Following news of the State Board of Higher Education’s decision last Monday to not renew President Lariviere’s contract beyond July 2012, the University community has witnessed a wave of support demanding his reinstatement.
Many University faculty members were outraged by the decision announced late Tuesday evening and organized a response Wednesday by creating a petition through the University Senate that currently has over 5,000 signatures.
School of Journalism and Communication dean Tim Gleason orchestrated a meeting Wednesday for SOJC faculty to meet and discuss possible options of action toward Lariviere’s reinstatement.
“Lariviere has been consistent since day one,” Gleason said. “The message we need to be sending is excellence at this University, and if we aspire to be excellent, we need to do things in a different way.”
The department and program heads of the College of Arts and Sciences also met Wednesday to express their unequivocal support for the leadership of President Lariviere and are urging he is retained. A written motion was brought forward by Bruce Blonigen, the head of the economics department, and was approved by 36 professors and instructors within the CAS.
On Friday, the University Senate’s executive committee held an emergency session to draft a resolution condemning the board’s decision. This statement denounces the board’s plan to fire Lariviere on the ground that such action “will cause grave and long-lasting harm to our state and will severely diminish the quality of higher education for Oregonians.”
The resolution outlines the damage this decision will inflict upon the University, in both the short-term and the long-term for the University, and the state as a whole. The resolution implored the board to halt its efforts to remove Lariviere, citing the progress he has brought to the University as “a remarkable achievement in light of ongoing state disinvestment in higher education.”
Members of the search committee responsible for hiring Lariviere are baffled by the OUS’ decision. Former ASUO President Sam Dotters-Katz, one member of the committee, believes this decision is contradictory to the purpose of search committee.
“The search committee was told to specifically look for the candidate who would propose a bold solution to the issue of state disinvestment,” Dotters-Katz said. “President Lariviere was hired with that charge and is now being fired for doing his job too well.”
Other demonstrations of support for President Lariviere cropped up over the weekend, including a concourse of staff, faculty and students at the Civil War sporting fedoras and signs reading variations of “We Stand With the Hat.” Lariviere took the field to present a faculty award and was met with a warm round of applause and cheers from the crowd.
University benefactor Phil Knight even chimed in, mentioning he was saddened “some people in power in our state continue to drive Oregon into a death spiral with their embrace of mediocrity.”
Despite the throng of support, the board is maintaining their decision and are being backed wholeheartedly by Governor John Kitzhaber, who affirmed the decision last Tuesday.
“The situation involving the Oregon State Board of Higher Education and Dr. Richard Lariviere has nothing to do with an ‘ongoing difference of opinion over the future of the University of Oregon,’” Kitzhaber said in a strongly-worded statement released Saturday.
Lariviere maintained these differences in opinion are the main reason for his termination.
“The conflicts that resulted in my termination are a symptom of the broken system of governance and funding in Oregon higher education that desperately needs changing,” Lariviere said in an email sent out to the University community Sunday evening.
According to Lariviere, the division is rooted in discrepancies over various issues, such as substantial raises to approximately 1,300 University faculty, the use of overtime hours to undercut state furlough days and the proposal of a funding model in which the University would sell $1 billion in state bonds that would then be matched with private funding.
Then, over the summer, OUS only renewed Lariviere’s contract for one year, signaling a warning he was walking on thin ice.
Continued defiance toward the board through the pursuit of his ideas was the last straw for the board, according to Governor Kitzhaber.
“There have been a number of well-publicized incidents involving Dr. Lariviere that have eroded trust and confidence with the Board of Higher Education. He has disregarded Board direction on more than one occasion,” Kitzhaber said.
The state board will convene for another meeting Monday at which University Senate President Robert Kyr will speak. The meeting will be held at Portland State University at 2 p.m. The University Senate encourages all faculty, staff and students to attend the meeting in support of President Lariviere.
The University Alumni Association is showing support of Lariviere by providing buses that will transport people to the meeting in Portland. Buses will leave the Ford Alumni Center at 12:15 p.m.
Lariviere hopes that those who attend the meeting will attend for right reasons.
“I urge those of you who plan to rally or attend the state board meeting to focus your time, energy and efforts, not on questioning the wisdom or process of the decision,” Lariviere said. ” Instead focus yourselves on the larger cause of meaningful policy reforms that will benefit the UO, the system of higher education, and the state of Oregon.”
Full body of the email Lariviere sent to University faculty, staff and students on Sunday, Nov. 27.