Tag Archives: Athletics

UO Board to give up some control of Duck athletics

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Back in 1987 the OUS Board established several policies establishing their control over intercollegiate athletics. These became UO policies in 2014. Tomorrow at 10AM in the JH Conference room, UO Board of Trustees Secretary Angela Wilhelms is going to try and persuade the Policy Advisory Committee to recommend that two of the three policies governing athletics should be repealed, under the argument that the OUS board is defunct and the policies are irrelevant. However, for most other policies that mention OUS, UO’s approach has simply been to replace OUS with the UO BOT. And many parts of the OUS policies are still highly relevant, if in need of some revision:

OUS 31 Statement Regarding Intercollegiate Athletics

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OUS 30 Fiscal Policies for Intercollegiate Athletics:

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The Intercollegiate Athletics policy is not (yet?) proposed for repeal: In addition to financial constraints on athletics, it imposes a code of ethics on the coaches:

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Kilkenny Towers

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2/5/2016: Kilkenny Towers sold for $30M. Elon Glucklich has the story in the RG here.

2/21/2012: ODE reporter Deborah Bloom teams up with investigative reporter Jeff Manning from the Oregonian to produce a fascinating story on how UO’s former Athletic Director Pat Kilkenny developed the Courtside and Skybox apartments next to Matt Court, while he was on the UO payroll. He started working on the deal summer of 2009, and didn’t tell Lariviere until construction was well underway, summer of 2010. ODE link here, Oregonian here:

Cody and Kilkenny’s 2009 gamble now seems ahead of its time. Both Courtside and the larger, adjacent Skybox complex are 100 percent occupied, marketing themselves as “anchors of the up-and-coming Arena District.” Rents range from $625 to $1,250 per bedroom per month, making them some of the more expensive student housing units in the city. As 50 percent owner, Kilkenny figures that he could eventually earn $7 million to $10 million.

There’s nothing wrong or illegal about a public employee making a profitable investment, even a hugely profitable one. Ron Bersin, executive director of the Oregon Ethics Commission, said state law allows public employees to participate in private ventures. What would constitute a violation is if Kilkenny made decisions in his public role from which he benefited. Kilkenny was no longer athletic director when the buildings were erected. But he remained employed until March 2011 as special assistant to the athletic director.

Kilkenny stepped down as AD in July 2009, when Frohnmayer left. But then the string of new AD’s – Mike Belotti, Lorraine Davis, and Rob Mullens, all kept him on the payroll at 0.50 FTE. This let him get UO health insurance. Guy with a private jet gets the state to pay for his health insurance? Too bad UO won’t give that same deal to the 0.49 FTE NTTF’s getting paid $25,000. (By very rough count, about 100 NTTF’s are at exactly 49%, so no benefits.)

Meanwhile the athletic department is still stuck with a $10 million ten year balloon loan on the baseball park Kilkenny built for us. And we’re still stuck subsidizing athletics’s overhead, thanks to the secret deal Kilkenny cut with Frohnmayer.

We should note that the Courtside scandal was first brought to light by Camilla Mortensen in the Eugene Weekly last year, here. UO finally took Kilkenny off the payroll 2 months later. At the time we wrote a little bit about how Kilkenny came to be hired by Frohnmayer as AD, here. Apparently this is the first in a series of investigative stories that the Oregonian and Emerald will cooperate on. Great idea. Obviously there is plenty of material to work with.

What’s Gottfredson’s PAGIA up to?

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Let’s find out:

Subject: public records request, PAGIA documents
Date: February 26, 2015
Cc: Gregory Rikhoff
To: Lisa Thornton

Dear Ms Thornton –

This is a public records request for any documents sent or received by the President’s Office relating to former President Gottfredson’s decision to establish the “President’s Advisory Group on Intercollegiate Athletics”, the determination of its membership, and its activities since.

I ask for a fee waiver on the basis of public interest.

Chronicle / SI report on NCAA fixer fingers Ducks for academic fraud

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Brad Wolverton has the report in the Chronicle, well worth reading it all:

… According to a former NCAA investigator who was familiar with the case, five universities—Liberty, Morgan State, Oregon, South Florida, and Xavier of Ohio—faced questions about players with whom Mr. White had worked.

