University President Dave Frohnmayer announced Tuesday he will retire at the end of the 2008-09 academic year. He first made his intentions known via a letter to Gov. Ted Kulongoski and Oregon University System Chancellor George Pernsteiner.
Frohnmayer said his decision to retire is based upon several factors, including his long tenure at the University. He became dean of the law school in 1992 and two years later became interim president when then-President Myles Brand accepted a position as president of Indiana University. A year later Frohnmayer was still president, and the job gradually became permanent.
“It’s been a long run, and a good one,” Frohnmayer said in an interview Tuesday. “There are things that need to be done in the next steps for the University and its vision that would take four or five years. And realistically, that means it’s time for a fresh look. Even if I could do that, there’s no driving reason why that shouldn’t be a good time for a change.”
The announcement also coincides with the wrap-up of Campaign Oregon, which at its launch was the largest philanthropic effort ever undertaken in the state of Oregon. The campaign has to date raised $766 million, well over its original goal of $600 million.
Frohnmayer said the most difficult obstacle he has encountered during his presidency is a lack of state financial support – a major factor in the lower-than-average faculty salaries in place at the University.

“Those are the things that keep you awake at night,” Frohnmayer said. “How are we going to make up ground when we’ve seen the withdrawal of state support to the extent that it has been in the state of Oregon and for the U of O? All of the philanthropy, all of the building, that’s gone against the tide. The real problem we’ve battled is loss of state support, which has been a function of initiative-driven recession and economic recession.”
Frohnmayer’s tenure as president will be remembered by many as one of great expansion, both on campus and across the Willamette River at athletic department facilities. Frohnmayer oversaw the construction of several new academic buildings, including the business school, the law school, the Living Learning Center residence hall, and recently the underground Lorry Lokey Laboratories.
Significant changes have also taken effect in the athletic department. Frohnmayer helped bring about the financial self-sufficiency of Oregon athletics, which has operated independently of the University budget for five years. Before that point, it cost $2 to $3 million per year to run. Oregon athletics’ growth has undoubtedly increased University exposure at the national level, but it has also drawn intense criticism. Nike founder Phil Knight’s connection to the University and his financial support for Oregon athletics has been a talking point for Frohnmayer’s critics for years. The University has even been featured in national journalistic pieces examining the gap between university academics and athletics.
Frohnmayer said criticism surrounding Oregon athletics is merely “a distraction” and unnecessary because the attention the University has received due to Oregon athletics has been invaluable.
“To set up this dichotomy as being the reason that we struggle in things like faculty salaries is just false,” Frohnmayer said. “Not a single dime has been diverted from academic purposes to athletic purposes.”
University Senate President Gordon Sayre, who works with Frohnmayer regularly, said it is important for the University president to maintain a good relationship with Knight, and Frohnmayer has done that. But he also said a disproportionate amount of attention is focused on athletics.
“He deserves to be remembered for more important accomplishments, I think, but also I would like to see Oregon recognized nationally first and foremost as an academic leader,” Sayre said. “In our own meetings I find it frustrating that we always seem to be talking about sports, and there’s so many other things.”
Economics associate professor Bill Harbaugh is one of Frohnmayer’s leading critics, primarily regarding transparency within the administration. He filed ethics complaints against the president in September 2006, which were later dismissed by the Oregon State Bar.
In an e-mail interview, Harbaugh said Frohnmayer’s “obsession with hiding any public records … that might make him look anything less than perfect” is counter-intuitive to a public university that should support open inquiry.
Harbaugh said Frohnmayer has put too much emphasis on the University’s appearance and not focused enough on tackling financial issues that have made it difficult to recruit and retain faculty.
“The OUS board should congratulate Frohnmayer on his accomplishments, thank him for his service, and then quickly move to acknowledge the severity of the problems that UO faces and appoint new leadership that will focus on redirecting resources away from administrators and athletics, and toward academic excellence,” Harbaugh said.
Pernsteiner, the OUS chancellor, said controversy is inevitable for anyone who has filled such a high-profile position for an extended period of time, and he is grateful for Frohnmayer’s dedication and impact on campus.
“He’s had a remarkable set of achievements in the last 14 years,” said Pernsteiner, who will initiate the search for a new president next week. The president is the only administrative position that OUS – not University administrators – selects. The search will consist of thorough feedback and information gathering on campus to figure out what type of person is appropriate for the position. Frohnmayer’s early notice of his retirement should ensure a quality candidate, Pernsteiner said.
After he retires, Frohnmayer plans to write a book about the material he teaches in his freshman seminar, theories of leadership. He will do some teaching, and continue with the two major philanthropic organizations in which he plays a major role: the Ford Family Foundation and his own Fanconi Anemia Research Fund. Fanconi anemia claimed the lives of two of Frohnmayer’s daughters, Kirsten and Katie, in the 1990s. His third daughter, Amy, attends Stanford University and also carries the genetic disorder. Frohnmayer and his wife, Lynn, founded the fund in 1989, and it has since spent more than $10 million on Fanconi anemia research, he said.
Frohnmayer said it’s not going to be hard to leave his post, and the new president will enjoy myriad possibilities.
“The truth of the matter is, there’s never a plateau,” Frohnmayer said. “The metaphor I’ve always worked with is that we’re always navigating permanent whitewater. There’s never likely to be a period of calm where you can just lie back in the boat or the raft and just rest. It’s a turbulent business because it’s a very turbulent environment. But I feel as though we’ve gone through a set of class fives, just to use the rapids metaphor, and that we’ve navigated that successfully, and it’s now time for the next vision of the University to emerge from the University’s campus and culture and the next leadership.”
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