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EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — Two University of Oregon archivists are out of their jobs as a result of the release of 25,000 pages of documents from the president's office.
The school said the documents covering five years in the president's office hadn't been screened for confidential personal information or records protected by attorney-client privilege. "The employees related to this incident will not be returning to their positions in the library," spokesman Tobin Klinger said Wednesday.
An economics professor, Bill Harbaugh, got the documents through a records request. The university demanded their return after one surfaced on his blog, and he complied. The archivists were put on leave.
The school hasn't named the library workers.
The documents spanned the years 2010 through 2014, a turbulent period in which two presidents served only two years each, the Eugene Register-Guard (http://is.gd/rhlmcm) reported.
The one document that Harbaugh posted had a proposal from a former university lawyer to abolish the University Senate, a source of faculty influence on the campus. There was no evidence the idea gained traction.
Harbaugh told The Oregonian (http://is.gd/R2fjqp) that his goal in requesting the records was to improve transparency, but he doesn't think that was accomplished.
He'd like to see a better analysis of what belongs in the archives, what doesn't and how those decisions should be made, Harbaugh said.
Harbaugh has tenure, which means it would be difficult to fire him.
"They went after the archivists, who they figured were easier to nail," he said. "Obviously I'm not happy about the fact that two people have lost their jobs over it."
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Information from: The Register-Guard, http://www.registerguard.com
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