… Mr. White’s first client, who was being recruited by top Division I programs, was having trouble with an online mathematics class. Mr. White says he spent several days with the player, completing homework assignments and quizzes for an independent-study class at Brigham Young University.

They finished about half the course that week, Mr. White says. He wrote down the player’s online log-in and password, and completed the rest by himself.

The setup was so simple, Mr. White decided to use it again. Later that season he helped many of his own players pick up easy BYU credits. He began to wonder: If he could do this for one team, why not more?

PBS interviews Frohnmayer on Fanconi Foundation

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12/31/2014 update:

The PBS News Hour uses the Frohnmayer family tragedy with Fanconi’s Anemia and the UO/FSU Rose Bowl game as a hook to examine the larger issue of research on rare diseases, here:

HARI SREENIVASAN: Dr. Summar, that attention, focus, there are 7,000-plus rare genetic disorders out there. And I’m going to feel a little callous saying this, but it’s almost the best thing that can happen is a celebrity gets it.

DR. MARSHALL SUMMAR, Children’s National Medical Center: In many ways, there’s some truth to that. …

HARI SREENIVASAN: Dr. Summar, what about these other 7,000 diseases? How do they gain kind of attention, especially from the pharmaceutical companies, right?

I mean, I hate to be a capitalist about it, too, but where’s the market? If it’s only 1,000 people or 500 people, do drug companies say, OK, we will take that risk and we will put in all that money into research and development and try to find a cure, vs. going after diabetes or cancer, right?

DR. MARSHALL SUMMAR: Well, that’s actually a great question, because, historically, they didn’t. They stayed away from the rare disease field. They figured there weren’t that many patients. There wasn’t much market. …

4/26/2010: What do gifts buy?

Greg Bolt of the RG will tell you that Pat Kilkenny has been working for UO without a written contract, just like Bellotti did. Not a surprise at this point. But why did Dave Frohnmayer ever put Kilkenny in charge of the UO athletics department, and let him decide how many millions of dollars – most of it public money, or tax deductible gifts – would be spent how, and on which coach?

These things are very complicated and involve lots of mutual respect and consideration of the public interest are usually about money.

Frohnmayer received $200,000 per year in pay from donors to the UO Foundation, and a special $150,000 bonus in 2009. These payments to Frohnmayer amounted to about 3% of the entire payout from the UO endowment that year.  Who gave this money? What were the terms of the gifts? The Oregon Attorney General has ruled that the UO Foundation can keep this a secret.

But the IRS has released the data on donations from Pat Kilkenny’s “Lucky Duck Foundation” to Dave Frohnmayer’s Fanconi Foundation. Courtesy of the IRS and www.guidestar.org. Kilkenny gave $240,000 the year before Frohnmayer appointed him as Athletic Director, and another $100,000 each year since.

This is a sad story for everyone involved, in just about every possible sense. And no one would argue that Frohnmayer benefited financially from these donations to the Fanconi Foundation. But they create an obvious potential for a conflict of interest. Frohnmayer should have immediately made them public, and recused himself from any decisions involving Pat Kilkenny. Instead he kept quiet and then appointed him UO Athletic Director and gave him control of a budget of about $60 millon, mostly public funds. Not good, Mr. Frohnmayer.

2005:

nothing

2006:

2007:

 

2008:

2009:

Not available until 11/15/2010 – assuming they run out the IRS reporting extensions again.

Eugene police earn $50K overtime per home football game

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10/30/2014: About $800 per officer per game. Does this encourage them to go easy on lawbreaking Ducks, as apparently happened in Tallahassee with FSU? John Canzano raises the question in the Oregonian, here:

I write this knowing that three UO men’s basketball players faced a sexual assault investigation that got tangled and tricky last spring. They were not charged, but were eventually dismissed by the university. I write this knowing that police work can be thankless, and that officers often seek out overtime to pad their incomes and pay their mortgages. But I also write this hoping that maybe some deep discussion will cause the universities and police departments to work closely together to try and make sure everyone has clean hands.

