Come Dec. 28, Johnson Hall will no longer be the base of operations for University President Richard Lariviere. Yes, the State Board of Higher Education voted unanimously to abruptly terminate his contract, and yes, he admits he’s disappointed — saddened — by the news, but the future ex-president was all smiles Friday morning as he dished out a few warm handshakes and grabbed a chair at the end of his conference room table.
In an exclusive interview with the Emerald, Lariviere opened up about the University’s relationship with the Oregon University System, the lack of funding at the University and his future. This interview was edited for clarity and brevity.
Emerald: How would you describe your reaction to the news given to you on Monday the 21st?
Lariviere: Well, it was pretty surprising. I did not expect that, so I was pretty surprised. The two (OUS) fellows who came were pretty uncomfortable, and I wanted them to feel as comfortable as I could.
How does it feel to have so much support from the community in your departure?
Really humbling and amazing. That’s been the biggest surprise of  all.
Why was that a surprise for you?
You just never think that you would have that kind of impact on a community as big and as skeptical and as tough as a university community is, and it’s moved Jan and I very deeply.
What are your plans after you step down as president?
Well, I’m still trying to get my head around the plans. We hadn’t really planned anything at this stage in our careers beyond the University of Oregon presidency, so the most immediate and obvious option is simply to elect to become a member of the tenured faculty of the University — which I am — and teach Classical India and Sanskrit.
Is there a timeline for that?
It probably wouldn’t be until next fall. But as I said, I haven’t really had time to sit down and think about that specific question.
Why do you still want to be part of this community?
This is a wonderful place, and it’s a great university — much, much better than the world understands … and probably better than the state deserves, given the level of investment in this state. When I came here, people asked me what’s the biggest surprise, what have you found the most surprising, et cetera. What I found most surprising — most consistently surprising — is the quality of the faculty. It’s superb — much better than compensation levels might lead you to believe.
Can you elaborate more on why you say the University is better than the state deserves?
The University  of Oregon receives less money per capita, per student, than any other university in the state of Oregon. Even with all the difficulties in California, University of California system schools receive about $9,000 per student from the state. University of Oregon this year will probably go below $3,000 per student. Basically, what Oregon has done, is just completely step away from investing in public, higher education and particularly here at the University of Oregon. We receive way less money — way less money — per student than any other university at the state. It’s a big difference. Over the long term, that’s going to result in a poorer University than it needs to be.
I understand that you have not completely mapped out where you will be in the next couple terms. But have you put any thought into any leadership positions at the University of Oregon?
That seems fairly unlikely. One of the obligations of a past president is to stay out of the way of the current president as much as possible.
What message do you think the State Board of Higher Education is sending to the University of Oregon by firing you?
I’m probably not the best person to answer that, at this point. My sense is that the message that people heard was that in the midst of the optimism, the sense that we had a set of plans that could shift the decline of the University.@@this quote doesn’t make sense@@ Because the faculty and staff are the ones who really feel this decline. Students come here, and all they know is the four-year period while they’re here; faculty are here and see the erosion. There was a sense of optimism that that might change and that that might be different. And at least initially, I think the response was this was seen as a denial of that optimism and a refusal of the change.
When your contract was re-signed for a year, with the ability to terminate you without cause, did you see that as a warning?
Well, that clause of termination without cause is in every contract. That’s not anything new — that’s just standard contract language for a position like this. I understood why the (OUS) Board did what they did. Our plans are a threat to the Board because we’re basically saying, “We don’t (approve of) this Board governing the University of Oregon,” and the Board didn’t want to give up control of the University of Oregon. That’s not new. It didn’t start when I came here. That was a battle that the University of Oregon has been fighting for 25 years.
I was hired here to get the University out from under the Oregon University System. That’s the reason I took this job.
What types of stipulations were included in the contract signing in June that were different than the original contract?
The original contract that they gave me asked me to cease advocating for the New Partnership and … myself and also to control anyone else who might be interested in these matters, to stop them from advocating for “anything except what the Board wanted.” I said that I wouldn’t sign that because it just didn’t seem reasonable. That was the real sticking point. We negotiated for quite a long time over that, and they@@part of me wants to remove this ‘they’ – it throws things off@@ finally agreed to say “anything that the Board and/or the governor would advocate for.” And that I agreed to because we had already discussed with the governor where he wanted to go, and it was pretty consistent with what we were interested in. So as long as the governor’s interests were there, that was okay with me.
Were you surprised that Kitzhaber was in support of your termination?
Yes, because throughout all of this wrestling with the Board, he seemed to be supportive.
And how does it make you feel knowing now that he’s not supportive?
Well, I’m disappointed. I’m very disappointed. There’s political stuff going on that someone like me isn’t privy to. Sometimes you’re the beneficiary — and sometimes you’re the victim.
In retrospect, what do you think you could’ve done to avoid being in this situation?
