State officials announced today that University of Kansas provost Richard Lariviere will be the next president of the University of Oregon, succeeding Dave Frohnmayer when he steps down this year.

Lariviere was the sole finalist of the UO’s closed search for the next president. Before holding the provost position at KU, he was dean of the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Texas at Austin.

In my limited research into Lariviere, I’ve already discovered a few things: First, Freedom for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) has given both the University of Kansas and the University of Texas at Austin a “red light” rating for censoring student speech. This isn’t so much a direct indictment against Lariviere, but it should raise some concerns. I would certainly hope that these universities’ positions on free speech do not reflect Lariviere’s.

Second, if you were hoping that the new president would make the campus wet again, forget about it. During his time at KU, Lariviere forced the bowling alley in the student union to stop selling beer. From a 2008 interview:

[A]lcohol abuse–binge drinking, irresponsible and dangerous behavior while under the influence–is a huge problem on every college campus. KU is no different. One of the arguments for selling 3.2 beer in the Union was that it might be a venue for showing students how to drink responsibly–limiting sales to individuals to two beers, putting up materials to educate students on the dangers of drinking to excess, etc. In the end the decision was mine, and I didn’t see how the positive message of responsible drinking would be adequately conveyed by our selling beer.

It’s much too early to make any definitive conclusions about him, but I have serious misgivings about a man who doesn’t understand the joy of bowling and drinking.

I will be looking more into Lariviere’s work at KU and UT. Until then, please enjoy the comment thread on this story about Lariviere’s upcoming departure from KU. Oh, and let me be the first to say: The Oregon Commentator looks forward to working with you, Dick.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 2nd, 2009 at 17:47 by CJ Ciaramella and is filed under Blowing Stuff Up, Booze, Campus, Free Speech. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.