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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 30, 2011)
opinion Oregon Drops the Ball on UO Leader “Challenging people to Shape a better future now” b ernIe f oSTer Founder/Publisher b obbIe D ore f oSTer executive editor T eD b ankS advertising Manager j errY f oSTer account executive l ISa l ovIng news editor H elen S IlvIS Multimedia editor D avID k IDD graphic Designer m onICa j. f oSTer Seattle office Coordinator j ulIe k eefe S uSan f rIeD Photographers The Skanner Newspaper, established in October 1975, is a weekly publica- tion, published each Wednesday by IMM Publications Inc., 415 N. Killingsworth St., P.O. Box 5455, Portland, OR 97228. Telephone (503) 285-5555. E-mail: info@theskanner.com World Wide Web site: http://www.theskanner.com Fax: (503) 285-2900 the Skanner is a member of the National Newspaper Pub lishers Association and West Coast Black Pub - lishers Association. All photos submitted become the property of the Skanner. We are not re - spon sible for lost or damaged photos either solicited or unsolicited. © 2011 the Skanner. ALL RIGHTS RE SERVED. REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART WITHOUT PERMISSION PROHIBITED. knowing What’s Important Can Change Your life! Subscribe to The Skanner – don’t miss an issue! please sign me up for: q 1 year $74 q 2 year $140 q New Subscription q Renewal ________________________ name _________________ address _________________ City _________________ State ______ ZIp ________ phone Mail with check or money order to: The Skanner P.O. Box 5455 Portland, OR 97228 page 4 The Portland Skanner U niversity of Oregon President Richard Lariviere has been fired over alleged “insubordination.” We’re not surprised. We see it every day in Oregon — anybody who has a good idea is labeled an outcast. We can identify with that. But what’s especially disturbing is how unprofessional the State Board of Higher Education has been over this situation. They agree Lariviere has been an effec- tive and charismatic leader but when it comes to explaining exact- ly why they’re booting him out before the end of his contract the language gets fuzzy: “style differ- ences” seem to be the final verdict. What it all boils down to is that Lariviere wouldn’t stay on his leash. Not only that, he called state officials on the fact that only a fraction of UO’s funding comes from the state anymore anyway – but the state still wants full control over the university’s business. That would be fine except the state has for generations obviously lacked any good ideas for running the university system, otherwise the community college system wouldn’t have surpassed it in size and scope, as it has. While the Oregon Board of Higher Education fumes over whether or not Lariviere has dam- aged their weak excuses for future planning, other state officials are ranting about the nerve of the administrator who came up with his own ideas – rather than going along to get along like the other college presidents are apparently f rom THe p ublISHer Bernie Foster expected to do. Did the UO president rock the boat? Good. Because in a state that spends more money on incarcerat- ing offenders than nurturing col- lege students, someone should be hollering at the top of their lungs speaks for itself. But evaluating his performance requires more,” Kitzhaber wrote. “His responsibil- ity to the Board of Higher Education and his contribution to the larger issues and success of the entire system fall short.” In other words – he didn’t do as he was told. Late Monday Lariviere sent out his own comments to the media: “Oregonians deserve better than struggling to avoid mediocrity. If we hope to find a way out of this march to mediocrity in public higher education, Oregonians deserve our best thinking about new approaches,” he wrote. “They ‘Oregonians deserve better than struggling to avoid mediocrity’ --Richard Lariviere about it. And that’s exactly what Lariviere did, even as he steadily built positive relationships with communities of color around the state. Saturday morning we received a long email from Gov. John Kitzhaber detailing all the ways that Lariviere failed to do as he was told. But is that his job? It appears that the governor wanted a Yes Man rather than a strategic leader dedicated to pulling the University of Oregon out of the flames of our state’s economy. “Dr. Lariviere’s popularity in the University of Oregon community deserve our willingness to engage in uncomfortable conversations that may challenge long-standing practices.” Earlier this year Lariviere trav- eled all the way from Eugene to North Portland, where he and for- mer State Sen. Margaret Carter – who hosted his trip – spoke with our staff about the idea of creating an automatic admission system at UO for students at Jefferson High School. “I strongly believe that students of color have a significant contri- bution to make within the University community – and it’s a contribution that we are sorely lacking,” he said. “What if we could find a way to ensure that stu- dents of color had an opportunity to obtain an education the University of Oregon?” Months later, the “middle cam- pus” program at Jefferson High School was officially announced, fulfilling the question he posed— with the