While University students were preparing to return to the classroom mid-September, the University’s Vice President of Public Affairs and Development announced that he was also going to do just that, once his current term expires next June.
Duncan McDonald, who has been in his current position since 1997, said he had always planned to end his career where he had launched it — in the classroom, surrounded by students.
“I began it in the classroom and I would like to finish it in the classroom,” he said. “When all is said and done, I’m first and foremost a professor.”
McDonald began his teaching career at the University in 1978 after working as a reporter and editor for a number of publications. He eventually left the classroom to become the School of Journalism and Communication’s dean and was offered the position of vice president in 1997.
In the past academic year, McDonald has led the University to an all-time record in fundraising, one of the areas he oversees. However, his desire to return to teaching influenced him to not renew his contract.
“Come the fall of 2001, it will truly be 10 years since I’ve been in the classroom,” he said.
McDonald said he enjoyed his terms as an administrator though his position has been challenging. He said he told University President Dave Frohnmayer of his teaching plans in 1999.
“I said…it’s very likely that in 2001, I will want to return to teaching,” he said.
Announcing his decision early will be key to launching a successful search for a successor, McDonald said. The position comes with a number of responsibilities, including all fundraising activities, communications and publications, governmental affairs, merchandise marketing and licensing and the UO Alumni Association.
“I frankly gave Dave a year’s notice, like I said I would,” McDonald said. “These searches take a long time. You don’t just call up a temp agency and say ‘I need a vice president’.”
Frohnmayer said the University might consult a search firm and launch a national search for a successor immediately.
“It’s a hot field and there are lots of universities who are looking for persons, especially in the area of fundraising,” he said. He said he was aware of McDonald’s plans to go back to teaching and the announcement came as no surprise.
“He and I had discussed the likelihood of him stepping down,” he said.
McDonald’s shoes might be difficult to fill.
“Duncan has worked very hard at the position he was, in essence, drafted for by the search committee and he really threw himself into it with a lot of energy,” Frohnmayer said. “He has done an enormous amount of work, cultivating future fundraising for the University.”
Looking back at his terms as vice president and ahead to the next year, McDonald said the position was rewarding, but leaves a number of challenges to be tackled by next June, including this year’s fundraising campaign.
At the same time, McDonald plans to prepare to rejoin the School of Journalism and Communication news-editorial program.
“I’m certainly not going to dust off the old lectures,” he said.
Tim Gleason, dean of the School of Journalism and Communication, said courses for the fall of 2001 will be scheduled soon and McDonald might find himself teaching Information Gathering, better known as “Info Hell,” one of the school’s required lower division classes.
“He actually was the creator of that, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see him back there,” Gleason said. “We’re looking forward to having him back in the School and back in the classroom.”
McDonald said he looks forward to having more time for research and book-writing once he returns to teaching.
He said his decision not to renew his contract has nothing to do with the debate surrounding the Worker Rights Consortium, an issue that split the campus community and catapulted the University into the national spotlight last spring.
“It’s not connected,” he said, adding that running away from a situation is not his style.
“I’m not sick of the WRC issue and the FLA issue,” he said. “I’d like to think that I’m not a sprinter, but a marathoner.”