President: Toughest fights are ones nobody sees
■ Continued from Page 1A
The Oregon Campaign, which
has been a magnificent success,
just a wonderful outpouring of
philanthropy at the University, is
winding to an end. So while I
will continue to do fund-raising
on the outside for student schol
arships and for support of faculty
and for building projects, what
we’ll be doing is really preparing
and looking at prospects for an
other campaign sometime in the
future.
We have our internal process
for change, which is kind of an
innocuous name for a very, very
important introspective and out
ward-looking effort to make sure
that we really are ready for the
21st century, that we’re capable
of managing the new funding
laws. That occupied more than
200 people, faculty, staff and stu
dents last year. And I think we’ll
occupy at least that number of
minds, especially beginning this
fall as we’re putting the final so
lution phase, implementation
phase, into effect. And that
should really have a transforma
tive effect on undergraduate edu
cation, on the way we reach out
to other constituencies. That
takes a lot of leadership and a lot
of time.
I’ll be teaching a freshman
seminar. I’ll be teaching part of a
law course later in the year. I like
to be in the classroom, as well. It
keeps my mind alive.
Q; Has the Asian market crisis
j affected the University?
A; Less than we might have
i feared. We won’t know un
til the official numbers come in
at the end of the fourth week of
October. While we have lost
some students and others have
suffered serious family finan
cial hardship, I have not yet
been told of any significant
downturn in our international
students who come from Asian
countries.
QHow do you think students
I perceive you?
A I can only tell you how I
i hope they perceive me,
which is open, accessible, not
afraid of new ideas, someone
who really cares passionately
about the quality of education
that we offer in terms of how it
affects student lives and some
one who wants to make a differ
ence for this institution.
QWhat are a few key issues
that you think students are
facing?
A] I think one of them is their
.i involvement in the whole
process for change because it’s
one of the major sets of focus.
It’s really the quality and rele
vance of an undergraduate ed
ucation for the rest of their
lives. Not merely in the mar
ketplace, not merely for what
they choose to do as a job or
profession or occupation, but
in terms of enriching their
lives culturally, civically —
helping students understand
how to learn through the
course of a lifetime, which is
really going to be a survival
skill, based upon the pace of
change that continues to accel
erate. So that’s one major set of
issues that I hope students are
involved in.
A second is I hope they will
vote. Traditionally, every other
year has had the most successful
voter registration drives of any
campus in the country, and I
hope we continue to aspire
through our student leadership to
that same level of involvement in
the political system because it’s
clear that system makes choices
that affect the quality of students’
education and their ability to get
it.
Q| What is your ideal ASUO
executive?
A Accessible, honest, willing
to work as partners, willing
to talk openly about differences
when they exist, and willing to
help round the edges of some of
the conflicts that always arise,
sometimes even among students
themselves.
We’re asking for leadership
that can be trusted and leader
ship that is honest and able in its
ability to identify priorities on
behalf of all the students.
QYou were a proponent of
the Oregon University Sys
tem changing the system so that
universities keep their own tu
ition and fees. How do you
think that will affect the Univer
sity of Oregon and other schools
in the state?
A I think it will have a very
! positive impact, and the
system has been constructed so
that no one ends up a loser. That
means if the legislature and the
governor fund this new model at
the level where it’s shown the
base budget shortfalls have al
ways been hit, this is a much
more transparent system of fi
nancing in the sense that once
you eliminate these hidden, se
cret cross-subsidies, you begin
to see how underfunded every
institution has been relative to
its mission. So that, we hope,
will make our ability to make
the case for restoration of state
funding much more compelling.
Q Are there any changes you
! would like to see on campus?
A I think we’re engaged in a
i process of continuous
change. Our core mission hasn’t
changed. We’re still in the busi
ness of knowledge, transforming
lives through knowledge. But
how one does that, and the tech
niques and tools you use change
with technology.