partnership of nearly half a dozen educational and govern- mental institutions stretched halfway across the state. That’s the kind of leadership we can believe in, not the governor ranting about why his orders are being ignored. what do you think? post your comment on articles in The Skanner News at www.theskanner.com New York Life: Parades and ‘Nut Drivers’ “J immy, Jimmy...give this man what he wants but DON’T HELP HIM.” It all started innocently enough with the purchase of a “nut driver” at my (former) favorite neighbor- hood hardware store. Normally, I would have searched out the tool myself but the nut drivers were hanging high above me so I asked “Jimmy” for assistance. I handed him the nut I needed to drive and he selected the tool. Unfortunately, when I got the tool home, it was the wrong size. I took it back. The manager was nearly apoplectic that I wanted to return the tool despite the fact that his employee had picked it out for me. So…. Jimmy was loudly instructed to not help me anymore. Finally, a New York shop keeper worthy of my disdain! Now, it took me five months to come across such a jerk but, yet, many of our out-of-town friends would fully expect to encounter this type of treatment the minute they set foot in New York City. An Australian colleague, here on a business trip, recently asked me if it was safe to ride the subway to reach our apartment at 7 p.m. He, of course, didn’t realize that 7 p.m. is still rush hour, but, even if he had said 11 p.m., I would have told him it was safe. Old stereotypes about this town die hard. One thing that hasn’t changed about New York is the need for resolve. I ride the train (subway) to work. One many days, I’m faced with a dilemma. A seat-hog november 30, 2011 p orTlanDer In nYC Jeff Tryens will, for either physio- or psycho- logical reasons, occupy way more than one seat. Sometimes two seat hogs will sit next to one another hogging a middle third seat. Sure, I could just stand there waiting for a seat to open up at Times Square, OR I could plop myself down, cut- ting right through the hogger’s lit- My favorite part of the parade was the float representing the Oneida Indian Nation. It was a fantastic combination of Oneida beliefs, note creation story giant turtle (Oops, sorry about that miss- ing head.), and total kitsch, note, well, the whole float. I understand that the Oneida’s gambling opera- tions give them the luxury to be in the parade, but I admire their attempts to marry traditional beliefs with the dominant culture. Assuming, of course, it’s not a A seat-hog will, for either physio- or psychological reasons, occupy way more than one seat tle “I dare you” shield. Well, believe me, that requires resolve to do on a regular basis. I enjoyed my first perk of the job this weekend. I was a winner in the Mayor’s office lottery for bleacher tickets to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. What a scene. The same number of people that live in the entire state of Oregon line the streets of New York to watch this extravaganza. It was really fun but a little disap- pointing. After you’ve seen 20 giant balloons, number 21 looks a lot the same. Same goes for weird- ly dressed marching band majorettes. And so on. There’s a kind of corporatized sameness to the procession that’s just a little boring. cynical attempt to fit in allowing them to maintain their monopoly on the lucrative gambling trade. Nah. Every once in a while I am struck with disbelief that we’re actually living in Manhattan. The other evening Pat and I stood on a high rock in lower Central Park overlooking a busy ice skating rink framed with trees in the fore- ground, tall buildings in the back- ground all set off by a gorgeous pink sky. Stunning. And to think we were just taking a little detour (that also included Rockefeller Plaza) on our way to a see a movie. It felt like we were in a movie! Work has been a little more chal- lenging for me since city govern- ment started pushing back against the Occupy Wall Street movement. I haven’t had to do anything that I found distasteful but being on the other side of the metaphorical fence when the pushing and shov- ing starts is no fun. I find it very unfortunate that a group who’s purpose is to expose the increasing wealth disparities in this country by focusing on corporate greed has, in the process, made life mis- erable for some of the country’s most progressive mayors. My latest challenge - I’m hiring a statistician to develop a new project in Operations based on a concept called predictive analyt- ics. By integrating data from lots of different sources, we’re going to try to predict the likelihood of problems arising in the future. For instance, we’re already looking at how to better predict which acci- dents will result in successful claims against city government. A colleague has created a program that spits out a weekly list of the 25 residential buildings at highest risk of a catastrophic fire based on six different variables his team examines. The idea is use these techniques to better marshal scarce prevention resources. Anyway, I’m hoping that the help in my new favorite hardware store (which looks amazingly like my old hardware store) will be nicer. Who, after all, wants to live in a neighborhood without a decent hardware store?
