More obsessive secrecy from the University of Oregon. No transparency, no trust. Full complaint to the state Employment Relation’s Board here:
Posts published in “Uncategorized”
This latest contract language looks good enough to end the bargaining impasse that was likely to develop at today’s bargaining session. Suppose you teach one 280 student class in, say, PLC 180. You’re bringing in roughly $2K a student in tuition revenue to UO, or $560K total. 15% of that is $84K, on…
Around the 0 reports: The Giustina Forest Foundation has pledged $1 million to endow the Giustina Director of Special Collections and University Archives. In the upcoming months and in perpetuity, the gift ensures that the library will always be able to recruit and retain the strongest possible candidate to fill…
DeJarnette is a former UO journalism student, UO runner, and member of the UO Senate’s IAC. Nick Symmonds is a runner who qualified for the upcoming 2015 World Championships, but has since been banned by the US Track and Field authorities. His special crime? Not performance enhancing drugs. The famously…
I’ve been reluctant to post this update, given how the subject tends to set off UO’s strategic communicator and “Duck Advocate” Tobin Klinger. After Diane Dietz broke the bowl story in the RG, last year, Klinger sent her editors at the RegisterGuard this sophomoric attack on her reporting: I’m a recent transplant…
Update: Noah McGraw has more in the Emerald, here. More on their bargaining situation is posted here. My understanding is that UO would be happy to make a deal, but the bargaining is done with all the state universities, and the others aren’t sitting on the excessive cash reserves that UO…
Here: This could save UO a lot of money. The athletic department’s report to the NCAA, here, says they lost $832K on last year’s bowl games, after you count the cost of the administrator’s junkets and the coach’s bonuses. That’s right, our coaches’ bowl game bonuses are so large that UO loses money…
8/5/2015: Full interview in the Daily Emerald, here. An excerpt:
Jacoby: You mentioned [in your statement] that you didn’t think any university personnel acted wrongfully. Was the decision to recruit Brandon Austin, who was suspended at a different university for sexual misconduct, a mistake?
Schill: The reason for the settlement was to close the chapter and to move forward. Nothing I say about that matter is going to change anything.
Jacoby: Was the University’s decision to countersue the victim wrong?
Schill: Ditto.
Jacoby: What about accessing Jane Doe’s therapy records?
Schill: Ditto.
Jacoby: Would you have handled the case differently if you were president at the time it happened?
Schill: It’s always easy to second-guess. Ditto.
It’s beginning to look like we’ll still be dealing with this athletic scandal when the next one hits.
But at least he’s talking. Frohnmayer was the last UO president who would regularly answer questions from student reporters. Gottfredson did it once, but got pissy and went back down the bunker when the reporter asked why Dave Hubin was charging student reporters to see public records about their university.
8/4/2014: RG editors call for President Schill to release the records, build some trust. Editorial here:
… If Schill truly wants the university to move past this incident, he should order the release of all records pertaining to the case. If he’s right, those records should support the school’s hard-to-believe claim, for example, that head coach Dana Altman did not know Austin was being investigated for an alleged sexual assault when the athlete transferred from Providence to play for the Ducks. If Schill is right, they should also support the university’s equally hard-to-believe contention that and Athletic Director Rob Mullens did not know the identities of the accused players before the Ducks played in the NCAA Tournament. There are numerous other questions, as well, that the settlement fails to answer for Oregonians who rightly hold the state’s flagship university accountable for its handling of this case.
A decision to make the requested records public could help Schill persuade the university community and others to “move forward” in the aftermath of the case. It would also set a heartening tone of transparency for a new UO president, one that would be a marked departure from the secrecy that has become the disturbing norm at the university for too many years. Schill’s decision to release the settlement document was a good start. Now, he should take the next step.
The university — and the community and state in which it is located — are ready, even eager, to “move forward.” But first they need and deserved the information that allows them to do so in confidence.
Yes. People want to move on because they understand how destructive this has been to UO and they want that over. But they also see this as a powerful event that focused attention and clarified the need for changes in policies and behaviors and beliefs.
I learned so much about what really happens on campus to young women, as a result of conversations sparked by the press coverage – coverage that the UO administration did its best to stop.
There’s a reason truth comes before reconciliation. Efforts to understand how this event happened, and how UO botched its response, should not end. If nothing else we need to know what went wrong so we do better in the future. As a practical example, what will happen when the next similar incident happens? Will the campus be told, or will we have to learn about it from sports reporters again?
I don’t think UO can put this behind us while our official response still looks like this:
Update: Ducks, Dana Altman settle basketball rape claim for $940K
Email from loyal UO Matters reader Tobin Klinger:
On TuesdayAug 4, 2015, at 1:19 PM, Tobin Klinger <[email protected]> wrote:
Bill,
I noticed that you posted President Schill’s letter to campus regarding the settlement agreement. Thank you for helping share the information.
