Bill Harbaugh, a University of Oregon economics professor and author of the UO Matters blog, is reportedly the recipient of a trove of records that led UO administrators to place two librarians on paid administrative leave earlier this month.

The Chronicle of Higher education reports that Harbaugh requested the documents from university archives on the school’s last four presidents.

In an email to faculty, interim President Scott Coltrane said that the records did not contain social security numbers, financial information or medical records but did, “contain confidential information about faculty, staff and students.”

The president’s email called the records release “unlawful” but did not provide information into what about the records violates any laws.

Doug Blandy, senior vice provost for Academic Affairs, said that the university gave the professor, now identified by the Chronicle as Harbaugh, until Jan. 22 at 5 p.m. to return the records.

The records were not returned at that time.

The Oregonian identified the two librarians placed on leave as Kira Homo and James Fox. The university has not confirmed the names.

Harbaugh was not available for comment at the time of publication. He told the Chronicle that he would not comment on what the records contained.

“My attorney has told me not to talk about it,” Harbaugh said to the Chronicle.

Harbaugh’s relationship with the university throughout the years has been contentious. Last year tensions between Harbaugh and then student body president Sam Dotters-Katz made news. Harbaugh is an outspoken critic of university administrators, particularly former university presidents like Michael Gottfredson.

Follow Alex Wallachy on Twitter: @wall2wallachy

If the University of Oregon had a Tinder account, its bio might read, “One of the nation’s premier research universities seeks innovative leader for president.” Since UO can’t just swipe right for the next president, the matching process is a little different.

The current presidential search is unique for the University of Oregon. In previous years, the university was a part of the Oregon University System, which used to pick the president. Governor Kitzhaber signed Senate Bill 270 in 2013 allowing Oregon universities to set up their own independent governing boards.

The UO Board of Trustees formed after SB 270 was signed into law and the board assumed responsibility for the university July 1, 2014. Among its many duties, the Board of Trustees is now responsible for the hiring of UO’s president.

In a previous interview with the Emerald, former UO President and Oregon Attorney General Dave Frohnmayer said that the university’s independent governing board could be more attractive to potential candidates than the OUS system, where the governing board’s attention was split between several universities.

UO’s new independent governing board formed a group to oversee the presidential search.

The Presidential Search Committee, chaired by UO alum and Board of Trustees member Connie Ballmer, is looking for that special someone to become UO’s 18th president.

“We are at the phase of the search where the firm and members of the committee are reaching out to prospective candidates to try and build a strong, talented pool,” Ballmer said. “The search committee and advisory group have vetted an updated position profile.”

On Jan. 15, UO published the position description and ideal candidate profile. The 17-page document provides an overview of the university that highlights its new independence from the Oregon University System, strategic planning and the UO’s new $2 billion capital campaign.

“This is a rare opportunity to lead an institution poised for change,” the position description says. “And to help shape the future of public higher education across Oregon.”

The position profile includes a laundry list of leadership characteristics and personal qualities. Phrases such as, “understanding and appreciation” appear frequently in the leadership characteristics section.

The personal qualities section reads like a personal ad. While there’s no “tall dark and handsome” qualification to be UO’s 18th president, the desired personal qualities for the position include “a lack of pretension” and “a good sense of humor.”

Nominations, applications or other expressions of interest in becoming UO’s 18th president should be directed at Parker Executive Search, preferably prior to March 19.

According to its website, Parker Executive’s higher education search practice “is one of the most highly regarded in the country, providing services to both public and private colleges and universities to aggressively recruit academic leaders.”

The Presidential Search Committee hired Parker Executive Search in November of 2014 to help UO find its next president.

“There is a lot of buzz around the country about the great things happening at the University of Oregon,” Ballmer said. “And we hope to capitalize on that and provide the Board of Trustees a terrific list of recommendations.”

Follow Kaylee Tornay’s live-blog of ASUO Senate meeting, tonight at 7p.m. in the EMU Walnut room.

Check out tonight’s agenda and stay tuned for a recap.

Tweets by @ka_tornay

Two unidentified University of Oregon employees are on paid leave pending an investigation after 22,000 pages of records were ‘unlawfully’ released, according to the Oregonian.

