Updated: On March 11 the PAC-12 university presidents met to approve the spineless “Altman-Austin Rule”, which would *not* have stopped Dana Altman from bringing Brandon Austin to UO. It does *not* ban efforts like those by UO lawyer Doug Park to settle with Austin on terms that would have allowed UO to quietly pass him off to…
UO Matters
3/15/2016: Duck Athletics brings still more invaluable publicity and goodwill for UO. Who defines our “national brand”? Brandon Austin. From Google search trends:
Camilla Mortensen has the latest lawsuit story in the Eugene Weekly. Also see Andrew Greif in the Oregonian and Jack Moran in the RG.
The $20M complaint from Dominic Artis and Damyean Dotson’s lawyers Alex Spiro of NYC and Brian Michaels of Eugene is here. Artis and Dotson’s state complaint is basically a cut-and-paste of Austin’s federal complaint here, which was filed by Marianne Duggan of Eugene and preeminent sperm lawyer Alan C. Milstein of Moorestown, New Jersey back in October.
I’m no law professor, but if attorney Alex Spiro (Harvard Law) had passed this in as his final paper, I’d report him to UO’s student conduct office for plagiarism and urge Sandy Weintraub and Robin Holmes to expel him – after a thorough hearing and appeal, of course.
John Canzano has an opinion piece in the Oregonian: Canzano: Lawsuit not fair to Oregon Ducks, but ends up a strong NCAA play:
Did Altman support the dismissals of the players? Did Gottfredson ask for Altman’s resignation somewhere in the process and get push back from key boosters? Were the players a sacrifice that was made to appease the protesters picketing the university president’s office? And why didn’t Oregon just do what every other reputable university might do — suspend the players pending the outcome of the investigation instead of initially standing with them, then after the NCAA Tournament, dismissing them?
Quite the difference from his Jan 8 2015 column: Canzano: Every day Oregon stands with Dana Altman is another step into the muck:
Best case scenario, he turned his back on three innocent players who were under investigation for sex assault. Worst case, he knowingly recruited a player who was under investigation for a sex assault, then lied for months about what he knew and undermined campus safety while trying to save himself.
This is your basketball coach, Oregon. One who should have been fired months ago.
… The lawsuit [he means the one from the survivor Jane Doe, with whom UO settled for $800K], zeroes in on the exact problem. It alleges that the university took steps to protect itself and to guard its coach, while accepting the survivor as collateral damage. Given that federal law mandates that Oregon should have handled this with urgency and alacrity the actions at UO are troubling.
Among the shocking allegations in the lawsuit? UO refused to provide the players with unredacted documents. Say it ain’t so!
As with Austin’s, this complaint makes many other serious allegations of violations of due process rights by VPSA Robin Holmes and her assistants Sandy Weintraub and Chicora Martin and the feckless Mike Gottfredson.
Where were these people getting their legal advice? From Randy Geller, formerly UO General Counsel, now “of counsel at Harrang, Long, Gary and Rudnick, and/or his Assistant GC Doug Park, who is still employed by UO as associate GC for $200k+.
Here’s UO Strategic Communicator Tobin Klinger’s improbable explanation for why Geller “retired” – announced in the midst of the events described in the lawsuit, and the day before sports reporters unexpectedly broke the story of the basketball rape allegations:
Dominic Artis and Damyean Dotson’s prayer:
1/26/2016: Duck lawyers respond to Brandon Austin’s due process lawsuit. Park gave Austin a clean transcript.
The InsideHigherEd write-up is here. The ASA statement is here: “It’s science’s dirtiest secret: The ‘scientific method’ of testing hypotheses by statistical analysis stands on a flimsy foundation.” A November, 2013, article in Phys.org Science News Wire (2013) cited “numerous deep flaws” in null hypothesis significance testing. A ScienceNews article (Siegfried, 2014)…
His excellent summary is in the Emerald, here. Some good quotes from a former officer and the usual pablum from the UO administration. All worth reading. The VPFA has responsibility for managing the UOPD (previously known as Public Safety). The VPFA was initially France Dyke, then in 2012 or so, after a failed external…
3/4/2016: That’s if you use the NCAA’s questionable “Academic Progress Rate” for the team’s “student-athletes” to decide who wins. Insider Higher Head, here: As of 5PM 3/13/2016: Betting markets give Bernie Sanders the edge over Dana Altman 8% probability Bernie Sanders will make it to the US presidential finals, from predictwise.com 7% probability…
ATL has the leaked 2017 rankings here – they’re not out officially until next week. When Michael Moffitt started as dean, UO Law was ranked #77. They fell year after year, and were tied for #100 in the 2015 rankings. (Released in March 2014). After the $10M subsidy from VPFA Jamie Moffitt kicked…
No, I’m not talking about the UOPD and the Bowl of Dicks retaliation case. I think HLGR has billed UO ~$500K on that, so far, to top off the $755K settlement and $450K or so to Cleavenger’s excellent lawyers. (For First Amendment cases the losers pay the damages and also the winning attorneys,…
Time is short. The sign-up for running for election to the UO Senate and volunteering to serve on Senate and University committees is here. It closes tomorrow, I believe: You can self-nominate for the elected positions, and indicate which of a plethora of interesting committees that you would like to…
Elevator version: John Bonine and Kevin Reed and the Senate had a civil, collaborative, and productive session on the counseling confidentiality motion and the GCO amendment. Many interesting issues came out, thanks to the full engagement of the Senate. Some issues were dealt with expeditiously with new amendments, generally unanimously. Given the April…
An Op-Ed in the RG today, full text here: During February’s legislative session, the University of Oregon’s top lobbying priority was to increase the state hotel tax to get $25 million to subsidize TrackTown USA’s 2021 championship games. There were no visible efforts to work for new funding to improve…
Diane Dietz has a thorough report on the student-led effort to get the UO Foundation to divest from fossil-fuel stocks, here. The students have been pushing this for years. Last year the students persuaded the UO Senate to unanimously endorse divestment – I think I was the last Senator to switch to…
At UO, as at most research universities, many undergrad courses are taught by graduate students who are in the process of getting PhDs. The grad student teaching frees up faculty to teach graduate level classes and supervise the research of the PhD students. Are the undergrads getting a good education?…
and finds nought but a “scattered assortment of spreadsheets”, here. Not to mention the $10M side payment to her husband’s law school. $2.4 million a year for the Duck athletic department’s Jock Box – her former employer. $2M in legal fees and damages for the behavior of UOPD Police Chief Carolyn McDermed,…
Update: A retired NCC professor has more in the RG, here. 1) Ben Franklin (Penn): “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” 2) Ben Hansen (UO) quoted in a well researched Daily Emerald article by Forrest Welk, which also quotes President Schill etc: Vickie Gimm, a UO student, took…
3/7/2016: And another raise. Mediation starts April 27, meanwhile the legal bills pile up. All paid from the academic budget, of course. 2/07/2016: What’s it about this time? Duck bowl games. Back in 2012 Duck Executive Senior Associate Athletic Director for Finance and Administration Eric Roedl got a call from some insurance salesman, and…