The OC Blog Back Issues Our Mission Contact Us Masthead
Sudsy Wants You to Join the Oregon Commentator
 

Archive for May, 2013

OC and Daily Emerald Expelled from IAC Meeting

May 27th, 2013 by Nick Ekblad

Last Wednesday, the UO Senate’s Intercollegiate Athletics Committee (IAC) held a meeting at which AAD for Finance Eric Roedl was scheduled to give the IAC information about the athletic department’s budget and some projections about the next 6 years.

The UO Senate voted last week to require the Athletic Department to start paying back some of its subsidies, like that of the Matthew Knight Arena property, so this meeting had attracted myself from the Oregon Commentator, and two Daily Emerald reporters.

Right away there was tension in the air. This was the last IAC meeting of the school year and the AD still hadn’t released minutes from the previous meeting. Glen Waddell was met with an awkward silence when he asked about the delay in preparing the minutes.

“I’ve been really busy and haven’t gotten around to it,” the stenographer said.

Bill Harbaugh then asked IAC co-chair Andy Karduna if he had followed up on the request to the AD for the syllabus for the College of Education FHS 110 class that the athletics department requires all new players to take.

Karduna replied that he hadn’t, and had no plans to ever do so.

I had been under the impression that the IAC meeting was open to the public, as it was – until AAD Roedl realized that the media was present. And so began the discussion of whether or not to allow the media to stay during the presentation of revenue projections.

Some members of the IAC referred to the projections as “confidential… sensitive information”. When asked why projections would be “sensitive information”, those believing it to be sensitive did not want to discuss specifics because the reporters were still in the room.

(more…)

What will Gottfredson hide this time?

May 22nd, 2013 by Nick Ekblad

The making of public records available is more of a guideline than a “law” to adhere to here at the University of Oregon. In January, Economics Professor Bill Harbaugh requested President Michael Gottfredson’s calendar via the Public Records Office. It took them two months to produce this PDF with redactions and cost Harbaugh $108.

In very related news, the state of Pennsylvania decided last month that the public is entitled to the calendars of public officials in their entirety. This is shocking to reporters here at the University of Oregon, as the Public Records Office and UO chief executives like to interpret Public Records Law according to their personal discretion, rather than according to a transparent and concise procedure. This is acknowledged as lawful by UO Administrators because, as stated by Dave Hubin, “Oregon’s public records law is internally contradictory and ambiguous,” justifying the personal discretion used by those involved in preparing said “public” documents.

As Frank LoMonte of the Student Press Law Center states in his post on April 30, 2013 (see Pennsylvania link above), what applies to a state governor can be applied to chief executives of public universities. The post continues, stating,

“Pennsylvania law, like all state open-records laws, presumes that the public should have the maximum possible access and that any exceptions to access should be narrowly interpreted. That is, appropriately, what the Commonwealth Court did April 23 in Office of the Governor v. Scolforo.”

I have requested Gottfredson’s calendar since January 8, 2013, the cutoff date of the last request. Since this University of Oregon no longer claims to be “Oregon’s flagship university” and is en route to losing its research status granted by the Association of American Universities, I suppose the Administrators won’t really see any pressing need to save the UO brand by improving transparency. Research? Who needs that? That’s what OSU is for.

Go Ducks!

THE 2013 HATE ISSUE

May 7th, 2013 by Nick Ekblad

We are very very proud to release our highly revered HATE issue! Nobody is safe!We take no prisoners!

Click here to read about the illegality of OSPIRG and why it sucks! We also hate on the UO, Sobriety, California and many other abominable topics!

SHARE THE HATE!

Con Court Leak Compromises ASUO Government

May 6th, 2013 by Nick Ekblad

An email was just sent to our editorial staff anonymously. The author of the email alleges that there have been a number of instances where information regarding Constitution Court decisions had spread around the ASUO office prior to any sort of opinion being released. When the Court chose to remove Laura Hinman from office, she was apparently aware before it was official. Again before her reinstatement, she alluded to her former staff that the ruling would be overturned. Most recently, the decision by the Court to overturn the spring ASUO election was known to members of the United Oregon campaign over a day prior to the knowledge being made public. The anonymous author concluded, signing as A Very Concerned ASUO Representative:

I urge you to confront Chief Justice Nick Schultz over these allegations, as if the court is compromised, it threatens the stability of the ASUO government for as long as the leak remains.

Honestly, for something with so little stability already, it’s hard to want to care. However, confronting Schultz can’t hurt. Got anything to say, hombre?

UO Keeps Out the Riff Raff

May 4th, 2013 by Nick Ekblad

20130504-133350.jpg

Just kidding, that’s at UC Davis.

Here at the UO, getting the records you want can be sort of a hassle. UO Matters has attained public records from both the UO and OSU and the difference in what each institution deems “public” or a “conflict of interest” is disturbing. The difference in pay is understandable. Because Go Ducks? We’re better than beavers right? We gotta keep out the riff raff.

UO Cheer tryouts: $5 …Ogling cheerleaders: Priceless

May 4th, 2013 by Nick Ekblad

I know this is old news but, in case you haven’t heard, the UO Cheer squad hosted tryouts and invited the public to come watch for a 5 dollar entrance fee. Busted Coverage has the story (and pictures!).

UO Matters has the story, too. On that post you will find a screenshot of a bid war for a pair of Official Women’s Soccer shorts:
20130504-132158.jpg
Disgusting. And Hilarious. The Busted Coverage gallery is the best though. Locker room pics!

But honestly am just saddened that the ASUO mailing lists didn’t forward any notice of the cheerleading tryouts. I would have forked over 5 dollars any day to get a close up view of the cheerleaders in action. Wait, I take that back. Most of them are too orange for me.

UO Cheer did have an advertisement on their official Twitter feed, though. I wonder what kind of fellows and how many of ’em were lucky enough to get in there…

The Latest from New Hampshire: Police Do What They Want

May 3rd, 2013 by Nick Ekblad

I sure am glad to live on the West coast.

During a block party, a fight breaks out and riot police respond, non-lethals ablazing, spraying pepperballs into the crowd all willy-nilly. They then proceed to force everyone to “move along” in order to “secure the area”. After watching the all the different videos a few times, I decided that the video linked above puts it all together pretty well. However, this one has some extra goodies.

It seems like the cops were bored or behind on quota. Perhaps they even just wanted to push around some college kids at gunpoint. Let’s just hope that giving our officers guns doesn’t give them this kind of confidence.

Shoot the police.

camera