State Rep.

said Tuesday that he plans to request a hearing by the House Committee on Higher Education and Workforce Development into the process used by the University of Oregon to hire football coach Mark Helfrich.

Greenlick was

, which requires the state's public universities to interview at least one qualified minority candidate before hiring a head coach in any sport. There is no penalty for failing to comply.

Oregon named Helfrich to succeed the departed Chip Kelly on Sunday after a whirlwind three-day search that

. Helfrich is white.

"I think they gamed the system," Greenlick said. "I think they followed the letter of the law, but not the spirit of the law."

Mullens did not respond to multiple attempts to reach him on Tuesday.

Craig Pintens, Oregon's senior associate athletic director for marketing and public relations, would not consent to a phone interview on Tuesday.

By email, Pintens responded to half of the questions with the line:

"We maintain the confidentiality of specific candidates."

Mullens has said he interviewed five candidates, including two qualified minority candidates. He has refused to reveal publicly the names of the people he interviewed.

There have been multiple published reports that

, an African American.

According to the reports, Mullens and Hamilton talked on Friday, the same day

with the Indianapolis Colts and Mullens has said he decided to promote Helfrich.

Greenlick said he has questions about the timing of Oregon's interview of Hamilton, and whether it was conducted in good faith.

He said he hopes to ask Mullens these questions during the committee hearing.

Published reports have indicated there were two other in-house candidates,

. Neither is a minority.

The identity of the fifth candidate is unclear.

and Arizona running backs coach Calvin Magee have been mentioned. Both are African Americans. Whether Mullens interviewed one or both, or whether discussions he had with either came after the UO head-coach job officially opened is uncertain.

In his email on Tuesday, Pintens wrote:

Yes, we interviewed a minority candidate prior to Wednesday, January 16, 2013."

Portland activist Sam Sachs, who helped the push the diversity law through the Legislature in 2009, said an interview conducted before the job opened would not be compliant with the diversity law.

There were multiple published reports citing anonymous sources that

before Kelly left.

Mullens has denied this. But he selected Helfrich less than 72 hours after the job officially opened.

"I feel like Mullens is sending out mixed messages," Sachs said. "He says he needs to protect the privacy of the candidates. They leak out Pep Hamilton's name but won't release other names. I want to know how many applications they got and what their screening process was. I want to know that they did their due diligence."

Sachs has questions but no answers. Mullens isn't returning his calls.

"I'm only one guy," he said. "At some point the bigger stakeholders in this, the governor, the state affirmative action office, Mitch need to get on board to hold the schools accountable."

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