NBC sports story on Altman here. I’m thinking Dane Altman is blaming Mike Gottfredson, for botching the rape allegation cover-up. And Gottfredson is probably blaming Altman for the fact that *his* career is in ruins. Meanwhile, Lorraine Davis was probably the one who should have vetted Brandon Austin, but for some reason…
UO Matters
5/15/2014: Steve Duin in the Oregonian: When Freyd’s research indicated that 46 percent of the women dealing with unwanted sexual experiences felt betrayed, and further traumatized, by the institution where those incidents occurred, she said, “I felt it was my duty to go to the president and say, ‘We have a problem.'”…
Andrew Greif has the latest in the Oregonian, here. Question #1? Did he let Lorraine Davis approve the Austin special admit? Athletics Chair Rob Illig (Law) President Mike Gottfredson (Criminology)
5/15/2014 update:
More on these later.
5/14/2014 update: The UO Foundation has told me that they will release their IRS 990 form tomorrow. This should have been made public no later than November 15, but the foundation requested and received two 3 month extensions from the IRS. Tomorrow is their final deadline. The form will include information on expenses, salaries for their highest paid employees such as Paul Weinhold and Jay Namyet, and some rudimentary information on what the foundation does with the money it manages for UO. Probably not much clarity on how much goes to the Ducks and how much to UO academics, but I’ll post what there is, when I get it.
11/20/2013 update: Two weeks ago I received a “demand for retraction” from Thomas Herrmann, legal counsel to the University of Oregon Foundation, regarding this post which I first published on 10/25/2013. (Page down to read the original post in its entirety.)
3PM in 115 Lawrence. Official agenda here, live video here. My understanding is that Senate President Paris has cleared the session for as long as the Q&A takes. The UO M timeline on the rape and cover-up allegations is here. Sorry, the live-blog below has gaps – though none as bad as those in the administration’s timeline on how they responded to the rape allegations.
Short Version:
He’s not ready to sign the Academic Freedom policy – his lawyers still need to review it. Speaking of lawyers, I wonder how much Rudnick and Frohnmayer have billed on this so far.
President Gottfredson reiterated his desire to protect UO students. He was very forceful about that. It was a better delivered speech than his usual, but he didn’t explain the many gaps in the timeline, e.g. the 14 day gap, JH failure to send the EPD report to the UOPD, the Geller resignation, decision to dismantle the IAC, etc. He was asked about Senate participation in hiring the FAR replacement. He punted. I asked him if he had ever planned to report the alleged rape to the campus. He didn’t give an answer to that. (If you’ve got any idea how not giving a police report to your police “protects your students” please let him know, for his next speech.)
After the questions ended, I asked the Senate to suspend the rules to consider a resolution about the allegations and the administration’s response, but explicitly not including a vote of no-confidence. The senate voted 30/9 to suspend the rules. People repeated said that the Senate needed to “own this problem” as it involved our core responsibilities as teachers. Senator Martinez proposed that the resolution include a call for a) an investigation of the response to this situation and b) proposals for how to fix issues uncovered during a).
The Senate agreed that we needed to act but that we could not draft this resolution on the floor. The Senate will draft it over the next two weeks, and vote on it at the 5/28 meeting.
Reports: LMS. New Ombud Bruce McAllister introduces himself. Lots of experience, attorney, 1st floor of Anstett. Serves faculty, employees and students – anyone impacted by UO. Has already worked with a few “visitors”, ready to roll out soon. Has one staff person. Four principles: Confidential and informal, does not report (e.g. not the place for Clery reporting. Neutral and independent, although he’s hired and paid by President. Serious about the confidentiality.
Stahl speaks on behalf of Nathan Tublitz, giving notice of motion for a vote of no-confidence in President Gottfredson.
President Gottfredson’s University Update:
RG story here, pdf of the statement here. This seems to be the victim’s original statement, 2 days after the incident, taken down by Eugene police at the UO police station. It’s graphic, and the events sound much less consensual than they way are described in the final police report…
5/14/2014: This was the IAC’s first explicitly public meeting. There were 3 reporters, a UO alum, and two Senators including Rob Kyr. I think the transparency helped make things go relatively smoothly. Actually, just having a meeting helped – I think this was only the 4th all year – it…
Last updated 4/1/2015 Senate Task Force on Sexual Violence Prevention: Website and Final Report. Gottfredson and Coltrane’s handpicked “independent” review panel. Website and Final Report. Lawsuit against Dana Altman and UO by the alleged rape victim, and the countersuit by Altman and UO against the victim. Docket and links to documents…
As announced on April 15, Dr. Kimberly Andrews Espy will be leaving the University of Oregon on May 23 to take a new position at the University of Arizona. After consulting with a number of faculty and administration colleagues over the last few weeks, the President and I have made some decisions about how best to transfer the responsibilities of the office for Research, Innovation, and Graduate Education. Beginning Tuesday, May 27, we will separate the responsibilities of Graduate Education from Research and Innovation. Today, we are pleased to be naming two interim positions, both of which will report directly to me.
5/12/2014 Update: By an accident of history, President Gottfredson’s Q&A about the latest athletic scandal at the upcoming Wednesday May 14 Senate meeting will come on the anniversary of his first sustained interaction with the UO faculty, the infamous 2013 “asked and answered” debacle. (Yes, he managed to wait almost 10 months after taking office to meet the UO faculty.)
Since then, it’s been all downhill. I know there are those counseling we wait for the UO Board to deal with this disastrous president, and maybe they’re right. (Although I doubt that’s the message the alumni and parents are sending.) But here’s a little history to support the argument that enough is enough, and that if we don’t get answers from Gottfredson on Wednesday, we should hold an immediate vote of no-confidence:
5/14/2013: President Gottfredson’s first talk with UO faculty goes very badly.
Update on the shared governance “conversation” with President Gottfredson:
Our president’s most common response to the faculty is now a curt “read my written remarks” or “asked and answered”, a phrase lawyers use to semi-politely insult each other, when objecting to a question in court.
Steve Duin quotes Professor Jennifer Freyd’s questions for President Gottfredson, in the Oregonian: Late last week, Kelly McIver, communications director for the University of Oregon Police Department, told Freyd in an email that the March 8 incident “is not in the log because it did not generate a UOPD case…
President Gottfredson’s normal Monday schedule involves “leadership” meetings: 9:00 a.m. — Executive Leadership Team weekly meeting 10:00 a.m. — UO Foundation leadership monthly meeting 11:00 a.m. — Faculty Advisory Committee monthly meeting 1:00 p.m. — Meeting with University Senate President Margie Paris and Senior Vice President and Provost Scott Coltrane…
Breaking news: DA indicts two players, NY Times report here, USDE Civil Rights Division invesigation here. Oh wait, this is from the University of Montana, two years ago. Never mind.
Diane Dietz has the story in the RG. This is news to the UO Faculty and Senate, which has been pretty much kept out of the loop, despite Oregon law which delegates this responsibility to the faculty. The links below, from the UO Senate website, don’t go to any actual…
Their press release is here: The Associated Students of the University of Oregon (ASUO) has contracted with Sexual Assault Support Services (SASS) for over 10 years to provide free, confidential support and advocacy services to students who experience sexual violence. This is a critical component of the University’s response and…