UO president to step down next year

PORTLAND – After 14 years as president of the University of Oregon, Dave Frohnmayer is retiring.

Frohnmayer previously was the state’s attorney general and ran as the Republican candidate for governor in 1990, losing to Democrat Barbara Roberts.

A native Oregonian, Frohnmayer oversaw the emergence of the University of Oregon as an athletic powerhouse and a building boom on campus, as well as a fundraising campaign, the largest in Oregon history, that’s raised $759 million so far.

Oregon University System Chancellor George Pernsteiner said a search for a new president would begin immediately, and he expects to have a candidate before Frohnmayer steps down in the summer of 2009.

In a letter to Pernsteiner and Gov. Ted Kulongoski, Frohnmayer said he intended to return to teaching and “other pursuits.”

He is a tenured professor at the university’s law school and teaches an undergraduate seminar on leadership theories.

In an interview Tuesday morning, Frohnmayer said he was proud of the university’s ability to grow and thrive in many areas despite the sharp decline in state funding over the years.

He said he would continue to lobby for more state support for higher education, and for the university to have more direct control over its own finances and revenues.