The difficulty reporters have about getting info on police reports involving UO athletes is pretty obvious, the rape allegations and the shoplifting arrests being the most recent examples – at least the most recent that reporters have managed to find out about.

10/10/2014: “At Florida State, Football Clouds Justice”. And at UO?

The NYT leads with a long investigative piece documenting the Jameis Wilson rape allegations and many other scandals. How do athletic departments get away with this sort of thing? Among the explanations:

A successful football program is also good for Tallahassee police officers. They earn an extra $40 to $45 an hour, at university expense, providing traffic control on game days, according to the department. Last season, officers were paid a total of $112,000, according to the university.

How different is Eugene? Austin Meek reports in the RG today that Dana Altman is so worried about the rape allegations and other legal troubles of those “student-athletes” that he has brought in to help him keep his $1.8M job, that he’s now assigning grad students to live with them, in the apartment complex that Duck booster Pat Kilkenny built right next the to basketball arena:

“Those have been our violations with the law. And then we had young men that had a real bad night.”

That one bad night, which involved the three players engaging in multiple sexual encounters with a female accuser, has resulted in far-reaching consequences.

To deter future incidents, Altman said he has changed living arrangements for his team, requiring players to live with graduate assistants in the same apartment complex across from Matthew Knight Arena.

“It gives us an opportunity to have some different curfews before games, after games, with an easier ability for our GAs to do some checking to make sure our players are where they’re supposed to be on time,” Altman said.

Altman also examined his recruiting process, both as it pertained to players with past disciplinary issues and those with questionable academic records.

*Altman* has “examined his recruiting process”? Shouldn’t someone with less to lose from a more rigorous process be in charge of Mr. Altman?

UO faculty establish their “paramount authority” over Duck athletics

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From the UO archives, 18 September 1895:

 

My OCR chokes on this, but it appoints a committee of 2 profs and 1 student and says

“… All proceedings of the Athletics Club concerning Intercollegiate games must have the approval of this committee. This shall in no way interfere with the paramount authority of the Faculty. The committee shall report to the Faculty at every regular meeting.”

1/31/2012: Back in 1895 the Ducks were leaders when it came to faculty governance of athletics. I’m no history professor, but Teddy Roosevelt didn’t found the NCAA until 1906, motivated in part by public outrage over what would now be called repeated MTBI, in part because he figured it would give Harvard an edge over the public universities with recruiting.

Since then, there’s been a certain amount of slippage here at UO, and nationwide. Harvard, however, is still embarrassing itself over sports. So is Yale. So is UO. Some things never change.

As for the NCAA and UO’s place in it, read the latest from NYT columnist Joe Nocera on what he calls the “moral bankruptcy” of the NCAA. UO Faculty Athletics Representative and former law professor Jim O’Fallon sits on their infractions committee. What was his role in this decision? Good question – but good luck trying to get our Faculty Athletics Representative to actually communicate with mere faculty. We do  have to pay his salary and expenses from academic funds, however.

DA makes UO release redacted athletics/Nike data

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Matthew Kish has an excellent story in the Portland Business Journal about payments from Nike to UO athletics department’s employees. This stuff has conflict of interest all over it. I wonder how much Lorraine Davis gets?

As Ted Sickinger reported in the Oregonian last year, these sorts of payments were part of the reason for Mike Bellotti’s record breaking $500K a year PERS scam. And now it seems that UO is doing everything it can to hide what’s going on with Rob Mullens and the rest of Ducks:

Employees of NCAA-regulated athletic departments are required to file an annual report that lists income received from non-university sources. As part of its ongoing investigation of the footwear and apparel contracts of university athletic departments, the Business Journal filed public records requests for copies of the forms for employees at each university with a football team ranked in the Associated Press top 25 as of late September.

Roughly half of the universities provided the Business Journal records. Some universities have not responded, while others, including the University of Oregon, Oregon State University, Oklahoma State University and the University of Nebraska, cited state public records laws and denied the Business Journal access to documents.

The University of Oregon cited a provision of state law that prohibits the release of personnel records when it denied the Business Journal’s initial request for the outside-income reports of athletic department employees.

After the Business Journal appealed the decision to the Lane County district attorney, the university agreed to release redacted documents that list Nike compensation by athletic program.