However, you should know that the settlement will, in fact, be completely covered by the university’s insurance coverage. No funds of the UO Foundation will be involved.
The Register Guard has published this story which may be a helpful reference.
Thanks
Tobin
That’s good news about the Foundation money. The Diane Dietz story that Klinger points out is indeed helpful and informative, complete with a timeline. The settlement is for $800K plus a four year full-ride scholarship. Let’s call it $940K, or 1 Gott. The settlement agreement with UO is here. In addition to the money, UO agrees to ask a few more questions about Dana Altman’s future transfer players:
Klinger also reports there is no separate settlement with Altman:
From: Tobin Klinger <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Post
Date: August 4, 2015 at 2:53:46 PM PDT
Bill,
There is no settlement with Dana.
Thanks
Tobin
Update: Letter from President Schill:
Info on initial failed search here. New official search website here. Job ad here. Search committee consists of
- Michael Moffitt (chair), Dean-School of Law
- Missy Matella, Assistant General Counsel
- David Schuman, Professor of Practice-Law School
- Priscilla Southwell, Professor and Department Head-Political Science
- Brad Shelton, Interim Vice President for Research
- Angela Wilhelms, Secretary of the University.
Finalist #3 for GCVP: Kevin S. Reed, UCLA. Schedule for Aug 5 visit here, resume and cover letter here:
This dude certainly seems to have the qualifications, and want the job. And you’ve gotta love this, from his letter:
“The legal issues that have brought unwanted attention to UO in the past several years are issues I have handled with success at UCLA, along with many other potentially mission-interrupting matters.”
More:
As it happens, I’ve had occasion to deal with the UCLA Public Records office which Reed supervises. Back in May Diane Dietz compared UCLA’s unredacted, speedy, and free responses with UO’s fees, redactions, and geological delays, in the RG here:
Sacbee reports UCLA paid Reed $276K last year, the UO job is $225K-$325K.
Finalist #2 for GCVP: Doug Park, UO.
Park was also a finalist for the earlier cancelled search. That resume and cover letter are here. His Aug 4 schedule is here, new letter and CV here.
An excerpt from his new letter, which is as interesting for what it omits as for what it includes:
As seen in my curriculum vitae, I have the following UO experiences: law student from 1990- 1993; adjunct law professor from 2003-2008; trial counsel for UO while at the Department of Justice; service on the UO’s JSMA leadership council as Board Development Chair and Executive Committee member; service on multiple UO committees; and service as in-house counsel for approximately eight years, including the last year as Interim General Counsel. My spouse [Beth Stormshak] is also a UO professor who has served UO in many capacities including teaching, researching, institute director, and associate vice president for research. These experiences enable me to see UO through the eyes of a student, adjunct faculty, tenure track faculty, administrator and lawyer, all of which provide me with a broad understanding of UO’s values, operations and aspirations.
Doug Park’s history with UO public records is legion, going back to the requests that led to the Mike Bellotti scandal and Richard Lariviere’s firing of his boss Melinda Grier, and the Oregon DOJ’s report of “deficient legal representation”:
Finalist #1 for GCVP: Kenya Mann Faulkner, U of Cincinnati.
Aug 3 visit. Letter and CV here.
UC paid her $295K last year, the UO job is $225K-$325K.
Rich Read has the report in the Oregonian, here. Read it all. Lots of optimism about the future, with new President Schill in charge.
Not exactly news, but InsideHigherEd.com has a good summary of the incident here: … In a statement, Frances Bronet, senior vice president and provost at Oregon, said that the university’s lawyers scanned and preserved the records but did not actually read them before returning them to the health center. “I urge…
Update: UO’s public records office has been sitting on the RG’s request for documents about the championship bidding process since June 15. PR log here: 4/16/2015 update: IAAF sells 2021 Track Championships to Eugene w/o public bidding The BBC has the surprising news here: The 2021 World Athletics Championships will be…
Ted Sickinger has the report in the Oregonian, here. This will start in 2017. I’m no actuary, but the combination of lower assumed earnings and longer assumed life expectancies will mean a decrease in the monthly payout from the PERS annuity you get when you retire. At the same time…
For Tim Clevenger, his 160over90 branders, and their advertising partners, that is: Meanwhile what is paying off for UO’s students are investments in education. Diane Dietz has the story here: “University of Oregon ranks better than middling on Forbes top college list” … Here’s how the measures are weighted: 25 percent on student…
7/30/2015: Full doc here. This is far short of the full investigation of Penny Daugherty’s operation of this office that is needed. Presumably the Senate will now have to vote for the administration to do this properly. 7/15/2015: UO uncertain if it has public records on AA investigator Burnside Dear Mr. Harbaugh: …