Pretty much every day I think back what should I have done differently or better. I made a fundamental mistake in assuming that what we were communicating to the chancellor was being communicated to the Board. And I made that mistake right from the get-go because that’s the normal way that the chancellor is the vector of communication. I’m not sure that that really worked. There were a lot of things the Board didn’t know, which I assumed they did, and their policies and postures around these issues, therefore, looked like they were really in opposition to what we were trying to do, but I’m not sure they understood what we were trying to do. And that’s been the case for quite a long time. So I could’ve communicated with the Board a lot better than I did.
Did the relationship with the Board worsen throughout this term?
Yeah, probably it did. We simply had to take some extraordinary measures to stop the loss of faculty, and those extraordinary measures were the salary increases that we distributed. People say, “Oh well, you gave to the faculty, but you also gave to the administrators.” There are only three categories of employee: There’s faculty, officers of administration and classified. Officers of administration are librarians and lab people, et cetera — key people to the delivery of services in the education research side. So it wasn’t that we gave increases to “fat-cat” administrators, but to the people who are actually doing the work here. And we had to do that. The fact that other universities weren’t in a position to be able to afford that caused great discomfort with the Board and the chancellor, and that was a pretty key issue for them.
In October, you made an unusual hire by signing your former co-worker Robert Berdahl into an administrative advisory position. Can you explain why you thought that was necessary?
The provost, Jim Bean, had stepped down because of medical reasons. He went on a sabbatical leave to try and recover. He had to lower his stress level, apparently. That left a pretty big gap in the University’s administration. Lorraine Davis valiantly and courageously agreed to take that position on an interim basis. There was considerable concern among the faculty that she represented the “old guard” and the old view of things, and whether we still could have the forward-looking imagination that we had put forth previously. While I had great confidence in Lorraine, I felt it would be beneficial to have Bob Berdahl’s experience as chancellor at Berkeley, president at Texas, head of the American Association of Universities to come in and just see where we are as an institution and where we need to go. And so we brought him in as reinforcements on a temporary basis.
When was the first time you made contact with Berdahl?
It was at the Pendleton Round-Up. This idea just popped into my head. I was actually sitting on the front porch of the bed and breakfast we were staying in in Pendleton, and I thought, “Why don’t I just see if he is interested?” I literally stepped off the front porch onto the sidewalk, and I gave him a call. And he was interested. We didn’t finalize any deal at that point, but he said he was interested, and I was delighted.
The University received some criticism for the salary that he received for his part-time work. Why do you feel that was necessary to compensate him at $96,000 for this year?
For someone with his experience and expertise, his market value, we had to pay an amount commensurate with his unique skill set. Actually, this is a pretty low price for someone (like him) to work that much time, and he is doing it because he really has affection for the University. Someone of Bob’s expertise is probably in the $600,000 to $700,000 level at this point in his career. It looks like a big number to a lot of people, and it is a big number, but it is because he is a unique individual.
Did his hire affect your relationship with the OUS?
I have no idea what their response was to that, and it’s not something that ever came up.
The College of Arts and Sciences unanimously announced that they were in support of Robert Berdahl serving as interim president. Who do you think would be the best candidate?
I don’t think it’s appropriate for me to comment on that.
Why do you feel the CAS unanimously endorsed Robert Berdahl as interim president on Wednesday?
Because of his credentials, experience and stature in the academic world. To be the president of the American Association of Universities is to be the president of the organization that represents the top 62 research institutions in America. He’s seen it all.
You don’t need to mention any names here, but what type of a president would you like to see take your place?
Someone who deeply cares about the place, someone who has a passion for higher education, who really wants to deeply engage the challenges that are unique to this place. Challenges around affordability and diversity … and challenges around freeing the University from the position of subsidy to the other universities in the system so that we can focus all of our revenues on making the University the best place it can be for the state of Oregon. Somebody who understands that and is deeply committed to it I think would be great.
In what way do you think the interim president should manage relations with the OUS?
It’s my sincere hope that the (interim) president won’t have any relationship with the OUS; that we will have a publicly appointed board that’s sole purpose is to guide this institution and see that its public mission is fulfilled.
What will you miss most about being the president of the University?
How much time do you got? (smiles)
I will miss the opportunity to interact with students in the way that I’ve been able to. I’ll miss being able to help faculty get past bureaucratic and other challenges that they face to do their work in a way that only a president can do to streamline things.
And I’ll miss interaction with the alumni community. It’s really a spectacular group of people — there are 180,000 people out there that just love this place and are hungry for an opportunity to participate in its life and to give back because when we’re students, we don’t understand what a unique opportunity we’re presented with. After you’ve been out in the world for a few cycles, you begin to understand what a great place this really was for you. Watching that and dealing with that is really terrific.
It reinforces your energy and your commitment to the place. I’ll miss that.