The names of employees who receive compensation from Nike have been redacted.

Intercollegiate Athletics Committee retreat and Open Meetings

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10/28/13: Intercollegiate Athletics Committee retreat:

In the absence of formal minutes from the meeting, I’m posting a brief summary. The agenda for the retreat, held Tuesday 10/22, was set by IAC Chair Rob Illig (Law) as follows:

3:00 – 3:15 – IAC Chair Rob Illig leads introductions
3:15 – 3:30 – Senate President Margie Paris introduces our official charge
3:30 – 4:30 – AD Rob Mullens and members of his staff, as appropriate, present information about the athletic department and address recent email questions
4:30 – 4:45 – short break
4:45 – 5:30 – Faculty Athletics Rep Jim O’Fallon discusses the relationship between the UO and the NCAA
5:30 – 5:45 – General Counsel Randy Geller presents information about the Open Meetings Law
5:45 – 6:00 – IAC discusses and approves confidentiality policy
6:00 – 6:30 – break-out sessions for working groups (please bring your calendars)
6:30 – 7:00 – for anyone interested, wine and cheese and easy socializing

Randy Geller didn’t show. In his absence the Chair read an email from him, opining that Oregon’s Open Meeting Law did not apply to IAC meetings, and another saying that UO would defend the faculty, if we were sued for not following that law.

At least that’s what I think Geller’s emails said. Illig first said he thought he had already forwarded the emails to the IAC. Then he wrote several times to say that he would forward them. Now he is refusing to share them with committee members. He says that Geller has decided to write another opinion on these matters, and that he will share this he receives it from the General Counsel.

9/19/2013 update: Senate Intercollegiate Athletics Committee meets to discuss transparency, confidentiality, e rispetto

The IAC met today to elect a chair. Professors Harbaugh (Economics) and Karduna (Human Phys) gave stirring speeches, but were crushed by Rob Illig (Law), who got 9 of 16 votes cast. Illig is the presumptive contender to replace Jim O’Fallon (Law, emeritus, 24 years as FAR, still without a review) as UO’s NCAA Faculty Athletics Representative next year. So this will be something of a baptism by fire, and provide some valuable information on his suitability for that important job. We’ll keep you updated, with respect, and within the limits of whatever confidentiality policy the IAC adopts.

9/17/2013: UO’s IAC met this afternoon in a mediated session, moderated by noted dispute resolution expert Eric Lindauer. Lindauer was brought in by Senate President Margie Paris. The objective was to help make the committee, which deals with many contentious high-stakes issues, function more effectively.

Almost all faculty, staff, and student members were present, along with AD Rob Mullens, AAD Lisa Peterson, AAD for Finance Eric Roedl, AAD for Strategic Communications Craig Pintens, the new AAD for NCAA compliance Jody Sykes, and UO’s NCAA Faculty Athletics Representative Jim O’Fallon. Lorraine Davis was absent.

We discussed many things, most notably:

  1. Civil/respectful/professional/productive meetings and communication.
  2. Mechanisms to ensure the athletics department regularly provides the IAC with information related to its charge, which includes academic issues involving student-athletes, financial information, large donations, adding or dropping sports, new athletic facilities, and hiring of coaches.
  3. A confidentiality agreement for IAC members. The initial draft language for this is below.
Some related documents include:

Draft UO IAC Confidentiality Agreement, from today’s meeting.

For reference, the FAC’s confidentiality policy states:

The Faculty Advisory Council is responsible for providing the President and other Administration officials with faculty opinion and counsel on the wide range of university affairs. In its relations with the President, the Administration, and with the faculty, the Faculty Advisory Council shall act either on request or on its own initiative. To fulfill its mission, members of the Council recognize that its deliberations must remain confidential. The quality and the effectiveness of the advice we give depend on a free and frank discussion of issues, in which all participants can voice their opinions without fear that their positions will be divulged or attributed to them outside of the Council. Furthermore, the FAC often treats issues that are in the public domain. Any information presented at a FAC meeting that is not in the public record will remain confidential. All discussion about information that is in the public record will also remain confidential. Participants in the FAC will not refer to or divulge Council deliberations and comments with specificity in discharging their obligations as faculty, administrators, or staff. By pledging to adhere to the confidentiality of its proceedings, participants in the FAC commit to fulfilling their legislative charge. The Council shall be the forum where the President and other Administration officials seek faculty advice on all important decisions that affect the university before they are implemented, and where the issues that inform these decisions will be considered thoroughly and with mutual respect.

