11/3/2010: UO’s media relation office produces E-clips every day. Subscribe and you get a daily email with news stories that mention UO. They do a great job – everything from the latest research to the latest athletic funding scandal. No censorship. OUS has a similar service, but they only forward…
UO Matters
11/2/2010 update: Two weeks and counting after we requested them, new UO Public Records Officer Liz Denecke still will not provide a copy of her resume, Randy Geller’s resume, or the same documents for the other finalists in the searches. Her office’s budget is $240,000. She’s got a full time…
11/2/2010: Last year Emerald reporters Alex Tomchak Scott and Dave Martinez were the first to figure out that Frances Dyke and Doug Tripp were using student, staff and faculty parking fees to subsidize the new Matt Court underground parking garage. The Emerald editors ripped into this. Of course, nothing happened…
10/31/2010: For our annual Halloween post we take a strong pro-robot position. We are serious.The UO President’s and Provost’s websites have recently added computer code that hides their content from Google and prevents public access to the archives maintained by the Internet Archive. Indexing and archiving services use robots –…
10/30/2010: Oregon Attorney General John Kroger and his Government Transparency Counsel Michael Kron have been making slow but steady progress improving Oregon’s public records situation – currently rated F. Earlier this month they released the 2010 Public Records Manual with some potentially important re-interpretations of the law. Now, in response…
10/30/2010: A helpful reader sends what is believed to be a photo of UO’s new General Counsel, Randy Geller. UO will not provide a photo to reporters, or even allow Mr. Geller to be interviewed. More amazingly, nearly 2 weeks since we made the request, UO’s new Public Records Officer…
10/28/2010: I’ve been getting questions about Randy Geller’s pay. As Melinda Grier’s Deputy, he earned $138,326. After Ms Grier was fired, he got an extra stipend of $19,386 (annual). As GC, Grier had been paid $184,710 – this was after 12 years as GC. Randy Geller was hired as an…
10/27/2010: From KEZI reporter Dan Corcoran’s story tonight on the insider appointment of Melinda Grier’s longtime deputy Randy Geller as UO’s new General Counsel: After a national search, Lariviere says Geller was the most qualified candidate. “His attitude towards transparency and accountability was exactly what I was looking for,” Lariviere…
10/26/2010: UO is looking for an Events Manager for Matt Court. To report to the Senior Events Manager for Matt Court. Job posting here. There’s some boilerplate about being fiscally responsible – bit late for that, eh? – but this part really caught my eye: Experience with AutoCAD is preferred.…
10/26/2010: Back in April UO General Counsel Melinda Grier was fired for her office’s “deficient legal representation” involving, among other things, failure to deal properly with public records requests. Her mistakes cost UO millions. The Attorney General’s investigation alone cost $44,000. Three weeks ago Oregon AG John Kroger and his…
10/26/2010 update: A careful, and helpful, reader points out that the SSA email says: For your information, each student-athlete has signed the NCAA Student-Athlete statement, which includes the Buckley Amendment Consent Declaration, which allows Services for Student Athletes the right to this information. Not our first mistake, or our last.…
We’ve heard that UO has recently started conducting performance evaluations of some administrators. This will come as a surprise to many who felt that the end of annual appraisals was nigh. No word yet if this process extends to the central administration. We are trying to track down details on…
10/22/2010: From the Chronicle: Faculty of Bowling Green State U. Votes in Favor of Union Representation By Audrey Williams June Faculty members at Bowling Green State University have voted in favor of union representation in an election that administrators at the Ohio institution had campaigned heavily against. About 85 percent…
10/21/2010: The Lariviere’s are splitting their bets, 50% on each. Plus $200 to Tedd Wheeler, the Treasurer who just said no to Lariviere’s restructuring plan debt. Persteiner is putting his money down on the Democrats, as are most U of O employees. The Nike crowd, on the other hand, is…
10/12/2010: From Lyzi Diamond in the Oregon Commentator: At tonight’s ASUO Senate meeting, President Rousseau announced that the ASUO is moving forward with a smoke-free campus policy. The Executive received an $800,000 grant to be spent over a number of years from PacificSource Health Plans as part of their Healthy…