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The sudden departure of yet another University of Oregon president leaves more questions hanging than answered about why the state's premiere university can't keep a leader.
Michael Gottfredson quit yesterday after only two years on the job, and one year short off the end of his three-year contract to run the UO. The change comes as the new University of Oregon Board of Trustees begins to take a firmer hold on the direction of the university.
In his resignation letter, Gottfredson—hired two years ago from the University of California, Irvine—said he got done what he sought to do at UO and he wanted to return to his scholarly work. "My scholarly interests beckon, and (wife) Karol and I are eager to spend more time with our family,â he said.
UO Board of Trustee members aren't talking, aside from a canned, cautious statement from Chairman Chuck Lillis.
Gottfredson replaced the controversial but popular (in university circles, anyway) Richard Lariviere, who proposed sweeping changes in the way UO was governed. Gov. John Kitzhaber and his State Board of Higher Education fired the independent-minded Lariviere in November 2011.
The Oregonian's Betsy Hammond fairly sums up some of the major pressures on Gottfredson:
As Hammond points out, the "wanting to spend more time with family" trope is a clear sign he was shown the door.
Certainly the sex scandal involving allegations of rape against three UO basketball players—and the UO's unsuccessful efforts to keep it quiet in its massive mishandling of the case—didn't help.
The irony here is that Gottfredson is by training a criminologist, who developed a theory as to why criminals act the way they
do—called the self-control theory of crime. The publisher of Gottfredson's landmark
book on the topic (written with Travis Hirschi) says, according to Gottfredson "the
essential element of criminality is the absence of self-control. Persons with
high self-control consider the long-term consequences of their behavior; those
with low self-control do not. Such control is learned, usually early in life,
and once learned, is highly resistant to change."
What's the real reason Gottfredson—who made $440,000 a year as UO president—is leaving?
The Register-Guard's Diane Dietz may have gotten closest to the truth about Gottfredson's departure. She interviewed Bill Harbaugh—a UO professor, persistent critic and author of the blog UOMatters—to weigh in.
Here's what Harbaugh told the R-G:
UPDATED: The Oregonian's Hammond this morning came
back at the question of Gottfredson's fund-raising prowess. Her conclusion: He
wasn't all that different from presidents who came before him:
UPDATED: The UO's board of trustees on Thursday night appointed former dean Scott Coltrane as the university's new interim president. He's expected to serve for at least a year while the board searches for a replacement.
In an email to campus, board president Chuck Lillis hailed Coltrane's accomplishments:
They also agreed to write Gottfredson a severance check of $940,000 The Emerald's Troy Brynelson reports.
WWeek 2015