The University of Oregon professor who received a trove of unredacted presidential records said he regrets that the incident has led to the discipline of the employees who released the documents.
In December the University Archives fulfilled a records request from economics professor Bill Harbaugh by giving him a zip drive containing roughly 30,000 pages of documents that university officials said included confidential staff, student and faculty records. Harbaugh subsequently returned the records.
The two staff members involved in the records release, identified by The Oregonian/Oregonlive as James Fox and Kira Homo, were initially placed on paid administrative leave.
The university released the results of an investigation into the incident Wednesday afternoon. According to university spokesman Tobin Klinger, the employees involved "will not be returning to their positions," in the Knight Library. He declined to elaborate on the terms of their departure.
Harbaugh, who runs the blog UO Matters, said he feels that university administration was embarrassed by the leaked documents and in a "shameful" decision placed the blame on the archivists.
Interim UO President Scott Coltrane termed the records release "unlawful" in a Jan. 20 email to colleagues, and later said in an interview with The Oregonian/Oregonlive that the records hadn't been properly vetted.
Harbaugh said his goal in requesting the records was to improve transparency, but he doesn't think that was accomplished. He said he'd like to see a better analysis of what belongs in the archives, what doesn't and how those decisions should be made.
"They went after the archivists, who they figured were easier to nail," said Harbaugh, who has tenure at the university. "Obviously I'm not happy about the fact that two people have lost their jobs over it."
-- Laura Frazier
503-294-4035