The University of Oregon agreed to pay a $90,000 settlement to fired Oregon Bach Festival Artistic Director Matthew Halls this week, in the midst of a public relations disaster over his abrupt termination in August.

Under the terms of the settlement, which the UO released in response to a media request, Halls agreed not to sue the UO, and both parties agreed to make no "negative or disparaging" written or oral statements about each other, publicly or privately, in "any medium."

The agreement, first reported by The New York Times, also specifies that both the UO and Halls must give each other 24 hours notice when they receive press inquiries. The university must give Halls the same notice if it receives requests for public records. Both parties will respond to such requests "in a cooperative manner," the settlement stipulates.

The $90,000 payment to Halls, almost equivalent to one year's pay from the UO to him under his terminated contract, resolves a dispute about how much the UO owed him after ending his contract without cause on Aug. 24. Under UO contract policy, the university was allowed to end his contract with 30 days notice, meaning Halls was technically under contract until Sept. 24.

Halls signed the settlement on Tuesday, the same day both parties issued conciliatory and seemingly coordinated statements lauding the Oregon Bach Festival.

Neither Tuesday statement, however, provided any further clarity about why the UO terminated Halls, an independent contractor, just two months after it signed him to a new four-year contract and gave him a large raise.

And neither statement responded to a claim by a friend of Halls, classical singer Reginald Mobley, that the UO fired Halls after the festival received a complaint about a perceived racist joke by Halls.

Mobley, who is African-American, told the Daily Telegraph in London over the weekend that Halls imitated a Southern accent while telling him a joke. Mobley said he was not offended by Halls' comment, but believes Halls was fired after a white woman overheard the joke and reported it to UO officials, claiming it amounted to a racial slur.

An UO spokesman said that report was "incorrect."

Halls' firing has rocked patrons of the Bach Festival, a mainstay in Eugene's arts community that's been around since 1970. Festival supporters and people within the classical music festival industry have widely questioned the validity the UO's formal explanation: that Halls was fired simply because the UO was changing how the festival would operate.

The UO administers the summer Bach Festival, which is funded through donations, grants and ticket sales. In its statement Tuesday, the UO attempted to quell speculation that Halls' exit could spell the end for the festival.

-- The Associated Press