Dear Colleagues:

By now you will have heard that Phil Knight, concerned over our campus's decision to join the Workers Rights Consortium, has announced that he is curtailing future personal donations to the University of Oregon.

When I heard the news, I released the following short statement:

"Phil Knight's generosity to the University of Oregon is a matter of record. His gifts have significantly helped our students, our faculty, our entire university. Our campus and the people of Oregon owe him a debt of gratitude. We are very disappointed to hear that he plans to curtail future contributions to the University of Oregon. I still hope to speak with him in person, and look forward to working with him in the future."

Let me add this: Before we joined the WRC, our campus went through a process of many months of study, debate, discussion and votes. We did not join until the issue had been reviewed for some months by a campus committee that included faculty, students, and alumni, and recommendations had been registered by student government (seconded by a student vote) and a vote of the University Senate. Across the board, the recommendation was to join the WRC. It was not a decision reached in haste or made casually.

Nor was it made without recognizing that the WRC is a work in progress, not a perfect solution. I added my concerns to those of a number of other member universities in my letter of April 13 to the WRC, when I wrote: "In joining the WRC, we do have the same concerns a large number of your member universities have already expressed. They include: governance (insuring proper influence for university members; more clarity regarding selection of advisory board members); membership balance (little or no business or corporation participation); transparency (meetings and outcomes being closed to the media and non-member observers - a particular concern for us as we are an open meeting state and an open meeting institution); and disclosure of all contributors and their affiliations."

It is never a good thing to lose the support of a graduate of the University of Oregon, especially one who has been as generous and loyal as Phil Knight. But the process we followed to make this decision was, I believe, appropriate. In a year, following the wishes of the University Senate, we will review the progress of the WRC. In the meantime, I hope that you understand my reasoning in this issue, and look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Dave Frohnmayer

Dave Frohnmayer President University of Oregon (541) 346-3036 FAX (541) 346-3017 pres@oregon.uoregon.edu