The Oregonian reports that the records were from the UO President’s office and included confidential information on students, faculty and staff.

UO Matters, a blog at the University of Oregon, posted an email sent by Interim President Scott Coltrane about the records:

Dear Colleagues,

We have recently learned that a significant number of archived records from the President’s Office have been unlawfully released. These records contain confidential information about faculty, staff and students, but our current understanding is that no social security numbers, financial information or medical records were shared.

We have launched an investigation of the incident, and we have put staff members on administrative leave, pending that investigation. The information was sent to a university professor, and we have already requested that the professor return the information and refrain from any public release of confidential information. To our knowledge, only one record has been shared externally at this point.

We are committed to taking steps to mitigate the potential injury associated with this situation.

Sincerely,

Scott Coltrane, Interim President

Oregon law requires the university to release information upon request to it’s public institutions including the UO.

However, the public-records law deems some information exempt. Including sensitive material such as personal records. Officials are able to redact this kind of information, prior to releasing the documents.

According to the Oregonian, the request was made by a professor, but the professor is currently anonymous. According to Tobin Klinger, the university has asked for the professor to return the records, but it is unclear if the professor is willing.

 “We’ve made the initial outreach,” Klinger told the Oregonian. “The ball is in the professor’s court.”

The Presidential Factors Committee of the Board of Trustees will meet Tuesday, Jan. 20 to discuss the University of Oregon’s next’s presidential salary, contract and annual evaluation.

The committee last met on Dec. 12, 2014; the committee is chaired by Ginevra Ralph and is comprised of Andrew Colas, Allyn Ford, Susan Gary and Ross Kari.

Tuesday’s meeting will be held in the Ford Alumni Center room 403. This is the first meeting since the Presidential Search Committee released the position description of an ideal candidate for UO’s president.

Parker Executive Search, the search firm hired by the Presidential Search Committee to assist in the presidential search, created the candidate profile.

“In its 18th president, the UO seeks an innovative leader and strategic thinker with the stature, charisma and distinction to lead one of the nation’s major public research universities. He or she will be an individual of creative vision, focused energy and unquestioned integrity, with a passion for educating students and for serving a public mission of teaching, research and service.”

In the meeting announcement, Ralph said that during today’s meeting she would update the committee on the presidential salary research from the last meeting.

“I do not intend for us to spend much time at the meeting reviewing or discussing the current presidential contract,” Ralph said in the announcement. “But I plan to “assign” that as homework with feedback and responses due at a future date. The current contract is one inherited from the days when OUS bore responsibility for the employment of UO’s president. I would like your careful thoughts on the document and whether there are items we should consider adding, deleting or modifying. The contract is attached for your review should you want a head start.”

The committee will also structure and manage the annual review of the president, the Presidential Review and Evaluation Policy.

In its December meeting, the University of Oregon Board of Trustees passed a resolution on how the university sets tuition and fees. Although the UO has an independent governing board instead of a state governing board, few changes have been made.

“There really is very little difference in the overall process from previous years except that the approval authority stops with the board rather than the State Board of Higher Education,” Board of Trustees Secretary Angela Wilhelms said. “The same level of student engagement through the advisory group and student forums exists as it did before, as does the authority to appeal.”

The Board of Trustees is responsible for creating the process that determines tuition and mandatory fees and to ultimately approve the final recommendations. The board is currently scheduled to review tuition and fees recommendations during its next meeting in March.

The first step in the process laid out by the board is an advisory group assembled by the president that will consider historical tuition and fee trends, comparative peer institution data, the university’s budget, projected cost increases and anticipated funding from the state.

The Tuition and Fees Advisory Committee met Tues., Jan. 13 in Johnson hall to do that.

“I’m coming to the table trying to lobby for the lowest tuition increases and finding ways to make sure that the university can function at the lowest tuition increase,” ASUO President Beatriz Gutierrez said. “One of the things that I want to keep in mind is what does it take to keep up the quality of the university?”

Gutierrez is one of four students on the committee. The bulk of the committee members are administrators such as deans, provosts, etc. When asked if she thought the student voice is being heard in the meetings, Gutierrez wasn’t confident.

“Coming without a background in accounting you can’t really understand things and you don’t even know what questions to ask sometimes,” Gutierrez said.

