Kitzhaber cites reasons to remove UO president

PORTLAND – Gov. John Kitzhaber said Saturday that University of Oregon President Richard Lariviere has shown little regard for Oregon’s other universities and that the State Board of Higher Education would be “fully justified” to oust him.

A number of incidents involving Lariviere have eroded the board’s trust in the president, Kitzhaber said, including Lariviere’s decision to lobby the Legislature this year for increased independence for the UO even after the board voted not to support his proposal.

Kitzhaber also pointed to pay raises that Lariviere approved for some faculty and administrators. They came, according to the governor, after an agreement with other university presidents not to hike pay during the current two-year budget cycle.

“His decision not only undermined the board, it undermined my own directive and the credibility of my administration with the other campuses that complied with the agreement,” Kitzhaber said in a feisty, 750-word statement released by his office.

Kitzhaber said Lariviere’s decision has created difficulty for other schools and has been a barrier to completing contract negotiations with faculty at Portland State University.

Lariviere told students and faculty on Tuesday that he’d been informed his contract will not be renewed when it expires at the end of June. He blamed an “ongoing difference of opinion over the future of the UO.” Kitzhaber said the situation had nothing to do with a difference of opinion but was driven by Lariviere’s conduct.

The higher education board has scheduled a meeting for Monday afternoon to vote on Lariviere’s future. Julie Brown, a UO spokeswoman, declined to comment Saturday.

Lariviere sees the UO as Oregon’s flagship university, and he has lobbied for the school to be governed and funded independently of the state’s other six public schools governed by the Oregon University System. Kitzhaber said he personally supports considering some of Lariviere’s ideas but there’s not currently enough support in state government to enact them. And he said an “orchestrated media blitz” from the UO community in response to Lariviere’s apparent ouster has made some people even more resistant to Larivere’s ideas.

“His responsibility to the Board of Higher Education and his contribution to the larger issues and success of the entire system fall short,” Kitzhaber said. “Indeed, Dr. Lariviere’s actions have done damage to our vision for higher education and other institutions of higher learning and, ironically, have served to undercut his own aspirations for the University of Oregon.”

Lariviere’s possible ouster has angered many UO faculty members, who say he has done a lot to improve the institution since arriving from the University of Kansas in 2009. Critics have also said the UO community should have been more involved in a decision about his future.

The public portion of the higher education board’s Monday meeting begins at 3 p.m. on the Portland State University campus, and it will be streamed on the Internet. The board will meet in private beginning an hour earlier.