James Fox

James Fox, head of the University of Oregon Special Collections Library in Eugene, Ore., looks over papers from the late Oregon author Ken Kesey acquired by the University of Oregon for $1.4 million in 2013. In January, UO administrators placed Fox and another archivist on paid leave, citing an allegedly release of presidential archives containing confidential student, faculty and staff information. More than 100 faculty members have signed a letter urging administrators to reinstate Fox and renew his contract, which expires June 30.

((AP Photo/The Register-Guard, Chris Pietsch, 2013))

More than 100 University of Oregon faculty members have signed a

suspended after a records release that UO's interim president called unlawful.

The continuing controversy, and debate over weakened confidentiality at UO's counseling center, are setting administrators' nerves on edge as a presidential search enters a critical stage. Trustees don't want divisiveness to rile candidates as they discuss which of four finalists to pick as the university's next leader.

The April 3 letter, sent to UO Interim President Scott Coltrane and other top administrators, said university managers have failed to manage records properly and to give librarians enough resources to handle them. It said that James Fox, the archivist on paid administrative leave, had helped to fix a longstanding, "deplorable" records situation, and should not be fired.

"We urgently request that this case be revisited immediately and that James Fox's contract be renewed," the letter said. "We request as well that the records-management function be placed in a more suitable and better-resourced unit on campus."

The suspension in January of Fox and another archivist, Kira Homo, caused political turmoil as Coltrane urgently sought return of 30,000 pages of presidential records released on request in digital form by the UO's Special Collections and University Archives.

Professor Bill Harbaugh, an economist and blogster who turned out to have the records, returned them. Coltrane said the files from multiple UO administrations contained confidential faculty, staff and student information.

During a Feb. 13 interview in Portland, Coltrane said that archivists, not staff members in the president's office, were responsible for identifying and removing the confidential information before giving out a USB key. But mystery lingers concerning details of the release and the decision to suspend the archivists.

Homo, who was secretary of the university union, United Academics, resigned March 1 from her position as digital archivist to work full-time toward a doctoral degree. A union statement said: "The fracas surrounding the records release made this decision easier to make."

Fox, director of the Special Collections and University Archives division, remains suspended. But on Friday, UO spokesman Tobin Klinger said Fox is still employed until June 30.

"The university did not renew his contract," however, Klinger said.

Regina Psaki, a professor of Italian language and literature, said Friday that she had written the letter calling for Fox's reinstatement, and had gathered signatures of 103 faculty members.

"The UO administration didn't give as much consideration to the role Fox has played in facilitating faculty research and teaching with Special Collections materials, or in developing new special collections, as it did to finding someone to blame and punish for the release of one embarrassing document," Psaki wrote in an email. "It's a great loss to faculty and students alike."

Fox declined to comment on the letter or his situation.

Harbaugh said Friday that he actually posted two items from the trove before returning the zip drive. One was a UO lawyer's 2012 memo advocating dissolution of the Faculty Senate.

The other was an e-mail string that Harbaugh said showed that two UO publicists "ghost wrote" an article for Robin Holmes, vice president for student life. Holmes' byline appeared on a July 15 Register-Guard "guest viewpoint" op-ed defending the university's response to an alleged rape of an unidentified woman by three UO basketball players.

The letter supporting Fox noted that administrators have still not made public full results of an investigation into the archives release. The letter also cited a 2013 external consultant's report that said records management did not belong in the library.

Klinger said Friday that he could not immediately locate the report. Asked for comment on the faculty letter, he wrote in an email:

"The university appreciates these faculty members voicing their support for James Fox and respects their desire to do so. This remains a personnel matter and I am not going to comment further at this time."

The letter said Fox had worked with colleagues since his arrival in 2000 to improve records management. The letter said Fox had painstakingly cultivated relations with donors.

"The kinds of collections he has brought to the UO do not come knocking on their own," the letter said. "They require patient, sensitive, informed and dedicated relationship building and expertise to bring them here."

The letter said Fox's abrupt dismissal would cause a rupture with donors. It has already damaged the trust of UO faculty and staff, the letter said.

The letter said: "We are concerned that the widespread negative press on top of his firing will have severe professional, financial and psychological consequences for a colleage whom we value greatly."

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