At the meeting committee members received two separate spreadsheets of projected and actual revenues and costs for the 2015 year.

Included in the figures are five different tuition increase scenarios ranging from 3-4.9 percent increases for resident students, and 2-4 percent increases for non-resident students. The reason that the proposed tuition increases for non-resident tuition is lower than that of resident students is because non-residents already pay more than residents. For example in the proposed tuition increases, the lowest proposed increase in tuition for resident students is 3 percent which would bring the price per student credit hour to $5.46 where the lowest tuition increase of 2 percent for non-resident students make the price per student credit hour $12.96.

In the meeting Jamie Moffitt, the vice president for finance and administration and co-chair of the committee, addressed tuition and fees as the university’s main source of educational and general funds, state support is small. Gutierrez hopes to put pressure on the Oregon legislature to increase investment in higher education and have a rally in Salem in February.

Also included in the Board of Trustee’s resolution is that the president will hold a student forum, provide an opportunity for public comment and submit final recommendations to the board.

Helena Schlegel is a junior at the University of Oregon and the newest member of the Board of Trustees. Schlegel was confirmed to the board during finals week and attended her first meeting as a voting member of the UO Board of Trustees.

Here’s what Schlegel had to say about her first meeting as the only student on the Board of Trustees:

How was your first meeting as an official board member?

As a student, there are not many opportunities to meet with so many senior administrators (and trustees of course). So now that I am a trustee, I have that opportunity, and because of that, I did not know exactly what to expect. But as the meeting progressed, I learned ways to improve transparency and about student outreach in general.

How have you learned to improve transparency and student outreach?

I would like to see more communication between students, faculty and administration when it comes to our governing body, as I feel that often students are not informed, and thus not aware when important decisions are being made at Board of Ttusteees meetings.

Personally, I would like to initiate some of these conversations. Initially, I want to ensure students are aware of the Winter Board of trustees meeting, so they can provide a student perspective and/or opinion on the matters being discussed.

What student issues did the Board of Trustees discuss at the meeting?

At the meeting, we passed a resolution approving a new academic program, the masters of science in sports product management, which is set to begin September 2015.

We also approved a resolution regarding this year’s tuition and fees processes, which is underway this winter term.

What is the tuition resolution?

The Tuition and Fees Processes Resolution lays out the process and timeline for the adoption of next year’s tuition and fees. The process will have an advisory group (with two students) that will make recommendations to the president, and there will also be a student forum winter term to discuss tuition and fee decisions, which will be a great opportunity for students’ voices to be heard.

In your opinion, what was the most important issue discussed at the last Board Of Trustees meeting?

It is hard to pick the most important, since every issue effects students in some way, but an issue that I was personally passionate about was a resolution relating to required disclosure by the UO ombudsperson. Now, the UO ombudsperson will no longer be a required reporter (with a few exceptions), so students can approach them regarding issues of discrimination and sexual violence confidentially.

What should students know about the Board of Trustees and how can students keep up with the Board of Trustees?

There is a Board Of Trustees website where you can read about the trustees, upcoming meetings and read past meeting minutes. Also, students can of course reach out to me with any questions and concerns they may have about the Board Of Trustees, and I will help in any way that I can.

Former University of Oregon Craft Center employee Laura A. Gerards filed a $900,000 lawsuit against the UO last week, according to the Register Guard.

Gerards said in the lawsuit she was fired after taking medical leave for migraines.

The lawsuit states that Gerard’s due process was violated when she was fired without a hearing.

The lawsuit names the university as a defendant, in addition to four UO staff members — two Craft Center employees, Diane Hoffman and Timothy Cohalan, and equal opportunity specialist Anne Bonner and Christine Lonigan in the human resources department.

UO spokesperson Julie Brown had no comment on the lawsuit as of Sunday.

More to come. 

After nearly 20 years of hosting free figure drawing workshops for students, which featured nude models, the University of Oregon cancelled the sessions this September.

The termination of the sessions led to various articles that received national attention, and was even discussed by Jimmy Fallon on the Tonight Show.

Brook Muller, acting dean of the UO’s School of Architecture and Allied Arts, submitted a letter to the Emerald in October making clarifications about the cancelation of the Saturday figure drawing sessions. In the letter, Muller said that the art department received an influx of calls about nude modeling after an advertisement for models circulated. Muller noted that some of the calls were inappropriate.

