President Gottfredson’s efforts to squash academic freedom in CBA get national attention: https://uomatters.com/2013/10/gottfredson-to-gut-senates-academic.html
UO Foundation threatens defamation lawsuit against UO Matters: https://uomatters.com/2013/11/uo-foundation-still-laundering-athletic.html
UO General Counsel Randy Geller:
- Defames judge and former AG, appoints Grier, apologizes: https://uomatters.com/2013/09/geller-defames-judge-appoints-grier-as.html
- Accuses UO Senate President of defaming him: https://uomatters.com/2012/07/randy-geller-attacks-rob-kyr-and-senate.html
I was the plaintiff in a federal free-speech lawsuit against Washington State University in which the Ninth Circuit held that my service-related speech about improving the quality of the Edward R. Murrow College of Communication was protected by the First Amendment (Demers v. Austin). Faculty at Oregon used the case to help justify the new academic freedom policy. At any rate, a former WSU attorney, Sharyl Kammerzell, recently interviewed for the top legal position at Oregon, and someone on your website said she should be asked about her role in Demers v. Austin. Would anyone know if she was ever asked that question or any other information that would shed light on why WSU tried so hard to deny free speech rights to faculty when it comes to issues of shared governance? I am writing a book which includes a discussion of the lawsuit (the focus of the book is broader). You can email me directly at [email protected] or call 509-290-9240. You may remain autonomous. Thanks. -Dave Demers
All who care about the cause of academic freedom owe a lot to Professor Demers. Particularly those of us within the borders of the Ninth Circuit! If anyone can help him out, please do.
Some more info and a link to his case here: https://uomatters.com/2014/11/lawyer-to-speak-to-faculty-on-identifying-and-challenging-retaliation.html
Jon Haidt (and others) were on Charlie Rose last night, so I heard about their Heterodox Academy website. In their Guide-to-Colleges page, U of O comes in last (of either 138 or 152 schools) with a score of 0. Oregon State had 43.75; U Washington 25. This may be of interest, and seems relevant to several topics and issues that appear on the uomatters site.