Thanks to the brilliance of our
people who do network engi
neering, we have one of the finest
campus computer systems in the
world, and really at a fraction of
the cost that others have invest
ed, and 1 expect us to continue to
be a leader in the field of infor
mation technology. I don’t expect
that to replace the classroom, but
I do think that it is a valuable ad
junct to the teacher-student
learner relationship.
Qj What have you learned
since becoming president?
At I’ve learned that some of the
i toughest battles you fight
are ones that nobody else ever
sees.
The most persistent need that
I have come across is to tell our
story to the external world in as
compelling a way as I can. I
think in some people’s percep
tion, we were more inward look
ing than we should have been,
and now I think that percep
tion’s changed, that we are the
University of Oregon, all of Ore
gon, we are the state’s premier
liberal arts and sciences univer
sity, and that carries with it
obligations as well as opportuni
ties. And I think the state is rec
ognizing that.
I feel good about our efforts at
outreach and what that has done
for the status of the University.
So telling our story inside and
telling it outside are two major
aspects of my job.
QWhat do you see as your fu
ture at the University?
A I hope that by the time my
j tenure has concluded here
— whenever that is — that there
will be a revision of the funding
model that’s permanently in
place, that we will be able to re
ward enterprise, good teaching,
high quality, that we continue to
maintain and enhance our
stature within the research com
munity as being an institution
where the discovery of knowl
edge and transmission of knowl
edge is prized and is recognized
internationally.
There will be some bricks and
mortar additions that are very
welcome. It’s interesting to see
all the construction on campus
from the student recreation cen
ter, which is I think — it’s not in
the center of the campus. It repre
sents the fact that students are
central to why we're here and we
have the University.
When Grayson Hall comes on
line, we’ll probably see a change
in student traffic patterns be
cause all of a sudden a lot of un
dergraduates will be going over
to the northwest corner of cam
pus as well.
So I think the campus culture
will continue to evolve and will
— I hope — maintain the sense
of community, a learning com
munity that the University of
Oregon has been renowned for
through the years.
Q! Before joining the Universi
ty faculty, you were the at
torney general of Oregon and
you ran for state governor. Do
you see a political future for
yourself?
A I don’t have plans to run for
elective office. At the same
time, the nature of the job is
such that you’re never really out
of politics, or at least the politi
cal system.
QI)o you think there is an av
erage student at the Univer
sity of Oregon?
A! Maybe. We’re always deal
.j ing in stereotypes when you
say that.
I think the average student is
engaged, is interested, is general
ly optimistic, wants to make a
difference in the future for the
better in the world. I think the av
erage student here is looking to
have his or her horizons
widened. I think they see this as
a place of exploration and dis
covery.
Probably the average student
from time to time feels over
whelmed, and yet finds at this
time in his or her life that this is
a time to come to terms and dis
cover yourself, discover how you
fit into the world of other people.
And probably this is a student
who’s at least somewhat appre
hensive about the future. Not re
ally, "What am I going to do?
What am I going to be?” But,
“What’s the world going to be
like? Am I going to be ready for
the world’s fight?”
I don’t know if there’s anything
distinctly Oregonian about that,
but I’d say that the average stu
dent’s glad to be here, appreci
ates the natural environment, is
devoted to the outdoors, proba
bly very fond of the campus, not
withstanding the occasional peri
od of adversity that any person,
let alone any student, runs
across.
Q; How do you think the Dan
! ta Graham-Preston case
has affected the University?
A: The case isn’t over. It has
i been a very difficult case for
a great number of people irre
spective of their view of the mer
its of the case.
There has also been an enor
mous amount of misinformation
about it, which frustrates me as a
person who has had to take an of
ficial role in that case. A great
number of opinions were
reached quite apart from what
the specific facts were alleged to
be. Maybe that’s in the nature of
things, but it’s quite unfortunate
that it’s focused on a person by
name for a lot of reasons.
QHow do you think athletics
fit into the University?
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