Records: University president fields questions
Continued from page 1A
notepads.
The idea was to test the school’s re
action to a student requesting budget
documents, crime reports, utility bills,
travel expenses or staff meeting min
utes, among other requests.
The University handed over seven
of 10 records requested, often in only a
matter of minutes and, to date, all
without charge. In fact, the Emerald
was not denied any request.
But when the reporters asked for
Frohnmayer’s salary, docu
ments outlining revenue
from paid admission at the
Jordan Schnitzer Museum
of Art, the Athletics Depart
ment’s contract with the
Eugene Police Department
for security at-home foot
ball games and travel ex
penses from Interim
Provost for Institutional
Equity and Diversity
Charles Martinez’s trip to
Georgia, they were told to
put the request in writing.
The Emerald was told Friday that no
documents exist regarding expenses
from Martinez’s Georgia trip.
As of Sunday at 8 p.m., the records
from the other three requests were
not received.
The museum e-mailed the wrong
records, but they weren’t attached in
the e-mail. The reporter wrote back
that the information hadn’t been at
tached and that the description of the
information wasn’t what she asked for.
She hasn’t yet heard back.
Frohnmayer told the Emerald
that he was impressed that
the University released most of the
records immediately.
“If you’re getting five-minute com
pliance here, that’s really pretty good,
compared to public agencies that I
know around the state in open govern
ment,” Frohnmayer said.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
recently reported Frohnmayer’s total
compensation package in a compari
son to other university presidents in
the nation. The Emerald on Nov. 17 re
ported Frohnmayer’s compensation
package after a public records request.
The Oregonian also reported his salary
earlier this term.
But when Emerald news reporter
Emily Smith went to Frohnmayer’s of
fice at 11:38 a.m. on Nov. 14 to request
his salary as part of the audit, she left
empty-handed. Nobody told her she
couldn’t have the records. Instead, she
was referred to General Counsel to the
University Melinda Grier’s office,
where she attempted unsuccessfully
several times over the next two days to
make contact with Grier. She was told
to submit a written request, which
she did.
Nobody from Grier’s office has con
tacted her about that request 20 days
after it was made.
University spokeswoman Pauline
Austin said on Friday that she wasn’t
sure if anyone was even aware of
bmith s request.
Grier said in an e-mail to
the Emerald that her office
tries to respond to records re
quests prompdy.
“However, the time it takes
to respond depends on the
nature of the request, the
workload in our office and
the workload in the office or
offices where the docu
ments requested are locat
ed,” the e-mail states. “This
fall our workload has been
extremely heavy. Sometimes we are
not able to provide estimates and doc
uments as quickly as we would like,
and we regret that.”
Ken Goe, an Oregonian
sports writer, said he’s been
dealing with the University
regarding records requests
for many years and has
seen a drop in the speedi
ness of responses since Gri
er took over records re
quests. Portland State
University and Oregon
State University are much
easier to deal with than Gri
er and the University, he
said.“She doesn't always necessarily
say no — she just drags her heels and
drags her heels and drags her heels,”
Goe said.
Frohnmayer said many of Goe’s
requests focus on personnel mat
ters. He added that Grier’s office is
“swamped” in work, but “Melinda’s
very conscientious about her
obligations under the law.”
He also said that her office is “the
one that has the greatest responsibility
not to screw up. So I’m not totally sur
prised that there’s a desire to be
very careful.”
Frohnmayer said he’s not surprised
that the University didn’t immediately
provide all of the records, citing several
reasons that may contribute to an in
stitution’s inability to provide all of the
records immediately: The people first
approached may not be the custodians
of the records, public officials may
need time to ensure the records are ac
curate and meet the request and they
may be concerned about violating pri
vacy laws by releasing records.
He also said officials may have secu
rity concerns in a post Sept. 11 world.
“There are lots of things that in post
9-11, pre-9-11 would have seemed very
innocuous, but people are in a very dif
ferent frame of mind,” he said. “Grant
ed some of that may even seem to ap
proach paranoia, but it’s not
unreasonable in terms of how some
people have been urged to react in
terms of those kinds of issues.”
Frohnmayer also said various feder
al and state laws protect the privacy of
students, faculty and staff and restrict
which records can be released.
He said the University has insisted
on having a general counsel on cam
pus in case public officials have
questions about which records can
be released.
“If there’s a question about it, peo
ple want to have the comfort of con
sulting legal counsel,” he said.
In the past, the University has at
tended a conterence put on
by the Oregon Attorney Gen
eral’s Office every year or
two years that cover public
records laws, Frohnmayer
said.
He said he’s sure new em
ployees are trained in com
plying with student records
policies, in particular, but
“that’s more by way of what
you can’t disclose than what
you can and should.”
He said the Emerald’s audit doesn’t
suggest to him that there’s a training
deficit, especially in light of other areas
that require training.
“If there were a persistent violator or
you had the door slammed in your
face, that would indicated training
would be needed,” he said. “Again,
based on a scan, you haven’t persuad
ed me that the University is seriously
deficient in something that indicates a
systematic or even a careless inatten
tion to the law.”
Contact the news editors at
mcnniff@dailyemerald.com &
jpaben@ daily emerald, com
News reporters Kelly Brown, Chris
Hagan and Emily Smith
contributed to this report
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