This is good news, just in time to celebrate the 4th of July: The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, a.k.a. theFIRE.org, has just announced a major new legal initiative. In the past FIRE has worked as an advocacy group, and co-ordinated free speech lawsuits on behalf of students and…
UO Matters
$3M goes from regular students to subsidize athletes. The students are protesting, and the administration has pledged to overrule the athletic director and end the subsidies. That would be at UW, a member of the prestigious AAU and, unlike UO, likely to remain a member. Story here. At UO, the…
12/11/2013: Geller: Faculty must be fully engaged An email from President Gottfredson’s General Counsel Randy Geller, sent round today: Work schedule for bargaining unit faculty members: This is a reminder that under Article 32, Section 21, of the United Academics Collective Bargaining Agreement, bargaining unit officers of instruction who do not…
6/30/2014 update:
Aaron Kasinitz has the rather moving story in the Oregonian, here. And this is a relatively good outcome for a Duck football player. If O’Bannon wins his lawsuit, Thomas might be able to collect some money from the NCAA cartel, someday.
And right on time, here’s news on a partial settlement of the O’Bannon lawsuit. Perhaps UO’s chief sports lawyer and FAR wannabe Rob Illig will comment?
“The filing of settlement terms today signifies an opportunity to provide complete closure to the video game plaintiffs, but should not be considered pay for performance,” NCAA chief legal officer Donald Remy said in a statement.”
Robert Carey, an attorney for the Keller and Alston plaintiffs, said that if a player appeared as an avatar in four different years of the game, he potentially could end up with $20,000 – or $5,000 per appearance year. But if such a player’s photograph also was used in two different years, he could get another $10,000 – again $5,000 per appearance year – for a total of $30,000.
9/5/2012 update: Unpaid internships, but with brain damage.
A paper in the journal Neurology today reports that NFL players are 3x more likely than average to contract Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. And in today’s story on college football brain injuries Ron Richmond of the RG reports that
Dr. Greg Skaggs, the UO director of athletic medicine, also declined a request through an athletic department spokesman to be interviewed for this series.
Not exactly consistent with UO’s academic mission.
I’ve been trying to get a copy of the resume’s and job application letters for UO’s lawyers in the General Counsel’s office for the past 8 weeks or so. The qualifications of UO’s attorneys are a matter of obvious public interest given UO’s many current legal problems, the new legal…
Morse code, here. More Cash here.
6/28/2014 update: Slow Saturday, thought I’d repost this classic. President Gottfredson and Provost Coltrane have now given former Provost Jim Bean a new job – directing UO’s new “Sports Product” cluster of excellence. We’ve been paying him $245K a year for putting the proposal together: 4/16/2012: Bean and Davis rehire John Moseley Johnson Hall…
Here’s hoping this fresh start means the end of the sort of sneak attacks we saw from the conflicted Randy Geller, e.g. with his delegation policy. Announcement here:
Job ad here: RESPONSIBILITIES: This position manages and directs the daily food production of the HDC kitchen and the Founders Club kitchen to prepare meals and snacks meals for student-athlete and catered events. The Sous Chef ensures high culinary standards are followed, food production schedules are met, and food safety…
Update: John Clune, attorney for the survivor, has this response, so far:
This is a pretty poorly spun version of the night in question which noticeably omits all of the facts that incriminated their clients. The description doesn’t mention that two of the three men admitted in police recorded phone calls that what they did to the victim that night was wrong with one of the men calling their behavior “very inappropriate and not something he would want to happen to his mother or sister”. The third man who refused to give a statement is facing his second sexual assault allegation in the past year.
I can’t blame the lawyers though as they are just trying to help their clients explain some pretty ugly behavior that has gotten a lot of press.
6/24/2014: Andy Greif has the story in the Oregonian. The full text of the letter:
From Shaun McCrea, Laura Fine Moro, Greg Veralrud:
No jury would find that Dominic Artis, Brandon Austin or Damyean Dotson committed any form of sexual assault against their accuser. Some people will insist that the University’s suspension is proof that the acts occurred, but they would be wrong. This determination was carved in stone the day the University’s president, in response to a hail of local and national criticism, all but declared these young men guilty and dismissed them from the team. Good political cover, bad principle. It’s absurd to expect that his underlings in the Legal & Student Affairs Departments would deviate from that line.
6/26/2014:The letter from a fellow of the American Psychological Association is here: The second part of the story by Camilla Mortensen is here. Meanwhile the Lane County DA’s decision on the NYT appeal of Dave Hubin’s redactions is due early next week.
6/12/2014: Eugene Weekly publishes story on Duck athletics and sexual assault
Just in time to be distributed to the Trustees at their meetings today and tomorrow, and to the parents visiting for Monday’s commencement:
The report from Camilla Mortenson has a lot of history, including this from a student who reported an alleged rape involving a football player in 2001, and has now gone public with how UO responded:
After she reported the incident to the UO, Goodman says she received a 7 am phone call from former Ducks football coach Mike Bellotti questioning the accuracy of her recollection of that night. “I said, ‘I know you have a daughter and you wouldn’t grill her the same way.’” EW has contacted ESPN for a response from the former coach.
Given that President Gottfredson and AD Rob Mullens clearly hoped to cover up the March 8-9 allegations as well, it makes you wonder how many other similar assaults have been reported to the UO administration, and kept from the press and public to protect the Duck athletic program’s brand.
6/6/2014 update: UO removes all mention of Gottfredson from Commencement website
Old version below. New official UO website here. Gottfredson is off the website. Also the “Duck Walk” will now bypass Johnson Hall, the scene of many recent protests against Gottfredson’s handling of the March 8-9 basketball rape allegations.
Presumably they are printing the glossy programs now, didn’t want to have to go through them pasting a little “Interim President Coltrane” sticker over each mention of “President Gottfredson”. Not to mention having to deal with the pictures. Here’s Gottfredson’s 2013 speech:
John Canzano in the Oregonian, here. I don’t empathize with the Ducks coaching staff or UO administrators. They’re the goats here, protecting one another. Coach Dana Altman hasn’t fielded my inquiries for comment. Altman looked physically ill, trying to sell the university’s version of events during that shrouded and awkward news conference. The…
6/23/2014 update: KVAL reports that the survivor’s lawyer, John Clune, is focused on UO’s decision to admit Brandon Austin: Clune told KVAL News his client remains concerned about Oregon’s recruitment of Austin, who left his previous school while under investigation for a possible sexual assault there. “We definitely want some…
I paid mine off 3 years ago. The federally subsidized rate was less than 1%, and they gave me 16 years to pay. That was then. New UO graduate Spencer Adrian has an op-ed in the RG on what it’s like now. Meanwhile the NYT has a story on new…
Steve Mims has a great piece in the RG on what Duck baseball recruits got by going pro. Gives you some idea of how much money the NCAA cartel is taking from the football players, who don’t have this option.