The University’s Office of the President announced Friday the hiring of Elizabeth Denecke as its first public records officer, with hopes that a full-time professional lawyer poised to handle records requests will further increase the institution’s accountability and transparency.
President Lariviere made the final decision from an extensive list of candidates and stated in a letter last week that Denecke possessed “a breadth of experience in law and higher education” gained while working as senior assistant attorney general with the Oregon Department of Justice and the Portland law firm Miller Nash.  
“She was the unanimous choice of the selection committee, considering her experience and her knowledge of Oregon law,” Lariviere said.
Denecke’s appointment comes in the wake of the new Office of Public Records created on June 1 and managed until now by Assistant Vice President for Administration Brian Smith. The new permanent records officer will take her position on Oct. 11, and will work under the President’s office with the task of managing and processing the 125 to 150 formal records requests the University receives annually, according to a University press release.
The job description for the position states that the new employee must be “responsible for the effective, timely and thorough compliance with the public records law and managing, processing and completing all public records requests submitted to the University of Oregon.”
A regional search for the permanent director of the public records office began in mid-June, chaired by University Archivist Heather Briston and assisted by Assistant General Council Doug Park and Senior Director of Communications Phil Weiler, as well as the School of Journalism and Communication’s dean, Tim Gleason. During the search, the committee voiced a need for a knowledgeable, experienced officer with a focus on how public records relate to law and academics.
“(Denecke) is a practicing attorney and has worked with the (state Department of Justice),” Weiler said. “She understands this business very well.”
Records requests were handled in the past by the Office of General Counsel, and when a request would come in, it would often conflict with the other duties of the office’s staff, slowing down the entire process. With the creation of Denecke’s new position, administrators believe the turnaround time for requests will be significantly increased.
“There have been some concerns about the speed at which records requests were handled,” Gleason said. “It was unrealistic to expect that such a large volume of requests could be handled by someone who is not in a full-time position.”
Though this appointment bears little impact on students, there is a possibility that Denecke will hire student interns to help with preparing records for release.
Students activists critical of the administration will also find the office as a valuable resource, because any member of the public, not just media entities, can file requests and expect reasonable timeliness. This will force the University to be more accountable to student queries.
“It’s a first-come, first-served deal,” Weiler said. “The UO is a public agency open to public scrutiny, whether that is from a student, a member of the faculty or someone from the general public.”
According to Denecke’s resume submitted to the Office of the President, which is itself a public record, the former attorney has provided legal advice to U.S. campus-based colleges in the past on matters of federal education privacy law, including the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). She also has experience reviewing and redacting public university documents subject to records requests for compliance with federal and state privacy laws pertaining to Oregon student records and Oregon Public Records Laws.
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