6/12/2014: Full report now posted at https://uomatters.com/2014/06/dash-paulsons-report-on-day-1-of-the-june-12-13-trustees-meeting.html Big news so far is that the Trustees voted to approve the delegation of authority policy as submitted by Randy Geller, with an amendment requiring Gottfredson (or his successor) to make direct reports to the board on labor negotiations. Apparently he never bothered…
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6/12/2014 update: Coleen Flaherty of Insidehighered.com has a write up on this too, here. UO is getting quite a reputation in the national higher ed press, a story last year on Gottfredson’s efforts to subvert academic freedom is here.
6/10/2014 update: UO administration rejects Professor Freyd’s survey of campus sexual violence
Josephine Woolington has the story in the RG, here. VPSA Robin Holmes, who made the decision, is the person who sat on the 2011 recommendations for student conduct code revisions for three years. The UO Senate finally took charge, and wrote and passed the revisions on May 28. Gottfredson has not yet signed them, and the administration’s web site for the current policy still lists former student conduct director Carl Yeh as their point person. (Archived here.) Yeh left UO in August 2013, and Holmes didn’t replace him until this March.
Freyd is asking for $30-$40K to cover the survey costs. (You can donate via the UO Foundation’s website here. Make sure you put “Research on Trauma and Oppression, Jennifer Freyd” in the “additional gift instructions” box, or your money will probably go to Duck Athletics.) The UC system recently hired consultants to conduct a more general campus climate survey, at a reported cost of $661K, albeit for a larger sample.
The strange “external review committee” that Gottfredson, Holmes, and Mullens just appointed to review their own dilatory response to the conduct code and basketball rape allegations – three months after Gottfredson first learned of them – will now decide how to conduct their own survey. Talk about a conflict of interest! The story also quotes Holmes’s $83K “strategic communicator” Rita Radostitz, but don’t expect much in the way of frank talk from her:
The UO Senate does not trust the administration on this issue, and the Senate Task Force membership will be announced shortly. Presumably they will take charge of this matter as well.
6/6/2014 update: Gottfredson’s self-appointed “external review panel” includes old insider
Gottfredson, Mullens, and Holmes have now announced the names of the people they are appointing to the “External Review Panel” to investigate their own actions or lack of actions regarding the March 8-9 rape allegations and sexual violence prevention. Full list here.
The panel will include Bob Berdahl. As the San Francisco Chronicle reported in 2005, in his previous job as UC-Berkeley President, Berdahl got into some trouble over his lucrative sinecure payments, but managed to avoid prosecution:
From an email sent out by Provost Scott Coltrane: Dear School of Journalism and Communication Faculty and Staff: After consulting with SOJC Associate Deans and the Dean’s Advisory Committee at a meeting on May 13, I have decided to defer the search for a new SOJC Dean until spring 2015.…
6/10/2014 update: Transparency is lacking at the UO (Letter to the RG)
In his June 4 letter, David Hubin, the supervisor of the University of Oregon’s Public Records Office, chastised The Register-Guard for omitting information from its May 31 editorial about the pages and pages of colorful redactions his office made to documents concerning the UO’s response to March 8-9 sexual assault allegations.
Hubin said he was “disappointed” the editorial “didn’t provide all the facts about why the university can’t release certain information. The newspaper’s readers deserve to understand the university isn’t hiding the information but is following laws that protect student privacy.”
But, as was explained in the May 30 news report by Josephine Woolington, the UO redacted many of the pages to protect administrators, not students. Those redactions included “frank discussions” between UO officials and emails covered by “attorney-client privilege.” The pages were helpfully color-coded in marigold and blue by Hubin’s office.
The redacted communications are presumably between President Michael Gottfredson, his administrators and “his” attorneys in the UO’s general counsel’s office. Actually, those attorneys are supposed to represent all the university, not just the president. In any case, Gottfredson could waive that privilege and disclose those “frank discussions.” He didn’t.
Such secrecy is part of a pattern. In February, the university even tried to charge our student journalists for budget information on expenditures for sexual assault prevention.
I believe it’s too late for Gottfredson’s administration, but our next president will need to improve transparency and build some trust in the UO community.
BILL HARBAUGH
PROFESSOR OF ECONOMICS
FORMER CHAIRMAN, UO SENATE TRANSPARENCY COMMITTEE
6/5/2014 update: UO releases 323 more pages of redacted docs on rape allegation cover-up
PDF of today’s release here. A zip file of all the records I’ve obtained so far is here. The public records office’s response included a disclaimer that this is just a partial release. I’ll update when they decide to release more. The office’s log file is here.
UO has gone with more blue and marigold this time – the colors for redacting documents because they contain “attorney client privilege” or “frank discussion”. Green means Hubin’s office is claiming the redactions are needed for student privacy.