Colt Lyerla leaves Ducks, arrested 17 days later for cocaine

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10/23/2013: Very sad. Duck football player Colt Lyerla was suspended from the team on Oct 5 for “violating team rules”, then he announced on Oct 6 he was leaving for personal reasons. Today he was arrested by Eugene police for cocaine possession.

Did UO’s new random drug testing program detect his use? Did he get counseling and help, or did the athletic department just encourage him to leave, in an effort to save the football team potential embarrassment? Did they threaten to take away his scholarship and effectively kick him out of school? Ruin any chance of a pro career? Suggest that instead it might be best for him to leave on his own, in exchange for a supportive piece from Duck PR flack Rob Moseley, to counteract the skepticism about his draft prospects from reporters?

Last year the UO Senate and its Intercollegiate Athletics Committee came under extraordinary pressure from Athletic Director Rob Mullens, interim President Bob Berdahl, and General Counsel Randy Geller to approve a new drug testing policy, with limited public discussion. This link has more. The Oregon Administrative Rule on this, as finally adopted, is here. Page down to:

Athletic Department Substance Use and Drug Testing
571-004-0020
Introduction and Purpose
(1) The University of Oregon has a compelling interest in prohibiting and deterring drug use by student-athletes. The University educates its student-athletes about the detrimental effects of drug use on health, safety, academic work, and careers. The University must abide by National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) rules. Because student-athletes are viewed as University representatives, the University has an interest in promoting drug-free and healthful lifestyles to the community through its athletic program.

My read is that the rule gives the athletic department extraordinary power, not just to kick a player off the team, but to take away their financial aid, and effectively kick them out of school by taking away their scholarship. The IAC and the Senate fought this, but we lost:

(3) Illicit Substances. If the student-athlete tests positive for the use of an Illicit Substance, the sanctions will be consistent with the sanctions listed in this subsection. These sanctions define the least severe sanctions that may be taken after each positive test. Notwithstanding the sanctions outlined in this subsection, if concluded to be appropriate, a student-athlete may be dismissed from the team and lose all athletic financial aid after a single positive test.

“Concluded to be appropriate” on what grounds, and by whom? People with a financial interest in minimizing damage to the Duck brand? The pressure from Randy Geller to stifle public discussion and get the faculty to approve this policy was intense:

Dear [Senate President Rob Kyr] and [IAC Chair Brian McWhorter]:

I received your email of July 24, 2012, requesting a delay in the public hearing scheduled for August 23rd, 2012. The hearing will be rescheduled for September 13, 2012. Written comments will be accepted until noon on September 14, 2012. We will similarly postpone the date the rule will be filed with the Secretary of State and become final. The rule will be filed on September 21, 2012.

Your allegations about the University’s rulemaking processes are offensive and false , as are the comments made publicly by members of the Intercollegiate Athletics Committee. I ask that you apologize in writing to President Berdahl, Rob Mullens, and me. I also ask that you censure the members of the IAC who have published offensive and defamatory comments.

Randolph Geller  

General Counsel
University of Oregon

President Gottfredson took charge the next day, and he was much more open to discussion. More on the Senate debate on this policy is at http://senate.uoregon.edu/content/minutes-uo-senate-meeting-october-10-2012 

Pres Gottfredson replies to Alum

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9/2/2013: Another UO alum’s letter, with response from President Gottfredson – a month later. Note this predates the “University of Nike” piece in the NYT. I’m happy to post more of these, just email them to uomatters at gmail.com.

From: [ ]
Sent: Monday, July 01, 2013 5:01 PM
To: President Gottfredson
Subject: Trash Can Covers

President Gottfredson,

Referring to yesterday’s RG, was it really necessary for the athletic department to mock our sister university in Corvallis by portraying it as “trash” on the new garbage can covers at the la crosse field, of all places? I’m a UO alum who is concerned about the Athletic Department Tail wagging the University Dog, and this is yet another example of the lack of adult supervision readily apparent across the river. I urge you to remove those embarrassing covers. It is so juvenile and so unrepresentative of the kind of university from which I thought I graduated. The favor of your reply is requested. 

