Tag Archives: PSU Pres Rahmat Shoureshi

That works out to 0.3% of his $800K golden parachute. Violations included accepting a gift trip to Bohemian Grove, conflicts of interest regarding the PSU presidential mansion, and something about sneakers. Jeff Manning has the story in the Oregonian:

The Oregon Government Ethics Commission has determined that Rahmat Shoureshi, former president of Portland State University, violated state ethics laws three times in his short stint leading the school.

Shoureshi agreed to resign as the university’s top executive last May after he had come under fire for his treatment of employees and several ethically dubious deals following a 2019 investigation by The Oregonian/OregonLive. Highly touted as a “change agent” who would bring private-sector ambition and discipline to Oregon’s largest university, Shoureshi lasted less than two years on the job. …

Jeff Manning has the report in the Oregonian here. A snippet:

Shoureshi fired several high level employees. Others quit to get away from him. By last fall, trustees had heard enough complaints to convince them Shoureshi needed a wake-up call.

Castillo and two other trustees, Pete Nickerson and Hinkley, met with him last November and put him on notice that they weren’t happy with his performance as president.

In a follow-up letter dated Nov. 13, Castillo listed the reasons why:

• “Putting your financial self-interest ahead of the university’s.
• “Treating staff unprofessionally.
• “Not giving sufficient consideration to the views or your executive leaders.
• “Engaging in conduct that could seriously adversely affect the university’s reputation and standing among critical stakeholders and,
• “Misleading the board.”

In the letter, Castillo detailed one of Shoureshi’s attempts to deceive his own board. Between his salary, a housing stipend and a transportation stipend, the university was paying him about $750,000 a year. But after a year in the job, Shoureshi wanted more. He asked for a 4 percent pay hike, the same as the faculty got, he explained.

The board granted the raise only to later learn that the faculty did not get a 4 percent raise. They got 2.3 percent increases.

Seems a bit odd that PSU’s board didn’t know or care to find out how much the faculty were getting, but I’ve seen stranger things.

I have it from a generally reliable source that the newly appointed acting President, College of Urban and Public Affairs Dean Stephen Percy, is a great choice.

Even a half-competent university general counsel knows how to use Oregon’s anemic public records law to help his president hide public records from the public. Trust me on this.

The fact that PSU’s general counsel is not willing to do that for President Rahmat Shoureshi means Shoureshi’s days are numbered.  Jeff Manning has the latest in the Oregonian, here.