I’ve haven’t looked through this much, but there is some frank discussion between Intercollegiate Athletics Committee Rob Illig (Law school prof) and the IAC members about President Gottfredson’s April 29 decision to dismantle the committee for asking too many tough questions. The day after he saw the EPD report, and was still hoping he could cover it up. The faculty emails are unredacted, but the ones between UO’s administrators are in marigold. An interesting double standard!. The cover-up timeline is here.
6/4/2014 update: Dave Hubin takes the dive for Gottfredson’s redactions. Shame on you, Dave.
This is worse than when Hubin tried to charge the student newspaper to see the budget numbers on how much UO was spending to address sexual assault prevention:
His letter to the RG editors, in response to their “Redaction Run Amok” editorial is here. All about protecting student privacy:
As the person who supervises the University of Oregon’s Office of Public Records, I was disappointed that a May 31 editorial didn’t provide all the facts about why the UO can’t release certain information. The newspaper’s readers deserve to understand the university isn’t hiding the information but is following laws that protect student privacy.
Sure it is. Hubin does not mention the many redactions made because they include “frank discussions” between UO officials, or “attorney-client privilege”. These are helpfully color-coded in marigold and blue, respectively, as explained by Josephine Woolington in her May 30 RG story here.
The redacted emails are presumably between Mike Gottfredson and “his” attorneys in UO’s General Counsel’s office. Actually those attorneys are supposed to represent UO, not Mike Gottfredson. And in any case Gottfredson can waive that privilege if he wants, and disclose his “frank discussions”. So what are Hubin and Gottfredson hiding?
5/31/2014 update: Register-Guard editorial board on Gottfredson’s “Redaction run Amok”
resources manager.
JH is in total meltdown. They could really do with taking a look at the article on adamenfroy.com which lists the 5 best PEO companies of 2021, as the services of a PEO company would be invaluable to them at this moment in time. Why? Because they have lost control of payroll, accounting, and basic human resources management, and they’ve put out an emergency bid for consultants. Deadline now extended to June 10. The last time this happened we paid Huron millions. The bid info is on the OUS website: https://secure.ous.edu/bid/opportunities/1654
4/16/2014 Now verified, Mark Yuran gone as UO Chief HR Officer
Sent on behalf of Jamie Moffitt:
http://jobs.uoregon.edu/unclassified.php?subtype=administrative Assistant Director Of Strategic Communications Office Of Strategic Communications For Enrollment Management http://jobs.uoregon.edu/unclassified.php?id=4752 Assistant General Counsel http://jobs.uoregon.edu/unclassified.php?id=4686 Assistant Basketball Coach http://jobs.uoregon.edu/unclassified.php?id=4633 Head Acrobatics & Tumbling Coach Athletics http://jobs.uoregon.edu/unclassified.php?id=4751
$8M Science library donation from Lorry Lokey, here. $10M Softball donation from Robert Sanders, here. AD Rob Mullens and President Gottfredson have rejected calls for a modest tax on athletic donations, or even a requirement that athletics stop charging regular students for the $2.4M athlete-only tutoring at the Jaqua Center…
From the UO archives, 18 September 1895: My OCR chokes on this, but it appoints a committee of 2 profs and 1 student and says “… All proceedings of the Athletics Club concerning Intercollegiate games must have the approval of this committee. This shall in no way interfere with…
The Chronicle has the story here, from UNC. Presumably a few UO employees are making similar calculations.
First UO President Mike Gottfredson tried to claim the Eugene Police hid their investigative report on the basketball rape allegations from him. So the police released their timeline contradicting him. Gottfredson then refused to release the documents supporting his story, claiming they were redacted because of “attorney-client privilege”. Then yesterday…
Today, from ProPublica: “Lobbyists Warn Colleges That Participating in Sexual-Assault Survey Could Make Them Look Bad” Tonight, an expert on these surveys will speak at the UO Law School: “Encouraging Innovation to Prevent and Intervene in Campus Sexual Violence,” a talk by Nancy Chi Cantalupo June 5, 2014 6:00 pm – 7:00…
From the ODE: An open letter from a fellow Duck: The past few months have, undeniably, been the hardest and most challenging time in my life. This is such an overwhelming experience and one that I hope that no other student on campus ever has to live through. Given what…
But they still want the academic side to pay them $2.4M for special athlete only tutoring. Funny how Eric Roedl and Rob Mullens managed to keep this new revenue a secret from the UO Senate for so long. To put $115M in perspective, UO’s projected spending next year – including…
6/3/2014 update: Because of problems getting a quorum for this last minute meeting, the Senate Exec will meet with those senators that are available, to make progress on the issues below. Room 110 LAW, public.
6/1/2014: Senate to meet Wed June 4 in an extraordinary session on conduct, athletics, kitchen.
Room 110 LAW, 3PM, Agenda here. Note room change. No live video, but I’ll see what my phone can do for a recording.
Hard to think of a more appropriate skill. From the NYT website: