Tag Archives: Robert Berdahl

who wants to work for Pernsteiner?

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1/8/2012: Back in November, Bob Berdahl wrote in the RG:

If you want to be president of the University of Oregon, be prepared to knuckle under to the chancellor and the board and be wary of the promises of the governor. 
Now Berdahl has the job of helping the chancellor and governor find a new UO President. Greg Bolt of the RG gets some quotes on how hard that’s going to be, unless the legislature passes a bill for an independent UO Board in the session that starts Feb. 1:

Both Gov. John Kitzhaber and the state Board of Higher Education have said they will support a bill that would allow the UO to take that step. But at this point no one knows if the Legislature will approve it, what powers the board would actually have or when it would be established.

Then there’s the potential conflict over the desire of local legislators and faculty to push that legislation in the February interim session and the desire of the governor and state board to wait until the 2013 session. That uncertainty and potential conflict could cause good candidates to pass on the UO, [CAE VP Gretchen Bataille] said.

People might throw a hat in the ring, “but will they accept (the job) until it’s very clear whether they have a separate board or they’re still governed by the larger (state) board? I think that’s the bigger question,” she said. “The governance structure is what may slow down the final selection.”

Bataille said a number of other major public universities also are looking for new presidents, noting that searches are already under way at schools in California and Georgia. And uncertainty over university governance in Oregon could make those other opportunities more attractive.

“There’s a lot of searches going on, so there’s a lot of competition,” she said.

Berdahl’s appointment letter

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1/6/2012: Written 12/28/11, link here. Apparently there will be a more complete contract by 1/31/12. Salient points: It’s open ended. He’s got a key role in the search. Kitzhaber wants UO to have its own board, but not until the 2013 session, and on his own terms. And George Pernsteiner writes like George Orwell’s worst nightmare:

Notably, the letter does not include the conditions Pernsteiner imposed on Lariviere last summer, and which he then used to fire him:

(1) (a) Attendance at Board meetings and Presidents’ Council meetings, absent a legitimate and unavoidable conflict;

 (b) Active participation in Board, Board committee, and OUS discussions on governance, institution boards, and sustainable financing models in preparation for the 2012 legislative session, including presenting and advocating for a specific proposal on governance and financing now known as “The New Partnership” for Board committee and Board consideration;

(c) Refrain from advocating, in any way, including through employees and contractors, for The New Partnership or a governance/financing proposal substantially similar to The New Partnership, except through the Board’s processes;

(d) Refrain from opposing any legislative proposal adopted by the Board and/or advanced by the Governor for presentation to the 2012 Oregon Legislative Assembly.  

(2) Termination without cause providing for 30 days’ notice and liquidated damages of whatever state salary is remaining on the contract.

Firing unites UO, almost

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12/11/2011: Greg Bolt has a long story in the RG on how the Lariviere firing has forged new leadership and solidarity at UO:

History professor Ian McNeely, a member of the UO Senate’s executive committee, said it has been inspiring to see how people have put aside differences to work together to advance new management ideas for the university. …. There are people who have been very vocal critics of the athletic program, for example, talking with very high profile donors to athletics and agreeing that on this day we can begin to move forward together.”
Music professor Robert Kyr, president of the UO Senate, went even further. He said the university community already is moving past Lariviere’s firing, which he said has opened new lines of dialogue with state leaders that are leading to a new and better relationship. “Whatever happened between the state board, the chancellor, the governor and President Lariviere is in the past,” Kyr said. “We’re in a new era now. We want to go forward, and we want to collaborate and have consultation at all levels of the decision-making process. We’re very positive, and we’re very excited about this new relationship.” …
Rep. Phil Barnhart, a Eugene Democrat, has stated publicly that he will introduce a bill in the February session allowing separate university boards, which so far only the UO and Portland State University have said they are interested in. … “I am pushing for this to be dealt with in the short term,” Barnhart said. “I would like the university to go out on a search for a new president with an assurance that the governance issue is going to be dealt with in the best way possible.”

Kitzhaber invited Senate President Kyr and faculty to Salem – not the Provost, not the VP’s, not the deans, not the “executive leadership team”. It’s been interesting how the faculty has taken the lead so far. The Senate and dept. heads supported Berdahl and no one else. Reportedly the deans were willing to accept Pernsteiner’s toadying insider candidate Jim Bean as interim. Johnson Hall was split.

Soon these people will put their skill-set to work and start the brown-nosing of Berdahl. Then our administrators will try to put the faculty back in their place so they can safely return to figuring out new ways to siphon off UO tuition for their car payments and airfare to away games. We’ll see if this has changed UO’s internal politics as much as it appears to have changed our relationship with the state.

OUS Board approves Berdahl as UO President

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(interim). And then appoints Allyn Ford as chair of search committee for permanent President, with no consultation with the faculty. Throw the dog a bone? Aren’t we still paying off his Ford Alumni Center debt? The gift that keeps on taking. Berdahl’s opinions on OUS board members like Allyn Ford are crystal clear:

… The chancellor and board have recklessly ignored the wishes of donors, alumni, faculty and students. They have signaled the academic community throughout the nation that innovative, courageous leadership will neither be sought nor tolerated.

If you want to be president of the University of Oregon, be prepared to knuckle under to the chancellor and the board and be wary of the promises of the governor.

It will be interesting to see how these two work together in their joint search to help UO find a new, innovative and courageous president. As one commenter below notes, let’s hope Ford runs interference for Berdahl with the more rabid board members.

Bob Berdahl to be interim UO President, fireworks at Treetops

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12/9/2011: 5:11PM. The board tricked us and is doing this meeting in person. They also started with an executive session, not announced in advance. Web link here. They are currently talking about how great Berdahl is.

Now they are laughing, voting. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, …


12/8/2011: Does anyone know if any of the board members will actually show for this meeting? My understanding is they are pretty scared, and will phone this one in. So I’m thinking this is not worth a trip up, unless you’re willing to follow Jill Eiland and Paul Kelly into the bathroom.

Latest: From Mark Zusman in WW:

Berdahl was hired by Lariviere, is a strong supporter of Lariviere’s goal of establishing more independence for the University and is the author of a blistering op-ed piece in the Eugene Register-Guard, in which he condemned the State Board of Higher Ed and the Governor.

Despite that column, Berdahl has the support of Kitzhaber and Board president Matthew Donegan. Other members of the board are reportedly angry and less inclined to support him, which is why no announcement has yet been made.

And, just 17 minutes before the deadline, Jill Eiland and the OUS Board cave. And note the conflicting dates. OUS Board Secretary Charles Triplett tells us this is a typo, now fixed online – the meeting is indeed Friday, 4PM, by telephone.

12/7/2011, updated occasionally: The word from multiple sources is that Robert “Bob” Berdahl will be appointed interim UO President by Friday 12/9. Pernsteiner and Donegan have abandoned their efforts to foist one internal OUS toady or another off on us. The Senate & Exec, heads, students, faculty and the rest of UO made a loud, clear statement to the Chancellor, Board, and Governor, and apparently we’ve been heard. The documents UO Matters dug up and posted made a difference. Dirty work, not something I’m that proud of, not something I want acknowledgement or thanks for. But it’s something I will do again, and am doing again, because that is what it takes to move these people.

Meanwhile Kate Renner of KEZI does one tough interview with Kitzhaber. I’m guessing she’ll never get another. He won’t answer her questions about what happened, he just wants us to “all move forward”. Thanks governor, we were, until your board shit all over us. As President Berdahl wrote last Monday,

As everyone who has followed this tragic turn of events knows, however, Lariviere was fired because he bucked the system. … He was fired because both Pernsteiner and the board place a higher value on institutional conformity and uniformity than they do on institutional excellence. … If you want to be president of the University of Oregon, be prepared to knuckle under to the chancellor and the board and be wary of the promises of the governor.

Kitzhaber’s aides have already starting spinning the Berdahl appointment to a still dizzy press:

The governor has met with Berdahl. He is indeed an impressive scholar. Interesting ideas. I found Dr. Berdahl to be Larivieresque, but without that damn hat. He’s someone I could work with, someone who could help me implement my long-held, secret plan for an independent UO board, which we will soon announce  at a joint news conference to show we are all now moving forward together. (Thanks to anon for link.) More from Kitz spokesperson Tim Raphael, in the RG here.

So, now that hiring Berdahl turns out to be Kitzhaber’s idea, why can’t we “all move forward” to hiring him sooner?

You’ll love this: it’s because the OUS board can’t get together a quorum for a public meeting to confirm him until 3PM Friday. Quorum? Public meeting? Can’t Jill Eiland get this done with a few emails? Can’t Matt Donegan come down to Eugene and give Berdahl the word in person? Whoops, guess there’s no football game this weekend. Can’t Paul Kelly do it in the bathroom?

What a feckless bunch of fools we are ruled by. Check their web page here, board secretary Charles Triplett will have to post a public agenda eventually. Delay too long and the OC students may get some traction on their alternative candidate.

Next up: Making sure 6/30/2012 is Pernsteiner’s last day at work, and then having a party for Governor Kitzhaber, President Berdahl, the OUS Board, the whole UO community, and ex-Chancellor Pernsteiner at Treetops on July 4th, 2012. I hear the veranda is a great place for fireworks.

UO President Robert Berdahl (Interim)

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12/1/2011: Yesterday’s meetings made it very clear to Governor Kitzhaber, the OUS Board, Chancellor Pernsteiner, and his mostly young and ambitious staff that there is only one clear way out of the disaster they have created for themselves: appoint Robert Berdahl as interim President and give him control of the search for a permanent replacement.

Otherwise they are all going to spending a lot time driving down to Eugene and talking to to a lot of pissed off people. The two best places to get info on Berdahl are at the Berkeley site and his well timed Op-Ed in the RG. For the faculty, his words sealed the deal:

… The chancellor and board have recklessly ignored the wishes of donors, alumni, faculty and students. They have signaled the academic community throughout the nation that innovative, courageous leadership will neither be sought nor tolerated.

If you want to be president of the University of Oregon, be prepared to knuckle under to the chancellor and the board and be wary of the promises of the governor.
Robert Berdahl was a professor of history and dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Oregon. He is a former president of the University of Texas at Austin; chancellor emeritus of the University of California, Berkeley; and president emeritus of the Association of American Universities (AAU).

Pernsteiner and his Chief of Staff Bridget Burns have been given a simple message from the faculty to take back to Portland and the Governor and Board: Convince Berdahl to take this job on his terms, or face 18 more months of what you sat through yesterday in the meeting rooms of the Knight law school and in Matt Court. The faculty assembly has another meeting Dec 7. Maybe you should come to terms before then?

UO finds an interim President: Robert Berdahl

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11/30/2011: From Robert Berdahl’s Op-Ed in the RG today:

… The chancellor and board have recklessly ignored the wishes of donors, alumni, faculty and students. They have signaled the academic community throughout the nation that innovative, courageous leadership will neither be sought nor tolerated.

If you want to be president of the University of Oregon, be prepared to knuckle under to the chancellor and the board and be wary of the promises of the governor.
Robert Berdahl was a professor of history and dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Oregon. He is a former president of the University of Texas at Austin; chancellor emeritus of the University of California, Berkeley; and president emeritus of the Association of American Universities (AAU).

He’s qualified, respected, extraordinarily experienced, and he certainly understands what Chancellor Pernsteiner is looking for. Will he take the job?

Unacceptable interim presidents. Sorry, but we’ve moved on:

Clearly unqualified, but apparently mentioned:

  • Jamie Moffitt, Robin Holmes

To replace Chancellor Pernsteiner:

  • Frog, Zach, Richard Lariviere, Donald Trump