Contact UO President Lariviere

Please hold the University administration accountable to the Community when their decisions impact us all.

President Richard Lariviere
(541) 346-3036
pres@uoregon.edu

The UO intends to begin construction of a suburban-style office complex on the banks of the Willamette River in the open space adjacent to Autzen Footbridge under a plan developed in the mid-1980s. The first increment of this development, primarily for the Oregon Research Institute (ORI), will be a four-story private office building surrounded by a sprawling 200-car surface parking lot on the riverfront.

Within the past few months, major university groups have declared opposition to construction under the outdated plan. These groups include the University Senate, the ASUO Student Senate, the faculty of all of the departments in the School of Architecture and Allied Arts and the Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation. The resolutions have passed enthusiastically because of the administration’s historical and current disregard for the voices of the greater university community regarding this issue, and the use of development and ecological principles from the last century to construct on our riverfront today.

With this challenging situation, our new UO president has an opportunity to begin working towards a relationship of mutual respect and collaboration with the university community. President Lariviere should call a halt to riverfront development plans while the 1989 Master Plan is updated through a transparent, meaningful and participatory process to match our current values and development standards. In the interim, alternate sites are available for ORI’s new building that are not on the riverfront.

Lariviere can singlehandedly turn this into a winning situation for all.

(from a letter to the EW editor, 5/13/10)