[ ]

response:

From: President Gottfredson <[email protected]>
Date: Thu, Aug 1, 2013 at 9:47 AM
Subject: RE: Trash Can Covers
To: [ ]

Dear Mr. [ ]

Thank you for sharing your concerns about the inappropriate depiction of our rival mascot on some UO campus waste cans. I share your disappointment, and assure you that this does not represent the level of discourse and behavior we expect of our university. The images have been removed.

Athletic rivalries add to the spirit of our institutions, but they must never overshadow the collegiality, collaboration, and healthy competition that define our educational and research missions.

Sincerely,
Michael Gottfredson
President, University of Oregon

8/31/2013: A UO alumnus shares his 8/2 letter to President Gottfredson, and Gottfredson’s response:

From: chuck desler
To: [email protected]
Sent: Friday, August 02, 2013 5:26 PM
Subject: u of o alum thinks you have lost your reason/way/marbles

NY Times, Oregon Football Complex is Glittering Monument to Ducks’ Ambition

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/03/sports/ncaafootball/oregon-football-complex-is-glittering-monument-to-ducks-ambitions.html?pagewanted=all

One of the comment on NY Times site was simply “obscene” to which I would agree.

Knight recently built the Jaqua Center For Academic Studies for really stupid football players something we used to call a LIBRARY.

If this is what the University of Oregon stands for now, all I can say is you people are really sick.

Chuck

charles desler architect california
BA Oregon 1968
BArch/MArch Tulane 1975

President Gottfredson’s response:

Nothing. 

I’m guessing he got many hundreds of emails like this. More than 4 weeks later, with a major capital giving campaign on the horizon, and Gottfredson doesn’t even have a canned response to send out to angry alumns? Maybe Howard Slusher hasn’t signed off on it yet? Just how far down in the Johnson Hall administrative bunker is our president hiding?

8/31/2013: Phil Weiler was demoted for the “University of Nike” debacle? That’s the implication of the story in the RG today. Rearranging the deck chairs in the Strategic Communications Office is not exactly the sort of bold leadership Gottfredson needs to show, a year into the job. Apparently the only way to get Gottfredson to do anything is to embarrass him in public, and even then is all he does is demote a public relations flack.

8/30/2013: Brand backtracking: Diane Dietz reports in the RG that the Ducks have backed off rules that effectively excluded local firms from selling Duck t-shirts, after considerable pressure on Gottfredson. Meanwhile, University of Nike t-shirts are available here. Omnia Fumabamus.

8/24/2013: Pintens loses control of the Duck brand: This country needs a law against newspapers reporting what PR people don’t want reported. The call was from the ZGF architects of Nike’s new football Quack House, to Duck PR guy Craig Pintens. The subject was how the Register Guard had out-maneuvered UO’s efforts to control the media message:


8/24/2013: 2 Duck branding hires in 1 day, while OSU hires for Science:

While Gottfredson loads UO up with communications administrators to push the U of Nike Duck brand, those country hicks up at Oregon State are hiring for Science, Technology Engineering and Math:

Science/Education Research/Administration: Oregon State University seeks a skilled and visionary leader to direct and grow its Center for Research on Lifelong STEM Learning established in 2012 with a mission to enhance understanding of how individuals become lifelong STEM learners, practitioners and researchers. Unique among its counterparts, The OSU Center focuses on learning research across all settings (in and out of school) and across the lifespan. Ph.D., 5 years conducting STEM relevant learning research, and a track record of successful fund raising are required. For more information go to: http://stem.science.oregonstate.edu. For full consideration apply by October 21, 2013. Position #0011233.

We are so screwed.

