University coach-hiring practices scrutinized

Oregon public universities could face sanctions for not interviewing minority applicants for top athletic positions if lawmakers change the rules in 2015.

The House Interim Committee on Higher Education and Workforce Development heard testimony Monday on the effectiveness of the state’s version of the “Rooney Rule.”

The bill was passed in 2009 and requires public universities to interview at least one minority candidate when hiring for athletic director or head coaching positions, though it does not include a penalty for noncompliance.

However, the changes the committee is considering would add provisions for oversight and sanctions for violators.

“I think they (the schools) are doing the best that they can, but I think they need some help,” saidSam Sachs, a Portland activist who supported House Bill 3118’s passage in 2009.“I think some aren’t doing enough.”

Sachs pushed for Monday’s legislative meeting. He would like the state to review the universities’ hiring practices under the law and see what has worked and what hasn’t.

“If you look at (the law) in sports lingo, there have been some wins, some losses and some ties,” Sachs said.

He referenced the University of Oregon’s 2012 hire of head track coach Robert Johnson, who is black, as one of thewins. Some schools, including Oregon State, have violated the law, which were losses, he said.

He also would like to see a state oversight body created to monitor compliance as well as provisions to sanction schools that don’t follow the law.

Sachs also would like the use of affirmative action waivers minimized. The waivers allow athletic departments to bend their university’s affirmative action rules when they need to hire someone quickly.

Meg Reeves, General Counsel for Oregon State University, addressed the committee about her university’s violation of the “Rooney” law when they hired head softball coach Laura Berg in 2012.

Reeves said the incident raised Oregon State’s awareness of the law and that the school is now complying with it.

She said that hiring Berg helped the university meet its own diversity goals since she is a woman. Berg was one of only three women among the university’s 17 head coaches at the time.

Reeves suggested that if the committee chooses to review the law, it should consider adding women as one of the minority groups.

“Women are clearly under-represented in the head coaching ranks, and it’s not apparent to us why the statute does not include women as minorities,” she said.

She added that Oregon State doesn’t feel a penalty is necessary or appropriate for schools that don’t follow the law.

Rep. Mitch Greenlick, D-Portland, who sponsored the original bill, echoed her sentiment: “It’s always been my position that you really don’t need sanctions, that our institutions want to follow the law and the rules.”

After the meeting, Sachs said Greenlick informed him that he intends to sponsor a bill in the next legislative session that will create a way to monitor university compliance, and that he would also consider adding women as a minority group.

cstaver@StatesmanJournal.com