University President Dave Frohnmayer’s office is filled with mementos from his career: the quill from the first U.S. Supreme Court case he argued — and won; pictures of him with politicians ranging from the first President Bush to Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski; and bookshelves brimming with tomes on constitutional law, politics and leadership.
Frohnmayer, 63, said he has come a long way since U.S. Supreme Court Justice Warren Burger called him “that German boy.” Now in his 10th year as University president, Frohnmayer still smiles when talking about the pleasures of his job.
“Every once in a while, I have to sit back in my chair and say, ‘For an unexpected calling, this certainly has been richly rewarding,’” he said.
Frohnmayer, the University’s 15th president and among its longest-serving officeholders, is proud of the job he has done during a time of sharp changes at the University and lagging economic health.
“Earlier this year, I looked out my window and saw two building cranes on campus,” Frohnmayer said. “That warms the heart of a university president.”
While Frohnmayer maintains an extremely busy schedule, with numerous meetings and up to eight speeches a week, he tries to make time for his family — Lynn, his wife of 30 years, their two sons and their daughter.
“(My job) does have its costs for my family,” Frohnmayer said. “My family thinks I travel too much.”
And in his family life, Frohnmayer has survived a great deal of personal tragedy with the death of two of his daughters. Now, his 16-year-old daughter Amy is being threatened by the same rare disease — Fanconi Anemia.
Frohnmayer refused to say when he will retire, but he hinted it will not be before the University’s comprehensive campaign — a drive to raise hundreds of millions to offset budget cuts — succeeds.
“If there comes a point when I think I’m not being effective, then that’s the point to consider other options,” Frohnmayer said. “But I think I still have an enormous amount of energy.”
For the most part, student groups have been pleased with Frohnmayer’s leadership, and an ASUO spokeswoman praised the president for his staunch advocacy of the incidental fee.
“As long as he’s president, we won’t have to be on pins and needles,” ASUO spokeswoman Taraneh Foster said.
Frohnmayer said he has grave concerns about the misconception that universities are private institutions that “students should pay for because they’ll earn a lot of money, and that therefore the state doesn’t have an independent obligation to support them.” People don’t realize that the University is a public good, Frohnmayer said.
While Frohnmayer admitted that some Oregonians think of the University as a waste of tax dollars, he finds the argument ridiculous.
“For every $70 million invested in the University of Oregon — which is our annual budget of tax dollars — we return $700 million to the region,” he said. “It’s one of the best investments in economic development that a state can make.”
Frohnmayer’s reign has not been without controversy. His staunch opposition to an official University stance condemning the war in Iraq angered many people, but Frohnmayer said he doesn’t regret his decision.
“To me that was a very straightforward call and in keeping with the traditions of the University,” Frohnmayer said. “If (the University) remains a neutral forum, the people within it are free and are protected to take unpopular positions.
“(It’s) amazing and a little bit alarming to see how many people want to capture the official voice of the University for their particular political perspective,” Frohnmayer said.
Another controversy that roiled his administration came in 2000 when the University joined the Worker Rights Consortium, an anti-sweatshop group, and then quickly dropped out. Frohnmayer admits he could have handled the situation better.
“I wish I’d been more on top of the facts of the controversy and the nature of the organization we were asked to join,” he said. “It was not what it was represented to be.”
Frohnmayer said the University paid a steep price for the controversy.
“The price that we paid in terms of alumni disaffection — I’m not even talking now primarily about Phil Knight — was a price that we shouldn’t have paid,” he said.
But all that is in the past, and the only thing Frohnmayer must contend with now is the regular day-to-day pressure of being University president. As another jam-packed week draws to a close, Frohnmayer said he plans to spend his Saturday enjoying the Duck football game against Stanford.
Any predictions?
“Oh, I think we’ll win.”