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Posts tagged as “junkets”

Reporter hot on trail of Duck Vegas Bowl junket scandal

2/23/2018:

Senate President Sinclair broke the first rule of Vegas when he mentioned the Ice Bar escapade at a recent Senate meeting – on video. Now the press is on the trail:

Thanks Chris, next year was my turn, and you’ve gone and ruined it. How is the Senate going to find a new president-elect with this kind of scandal out there?

Fortunately our Public Records Office are experts at delaying and frustrating public records requests. I wonder what their excuse is for denying this one? Some of the long history of Duck junkets and public records is below:

3/31/2015: Hubin’s PR office finally gives Tublitz the BCS championship junket lists

Johnson Hall working on IRS “business purpose” justification for Vegas junket 

12/3/2017:  That’s according to Andrew Nemec in the Oregonian here, who thinks this will be a disaster for recruiting. The Las Vegas Bowl is run by ESPN, so there’s no public information on how much the organizers rake in. With any luck UO’s take, after the expenses for team travel and the junkets for top JH and Senate administrators and families, will be enough to cover the $500K we paid Southern Utah for the body-bag game that gave Willie Taggart a winning season and a $100K bonus. Who goes and what it costs will be available under Oregon public records law however, since “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” is not yet listed as a mandatory exemption under ORS 192.

2016: Losing season, no bowl game.

12/28/2015: UO cuts Bowl of Ducks list to the bone

Two and a half weeks after asking, UO’s Public Records office responds to a request for the Alamo Bowl junket list:

No University employees will be receiving paid “junkets” to the Valero Alamo Bowl on January 2nd. However, the following University employees will be travelling to the Alamo Bowl as a part of the official delegation, and will be expected to perform work on behalf of the University.

Mike Andreasen
Roger Thompson
Tim Gleason
Rob Mullens
Randy Sullivan

The office considers this to be fully responsive to your request, and will now close your matter. Thank you for contacting the office with your request.

Lorraine Davis’s brief unpaid stint as Professor Emerita ends

A month ago UO’s directory listed longtime UO administrator Lorraine Davis’s only current UO affiliation as Professor Emeritus [sic] – an unpaid honorific typically bestowed upon faculty who retire after long and distinguished careers as teachers and researchers: I was a little surprised to see this, since Davis’s recent work has been more focused on Duck…

“You could get killed for that!”: Where did Nike apparel money go?

3/5/2015: No, of course I’m not talking about the $30K that UO administrators get each year as part of the lousy apparel contract they signed with Nike. That seems like an interesting potential conflict of interest, but I’m sure UO’s Office of Internal Audit has carefully vetted it, just as they must have…

Washington Post calls for controls on big-time athletic pork

Columnist Sally Jenkins, here: … For years, athletic directors have styled themselves as CEO-types and moaned about the difficulties of managing costs. But a Washington Post project published earlier this week shows that these so-called executives are about as fiscally responsible as Gabor sisters serving sevruga in chinchilla capes. The truth…

Win over Cal costs UO $50K for Helfrich bonus + administrator junkets

11/7/2015: 

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Apparently this win means the Ducks are going to some bowl game, and Helfrich gets a $50K bonus for that. Then we have to pay for all the admins and their families to go along for the junket. Here’s Tim Gleason, then Journalism Dean, now Faculty Athletics Representative, at the 2013 Fiesta Bowl student recruiting event:

VP  for Enrollment Roger Thompson videotapes one or two humiliating events like this at every bowl game, so that the administrators can show the IRS there was a business purpose for their family’s holiday junket:

4/12/2015: Coach Helfrich’s raise totals more than all 1500 UO staff combined

UO has about 1500 staff workers, making an average wage of about $35,000 a year. Their SEIU local 503 is currently bargaining with OUS for a new contract. The OUS offer is an 0.5% COLA, or $175 each per year.

Meanwhile, the UO administration just found the money to give football coach Mark Helfrich a slightly larger raise:

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Here’s the message from the SEIU local:

Higher Ed Management Proposals Not Unified Across State, Return to the “Big Three,” Attack Health Care, Steps, and More

Prediction markets give Helfrich’s Ducks 3% chance of championship

Here: This could save UO a lot of money. The athletic department’s report to the NCAA, here, says they lost $832K on last year’s bowl games, after you count the cost of the administrator’s junkets and the coach’s bonuses. That’s right, our coaches’ bowl game bonuses are so large that UO loses money…

Duck PR flack Tim Clevenger shows IRS proof of “business purpose” for junket

1/1/2015 junket update: It’s good to see he’s found some honest work as a limo driver. Meanwhile our Chief Strategic Communicator’s team is churning out the traditional “Around the 0” stories on the obligatory charity and student recruiting events: 12/27/2014: Johnson Hall admins take off for semi-final bowl game junkets Last…