Late last Tuesday night, the Willamette Week broke what now appears to be the story of the year at the University: President Richard Lariviere’s contract will not be renewed when it is set to expire June 30, 2012. In the next 24 hours, Phil Knight denounced the decision, a petition from University Senate garnered more than 2,000 signatures and a Facebook page added nearly 2,000 likes — the “We Stand With The Hat” movement was on. Hundreds of tweets were pouring in from dozens of students and alumni furious with the call and prepared to make a show of it at the upcoming Civil War football game.
And it’s hard to think that if the Week didn’t announce this less than two days before Thanksgiving, barely preceding the great exodus of students, this movement wouldn’t be among the fiercest bits of student activism in months. But of the emotions that have sprung up so far among the pro-Lariviere, “confusion” would probably be the clearest.
However, consider us confused with the timing rather than with the result. Emerald Opinion Editor Franklin Bains, in a column from June, expected some of the outcome when the state’s Board of Higher Education decided to only extend Lariviere’s contract to its current expiration date and to extend the board’s firing authority in his contract.
“Worse still, the restrictive measures pull back on Lariviere so harshly that he is unable to comfortably act independent of the board. The kicker of the new measures, the firing authority, discourages the president from (for lack of a better term) acting out,” Bains wrote. “And if you threaten to get rid of every University representative that ‘steps out of line,’ you’re going to get a whole lot of ineffective leaders.”
The issues from that column five months ago remain, but more pressing now, as the threat of termination has turned into actual termination, and firing authority has been exercised. And as much as the students at Autzen cheering “FE-DOR-A!” would want, there is little that can be done within the system to reverse course. Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber released a statement Saturday which said about as much — thinking outside the box as a leader is not welcome in the Oregon University System.
“He disregarded Board direction on more than one occasion,” Kitzhaber wrote.
But there’s a fine line between one person’s impression of disregard and a bold proposal, which Lariviere had an unwritten mandate to create.
“And if university presidents in the system believe that aggressive action on their part will result in aggressive action from their direct supervisors, will that not cause a restriction of innovation?” Bains wrote.
The fear and confusion around campus isn’t about “how perfect Lariviere is” but how disconcerting the students’ image of a potential Lariviere replacement is — one who should fear pushing too hard on a proposal for bettering their University, one who shouldn’t think of advocating for proposals that can’t be equally applied to all OUS schools.
That’s why this movement has achieved such renown on campus.
Moving forward, the board is meeting Monday afternoon to vote on the matter, causing twin rallies in Portland and Eugene in support of Lariviere. University faculty and those in the University Senate have called for a teach-in and rally on Tuesday. Meanwhile, the Senate will have a meeting on Wednesday voting on two measures — one in support of Lariviere and one of no confidence in the state board.
And while such moves won’t necessarily bring back Lariviere, they may have a good deal of clout in ensuring that the next president is not hired to simply fall in line with Kitzhaber’s great plan.
At the very least, the rallies might just clear up student confusion about the issue.
Editorial: Student outcry on Lariviere firing causes reexamination
Daily Emerald
November 26, 2011
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