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Five reports on diversity are missing, office says
Affirmative action plans from 1997-2002 have disappeared,leaving administrators perplexed
by Ryan Knutson | Senior news editor
Five of the University's annual, federally mandated affirmative action plans are missing. Administrators say the reports were not created and that finalizing the plans yearly is not critical to campus diversity efforts.
But the former director of the University's Office of Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity said he recalls creating them.
If it did not update the plans, the University may not have complied with federal laws, said an affirmative action administrator at Oregon State University.
Affirmative action plans, which in-part provide the University with data about minority representation, are meant to be "evaluated, updated and reaffirmed" annually, according to the most recent plan, updated in 2004.
An economics professor searched for the plans several months ago while researching the University's Diversity Plan, and administrators eventually told him that plans from 1997-2002 are missing.
"After extensive searching and investigation, we believe that in some years, although the data was collected and analyzed, affirmative action plans were not updated or completed and the data was not retained," University General Counsel Melinda Grier wrote in an Oct. 25 e-mail to associate economics professor William Harbaugh. "We are taking steps to make certain that does not occur again."
Grier told the Emerald Friday that it is "not acceptable that they're not done," but the plans are "only one requirement that the office does."
Yet former director of the University's affirmative action office Ken Lehrman, now director of the Affirmative Action Office at Penn State University, said he had "no idea" what happened to the hard copies but that electronic data should have been retained.
Anne Gillies, affirmative action associate at Oregon State, said it seems unlikely that any affirmative action office would not finalize its plan, but she noted that every office is different.
If they were not done, then the University "would be out of compliance with federal requirements," Gillies said.
But the former director of the University's Office of Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity said he recalls creating them.
If it did not update the plans, the University may not have complied with federal laws, said an affirmative action administrator at Oregon State University.
Affirmative action plans, which in-part provide the University with data about minority representation, are meant to be "evaluated, updated and reaffirmed" annually, according to the most recent plan, updated in 2004.
An economics professor searched for the plans several months ago while researching the University's Diversity Plan, and administrators eventually told him that plans from 1997-2002 are missing.
"After extensive searching and investigation, we believe that in some years, although the data was collected and analyzed, affirmative action plans were not updated or completed and the data was not retained," University General Counsel Melinda Grier wrote in an Oct. 25 e-mail to associate economics professor William Harbaugh. "We are taking steps to make certain that does not occur again."
Grier told the Emerald Friday that it is "not acceptable that they're not done," but the plans are "only one requirement that the office does."
Yet former director of the University's affirmative action office Ken Lehrman, now director of the Affirmative Action Office at Penn State University, said he had "no idea" what happened to the hard copies but that electronic data should have been retained.
Anne Gillies, affirmative action associate at Oregon State, said it seems unlikely that any affirmative action office would not finalize its plan, but she noted that every office is different.
If they were not done, then the University "would be out of compliance with federal requirements," Gillies said.
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