8/23/2013 update #2: Must be time for the roundup. I’m no vaquero, but I bet the assistant gets the dirty wollies and the ass end of the job while the three VP types stand around looking important:

Title:  Executive Assistant to the Assoc. VP Communications, Marketing, & Brand Management
Department:  University Advancement
Reports To:  Assoc. VP Communications, Marketing, & Brand Management
Term:  1.0 FTE for 12 months (renewable annually)
Salary Range:  $40,000 – 50,000
Review Date:  Search will remain open until filled.  Search committee will begin reviewing applications Sept. 9, 2013
Start Date:  As soon as possible

8/23/2013: Another day, another branding administrator

Title:  Senior Director of Public Affairs and Communication
Department:  University Advancement
Reports To:  Associate Vice President, Communications, Marketing and Brand Management
Term:  1.0 FTE for 12 months (renewable annually)
Salary Range:  $100,000 to $120,000
Review Date:  Search will remain open until filled.  To ensure consideration, please submit an application by September 18, 2013
Start Date:  As soon as possible

8/22/2013: No money for the faculty, of course.


Title:  Associate Vice President, State and Community Affairs
Department:  University Advancement
Reports To:  Vice President for University Advancement
Term:  1.0 FTE for 12 months (renewable annually)
Salary Range:  $110,000+
Review Date:  Search will remain open until filled.  Search committee will begin reviewing applications Aug. 15, 2013

Tim Clevenger to leave Alumni Association to work on branding:

 8/20/2013: News to me. Mike Andreasen promoted him in March. Because what the U of Nike needs most is more communications and branding administrators?

Tim Clevenger
I am pleased to announce that Tim has agreed to take on a new role in our Advancement organization as the Associate Vice President for Communications, Marketing and Brand Management.  In taking on the new role, Tim will lead, oversee and coordinate the university’s communications and branding efforts. He will work to consolidate and coordinate staff efforts across the Advancement team, and more comprehensively across campus.  Tim brings years of private sector experience in these fields and will lead our teams in this broad portfolio.  Additionally, while at the university he has developed an effective strategic and branding plan for the UOAA and as a member of the senior management team, he will continue to advance these important efforts.

He was hired in 2011, hiring announcement here. Job add for a replacement is here:

Title:  Associate Vice President (AVP) for Advancement/Executive Director (ED) UO Alumni Association
Department:  University Advancement
Reports To:  Vice President for University Advancement
Term:  1.0 FTE for 12 months (renewable annually)
Salary Range:  $150,000+
Review Date:  Search will remain open until filled.  Search committee will begin reviewing applications September 17, 2013.
Start Date:  As soon as possible

8/28/2013: That would be Craig Pintens, with the latest $5M koans from the Duck PR operation:

7/4/2013 update. Berdahl endorses expensive football stadium renovations

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7/14/2013 update: The $140M UC-Berkeley stadium upgrade that Bob Berdahl approved as Berkeley’s chancellor back in 2004 has now ballooned to $321M, and it’s looking like it will be a long term drain on the academic budget. The SF Chronicle has the story:

Taking a grimmer view is Roger Noll, an emeritus professor (of economics) at Stanford and an expert in stadium financing.
He pointed to less ambitious efforts to finance new stadiums in Michigan and Texas, which aren’t going well.
“If Texas can’t raise the money, how the hell do you think Cal can?” Noll said with a rueful laugh.
“I hope they succeed, but the chances are not very high,” he said. “My guess is the incremental revenue from the stadium is not going to be even close to paying off the structural deficit.”

Here at UO, no word yet from President Gottfredson on the Senate resolution that passed two month ago, asking him to end the subsidies for the Knight Arena. We did end a $555K annual subsidy for athletics overhead – but VPFA Jamie Moffitt won’t answer questions about why she didn’t make it retroactive. Nothing to do with her bowl game junkets, I’m sure.

4/16/2013:

From the Cal Athletic department website, Jan. 7, 2004

BERKELEY, CALIF.- University of California, Berkeley Chancellor Robert M. Berdahl announced today that he will endorse an ambitious plan to renovate Memorial Stadium, the campus’ 81-year-old football venue. The project, which could cost as much as 140 million dollars, will be funded entirely by private donations. Upon completion, it will have to ensure that it complies with title 24 as California tries to reduce energy consumption.