“The decision to discontinue the workshop is based on an imperative that we utilize resources in ways that will provide the greatest benefit and that we ensure a safe and respectful environment for everyone in our learning community,” Muller said in the letter.

Cole Kastner, a sophomore digital arts major, attended the figure drawing sessions winter term of last year, before the UO canceled the sessions. Kastner said that his Drawing I and II classes required him to attend figure drawing sessions, as a part of the artist experience.

“That’s what artists do. You have to go and, in a non-sexualized manner, go and study the human figure…” Kastner said. “It was a really cool and very professional style of studying the human figure. It didn’t feel weird or anything.”

About six miles from the University of Oregon campus is an answer to artists in the Eugene community asking, where to now?

On Saturday mornings, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Lane Community College holds both short and long pose figure-drawing sessions for artists to study the human form. Besides the occasional figure drawing session at galleries like Maude Kerns, the LCC figure drawing sessions are some of the last in Eugene.

Even before the UO’s cancellation of its figure drawing sessions, LCC opened its doors to local artists.

According to Satoko Motouji, an art instructor at LCC who attends the sessions, LCC switched its Friday night figure drawing classes to Saturday morning this fall to accommodate former UO figure drawers.

The figure drawing sessions at LCC may have moved, but the classes have been in place for years.

“These people in our group are not refuges from the latest thing at UO,” David Sraton said.

Sraton attends the Buckner sessions at LCC. Paul Buckner was a Professor Emeritus at UO. Buckner passed away in February of 2014, but the drawing sessions that he started at the UO decades ago continue today at LCC.

In the many years Sraton attended figure drawing sessions both at UO and LCC and said that he never saw any unsafe behavior around the nude models.

“The whole entire art faculty has been incredibly supportive of us,”  Jan Halvorsen said. Halvorsen is an instructor of media arts at LCC and an attendee of the figure drawing sessions.

Saturdays at LCC hold two figure-drawing sessions, one featuring short-term poses and the Buckner Session, which features long-term poses with the same model for five weeks. Both sessions have a $3 fee for attendees.

Kastner hasn’t attended other figure drawing sessions in Eugene.

“I just personally haven’t had the urge to go somewhere else for something I don’t really feel welcome to. It’s a community, so I feel like I was going with my students and with my peers to my school’s figure drawing classes together, it felt really comfortable.”

Some Board of Trustees members want to raise the University of Oregon president’s salary by almost $150,000 a year. Raising the president’s salary could bring in better candidates for the upcoming job search, but since lower-level staff salaries haven’t increased recently, that could be a hard sell.

The UO Board of Trustees’ Presidential Factors Committee met Friday, December 12 to discuss presidential compensation and performance.

“This meeting is like what happens in the last six miles of a marathon,” Ginevra Ralph, chair of the committee, said.

“We are way too low,” Connie Ballmer, the head of the Presidential Search Committee said. She suggested that increasing the presidential salary would help attract ideal candidates.

UO’s last President, Michael Gottfredson, was paid $444,004 with a $100,000 deferred compensation for each year worked, according to The Register Guard. According to Ballmer, the more preferable salary would be around $600,000.

The committee discussed creating incentives for the president, similar to bonuses in the corporate world. Incentives like bonuses or a vehicle stipend–possibly $1,200 a month for the UO president–wouldn’t necessarily be included in the presidential salary.

But other members of the committee pushed back against the recommendations. Susan Gary, faculty member of the Board of Trustees, said that salaries for the president and senior officers of administration have been rising, while “staff salaries have not.”

Gary and other members of the board pointed out that the UO’s presidential salary is in the median for its peer institutions.

The presidential search will officially begin in January and could be over as soon as April, but there is no definite timeline.

No final decisions were made during the meeting, and the committee is seeking more information from its search firm, Parker Executive Search.

“You’ve won the marathon,” Ralph said to the committee when the meeting came to an end.

The Presidential Factors Committee is comprised of Ginevra Ralph, Andrew Colas, Allyn Ford, Susan Gary and Ross Kari. Also in attendance on Friday was Ballmer and Chuck Lillis, chair of the Board of Trustees.