUS), and will instead be an independent public university with its own governing board, the Board of Trustees of the University of Oregon.

As part of the orderly transition, it is advisable to convert all of the existing UO administrative rules (OARs) to UO policies before July 1. If we do not do this conversion, these OARs remain in place, requiring legislative action to change. Therefore, I will adopt all these OARs precisely as written to UO policies. That action will give our campus community and the board the flexibility and the time to review carefully each of the policies. To that end, I intend to establish a policy review advisory group to conduct a deliberate and thorough review all of these policies and recommend whether any need to be updated, modified, rescinded, or remain unchanged.

These OARs contain 179 rules in 30 broad categories including rule making, parking, students records, grievances, and fund raising. The OARs can be found here. The proposed UO polices that will be adopted verbatim are here.

Public comment on this plan to convert these OARs to UO policies may be provided in person on June 17 at 3:00 p.m. in 150 Columbia Hall; or in writing either to the Office of the President, 1226 University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403-1226 or via e-mail, by noon on June 18. Oregon State University and Portland State University are taking similar actions as they transition to having their own governing boards.

This is the first of several policy actions that are necessary prior to the board assuming governance of the UO on July 1. The UO will provide notification about all policy actions on the Board of Trustees website and on AroundtheO.

And here’s the earlier statement from his Chief of Staff, saying these UO policies will have “the full force of law”:

From: Gregory Rikhoff <[email protected]>
Subject: University of Oregon Rulemaking Announcement
Date: May 7, 2014 at 1:51:28 PM PDT
To: Gregory Rikhoff <[email protected]>

Good afternoon,

Please see the enclosed Notice of Proposed Rulemaking Hearing form and the Statement of Need and Fiscal Impact form.

The University of Oregon is proposing to repeal all Chapter 571 Oregon Administrative Rules. The University proposes to adopt these rules as University Policies with the full force of law as of July 1, 2014.

The proposed repeal will not be finalized until after the public hearing. The date, time and location of the hearing are indicated on the enclosed Notice of Proposed Rulemaking Hearing form. Following the hearing, the University will consider the testimony and written comments presented. The repeal will become effective after filing with the Office of the Secretary of State.

Please contact our office with any questions.

Sincerely,

Greg Rikhoff
Rulemaking Authority
Assistant Vice President and Chief of Staff
Office of the President
University of Oregon