Say What Will You About Lariviere …
He knows a thing or two about writing to an audience. University president Richard Lariviere has a commentary piece in today’s Register-Guard, wherein he expounds on why the University, Eugene and the state of Oregon are his kind of place.
The sense of wonder I feel about Oregon and its flagship university is as potent now as on my first day — the character of the people, the quality of the institution, the geography, the colors, the perfect temperatures and the fun peculiarities of this community. Only a great place can claim Wayne Morse and Bill Bowerman among its heroes, have a statue of Ken Kesey in its civic square and crown a Slug Queen each year. Eugene exudes innovation, originality and extraordinary excellence.
Do you see what he did there? Lariviere invoked all of Eugene’s major cultural touchstones: old hippies, track and field and endemic celebrations of our own counter-culture. Well played, sir.
In the rest of the guest commentary, Lariviere touts the University, its faculty and its mad research skills:
In 2008-09 fiscal year, our sponsored research programs brought in more than $100 million in grants and contracts, much of it directly related to research discoveries and commercial applications. External funding has consistently increased for the past decade. The University of Oregon is now among the top universities in the United States in terms of its return on research through licensing of technologies.
Beyond a passion for teaching and research that is second to none, there is a drive for innovation, collaboration and interdisciplinary exploration that I have not experienced on any other campus. A new academic plan, called “Big Ideas,” brings faculty and students together in new ways to answer broad questions about society and our world. This is another example of how the UO is on the leading edge in higher education.
Over at UO Matters, the author is nonplussed:
[N]ice words, but we got those from Frohnmayer all the time – prestigious AAU membership, extraordinary faculty, opportunity for students – yada yada. Reads like Frohnmayer’s speechwriter wrote it. (Yup, same guy.) This is just cheap talk. Lariviere needs to make some changes very soon or we really will have a union.
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[...] at the Ol’dirty our favorite Emerald staffer, CJ Ciaramella has a great blog post on UO President Richard Lariviere’s guest commentary piece in Sunday’s Register Guard. [...]