UO dean shifts jobs to oversee building.

Byline: Greg Bolt The Register-Guard

The dean of the University of Oregon's highly rated College of Education is stepping aside from the post to oversee construction of a new building for the college.

Martin Kaufman, 64, also has been appointed as a distinguished professor and will help lead the numerous programs the college operates with area school districts and other community organizations. Michael Bullis, the college's senior associate dean, will serve as interim dean while a national search is conducted for a permanent replacement.

Kaufman is widely credited with salvaging the college after deep budget cuts following the 1990 passage of Measure 5 nearly eliminated the education program. Since his appointment in 1992, the college has steadily grown and now is ranked among the best programs in the country with a faculty that attracts more outside research funding than almost any other.

"Dr. Kaufman became dean at a time when the college and the university were reeling," said UO President Dave Frohnmayer. "Under his leadership, the college has moved from dealing with significant program reductions to the point where it is recognized as one of the nation's finest education colleges."

Kaufman said the move will give him a chance to focus his energy on the remaining fundraising needed for the $48 million building and ensuring it becomes a model laboratory for preparing a new generation of teachers.

"We are clearly going forward," Kaufman said Tuesday. "This is an opportunity that the president and the provost made available, and I think from the college's point of view as well as my own personal professional efforts, really the timing is quite good."

The change also comes after Kaufman weathered a rocky spring when long-term unhappiness with the college's efforts to promote diversity and train new teachers to work in increasingly multicultural classrooms boiled over. Students and diversity proponents held rallies and demanded changes at the college, prompting administrators to undertake new measures to address the issue.

Kaufman and Lorraine Davis, the UO's vice president for academic affairs, said the change has nothing to do with the diversity controversy.

"This isn't related to that specifically," Davis said. "We're just trying to maximize the leadership across all kinds of initiatives within the college. It shouldn't be viewed as a response to that but rather a way in which we can use the leadership we have in a more effective way, and hopefully we'll all be better off for it in the end."

Henry Luvert, president of the area chapter of the NAACP and one of those critical of diversity efforts at the college, said it remains to be seen whether the leadership change will lead to improvements. He said the university for too long has denied having a problem.

"It's really hard to say whether it would be a good thing or a bad thing," Luvert said. "It really depends upon the people at the very top, how serious these things are to them. If they're serious we'll see some serious, honest change, some change of attitude. They didn't see that they had a problem."

Kaufman pointed out that the university has brought in a nationally recognized consultant, Charles Cortez, to help with diversity plans and is conducting a national search for a faculty member with research expertise in multicultural education and analysis. It also has a new steering committee to direct diversity efforts and an action plan for addressing issues raised by students, among other initiatives.

He said now is a good time for the university to infuse some new energy into those efforts and others.

"It's been an extraordinary run," he said. "I don't look backwards with any regret."

Kaufman said he's honored to shepherd the new building project and continue to work closely with donors and supporters to get the best facility possible. Although the Legislature provided funds to match private donations for the building, Kaufman said more money is needed to keep up with rising costs and to purchase state-of-the-art equipment.

The amount of additional funding is still being calculated, he said. The figure will depend on the final design, particularly whether to go ahead with preliminary plans for underground parking for the building, which will be located in the southwest corner of campus off Alder Street.

With the possibility of a new basketball arena eventually rising on the opposite side of campus, Kaufman said the university is in the midst of deciding whether to address the parking issue as part of that structure rather than spreading it out over both projects.