And yesterday, April 17, 2012 in the WSJ, from no less than Rachel Bachman:

As state legislators shrink its appropriations, it’s hard enough for the University of California-Berkeley to maintain the nation’s highest academic ranking among public colleges. But there now looms a financial threat from another, somewhat unlikely quarter: the university’s football program.

Until now, the years-old effort to renovate the school’s football stadium, which sits on an earthquake fault line, never raised many alarms. Although its $321 million price tag would make it one of the most expensive renovations in college sports history, the university said the project would be funded privately, largely through long-term seat sales and naming rights.

But three years into the fund-raising effort, a projected $270 million from the sale of seats has failed to materialize. At the end of December, the school had collected only $31 million in the first three years of the sale. Now it has become clear that the university will have to borrow the vast majority of the money.

In recent interviews, university officials acknowledge that if revenue projections fall short and won’t cover the bond payments, the shortfall “would have to come from campus.”

So, are you wondering if Bob Berdahl, now interim UO president, is playing along with AD Rob Mullens’s plans to expand Autzen? Do you think maybe the UO Senate and its Inter-collegiate Athletic Committee should be kept in the loop on something like this?

Too bad. Berdahl has made it very clear what he thinks – this sort of thing should be worked out between the President and the Athletic Director, with no faculty oversight. Because that worked out so well at Berkeley?

UO’s first black athletes

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7/13/2013: From the wonderful fan based Fishduck.com blog:

In 1926 two Portland, OR residents came to Eugene for their academic and athletic pursuits, Robert “Bobby” Robinson and Charles Williams. They were recruited by new Oregon head coach John J. McEwan, an All-American in 1914 at Army, the school where he later coached 1923-25. … 

It was not without its difficulties though, as both Robinson and Williams were initially barred from living in campus dorms, having to find housing in off-campus apartments during their freshman year. Their white teammates signed a petition and submitted it to the school under protest demanding that their fellow players be allowed to live on campus in the dormitories alongside their peers.

I wonder if the UO archives have a copy of that petition.

Cliff Harris and Darron Thomas: "We smoked it all"

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5/2/2013: Sad finale: Harris arrested again, with more pot and a gun, and is cut from the NY Jets. 22 years old. Presumably Mullens thinks his new random pot testing rule will prevent this from happening again at UO. Or, according to columnist John Canzano, give him cover to claim he did everything possible to prevent it. Including taking away his players’ constitutional rights, according to noted legal scholar Dave Frohnmayer.

8/16/2011: While this is not good behavior on the players part, I don’t think its nearly as bad as taking away the money they earn and using it to pay for strippers and political payoffs, or for your own car payments. KATU has somehow acquired the Oregon State Police video of the Cliff Harris / Darron Thomas speeding arrest:

The trooper, David Stallsworth, is extremely professional: “He smoked a little bit, very athletic guy. Not impaired.”

Video on Chip Kelly’s reaction to the news that people now know what he has been hiding for months is here:

Canzano has the best quote:

Kelly’s annual salary makes him the highest-paid public employee in state history. Yet the guy on a trooper’s salary was left to do the teaching. 

Pay the coaches, or the professors?

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5/2/2013: That’s the question UO’s feckless administrative bargaining team has raised at the table. As it happens there’s a new paper on college admissions from Doug Chung at the HBS, coming out in Management Science, that is relevant. Quick version?

I further find that when a school goes from being mediocre to being great on the football field, applications increase by 17.7 percent. To achieve similar effects, a school would have to either decrease its tuition by 3.8 percent or increase the quality of its education by recruiting higher-quality faculty who are paid 5.1 percent more in the academic labor market. 

In addition, the impact of football success on applications is concentrated among low-SAT students, and is short-lived. Regardless, if football success is helping UO recruit students, our enrollment management people ought to be saving a ton of money on recruiting costs, by cutting back on visits to CA high schools, mailings, advertising, etc. Those bowl games should do it all, right? Right? Well, not exactly, UO’s Enrollment Management Operations budget is up 600%:

Of course you don’t need to propose anything as improbable as cutting football, or even football expenditures to get the money for faculty raises. Cut sports like baseball, golf, tennis and lacrosse – which cost millions, and benefit only a few student-athletes, and their coaches. (And one UO Matters commenter.)