University President Richard Lariviere remained stoic and unsympathetic at Wednesday’s University Senate meeting, amid a volley of questions concerning the administration’s reluctance toward fulfilling binding conditions set forth in the Riverfront Research Park’s Intergovernmental Agreement.
The agreement, drafted in 1986 and ratified more than 20 years ago by the City of Eugene and State Board of Higher Education in conjunction with the University, spells out the conditions under which the 67-acre research park along the Willamette River can be developed.
One of the document’s provisions stipulates that construction in any new “sectors of development” within the park’s boundaries must be reviewed by the Riverfront Research Park Commission, a public oversight body that has not met in more than a decade.
At the center of controversy is a proposal that would develop 4.2 acres within the park into a private office building and large parking lot belonging to the Oregon Research Institute. This project would be the first research park building constructed north of the railroad tracks, and has seen vehement opposition from both the ASUO and the University Senate.
The two governing bodies unanimously passed resolutions last November urging Lariviere to comply with the Intergovernmental Agreement’s terms prior to initiating groundbreaking or other construction activities.
Despite student and faculty opposition, engineering work has been underway for the $17-million, 80,000-square-foot ORI building since late last year.
The University Senate’s resolution specifically beseeches Lariviere to fashion a report regarding how the University “has maintained and will remain in compliance with” the Intergovernmental Agreement.
At the meeting, Lariviere shrugged off this responsibility, saying that the 1986 agreement no longer applies to the matter, rendering the University’s efforts to pursue construction completely legal and reasonable.
“I’m not a lawyer … but my understanding (is that) the IGA is not in effect and it hasn’t been for some time,” Lariviere said. “That issue is done. I am convinced that the University’s obligations under (it) were terminated long ago.”
Senate members made recurring accusations that an open, public input process involving all University stakeholders in the matter has yet to take place, implying that administrators plan to pursue construction efforts with or without public retort.
“The land … is clearly a significant public resource,” University economics professor George Evans said. “Can the University produce a signed document that all parties have agreed to? How can the University justify short-circuiting this process?”
On Tuesday, the Senate provided Lariviere with a packet of 12 questions regarding the riverfront development, which it hoped the president would take time to answer at the meeting. University Senate President Nathan Tublitz sympathized with the president that the questions were expounded on very short notice, and hoped he would take time in the near future to address them.
“I really feel that these questions have been answered,” Lariviere responded to a spattering of scoffs and guffaws from Senate members.
University biology graduate student Paul Cziko, a member of the riverfront construction opposition group Connecting Eugene, attended the meeting and said the University is stubbornly pursuing the ORI construction despite its potential illegality and the University community’s palpable opposition.
“We are the ones moving forward, and it is the president who is stuck in the old ways,” Cziko said. “We don’t know who the president is representing, because it’s not the students and faculty of this university.”
 
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