The University of Oregon is searching for a president after Michael Gottfredson abruptly walked out of Johnson Hall for good in the middle of last week. In a letter to the university, the now ex-president said he wanted to spend more time with his family and return to the book-diving ways of academia.

Yet, questions hang over the announcement around why he would step down immediately versus give notice and serve until his permanent replacement is found. Why resign from a contract renewed last November? What exactly was Gottfredson’s reasons for stepping down? Was the decision his alone?

Regardless, Gottfredson lasted little over a month after the university’s Board of Trustees came to power on July 1. And when the Board of Trustees convened last Thursday there was little elaboration on these questions.

Board chairman Chuck Lillis, a businessman who prospered running an internet provider in the mid-90s, wouldn’t point out any single issue. Raising funds was Gottfredson’s main duty, he has said in the past. And in the two years of Gottfredson’s tenure, the University of Oregon collected over $300 million in donations – though it may be fair to say that those streams of donations were already in place before Gottfredson took over. Last year’s totals breached the $200 million mark and was the second most successful year in school history. Still, Gottfredson is gone.

There was also last summer, when UO teachers finally unionized to author a contract with the administration. Gottfredson was no where to be seen during the bargaining, which slighted many.

Gottfredson was also mired in the university’s image problems. Faculty and students alike were dumb-founded by the university’s public relations bobbling in the wake of allegations that three members of the Oregon men’s basketball team sexually assaulted a female student. Lillis elected not to point to any action taken as a final straw.

“I will say that very few people in the media have a very sophisticated understanding of the very tough network to protect students rights. That decreases the freedom to do things,” Lillis said on Thursday. “For example, the board pretty routinely kept saying ‘Can’t we say anything?’ and I know every time I asked that question I was convinced the answer was ‘No’ for a very good reason.”

Regardless, that day the board voted to accept Gottfredson’s resignation, give him $940,000 in severance and offer provost Scott Coltrane the post of interim president while a search committee finds a permanent replacement. Coltrane became — including himself and last interim Bob Berdahl — the fifth president in seven years for the UO.

Coltrane’s appointment has been lauded around the university. There’s of course always still time for opinions to change, and its a president’s job to take brunt of the blame should anything go awry while he’s working in that capacity, but administrators tell the Emerald that the former dean is more than capable.

Coltrane has been at UO since 2008, first serving as the dean of the biggest department on campus — the College of Arts and Sciences. Enrollment surged during that time and Coltrane has been lauded for how he handled the crowding classrooms.

“[Coltrane succeeded at] handling stresses in terms of space and allocating resources to make sure students received a good education,” said W. Andrew Marcus, who is the current interim dean. “He was instrumental in making sure all those things happened. There was a 20 percent jump across the whole university, but almost all students take classes in the college of arts and sciences.”

Before that, Coltrane was posted at the University of California, Riverside, as a professor and associate dean. He had only been officially named provost since February before the board trusted him with the interim presidency last week. By holding open meetings with faculty about his plans for the university, Coltrane endeared himself to the professors.

“He’s very calm, he’s very measured, and he’s always very clear,” said Brad Shelton, interim vice president of research and innovation at UO. “You can trust him to make a careful and well-considered decision on things. You can always trust him to be very fair and to take into account everyone’s point of view.”

The University of Oregon is changing rapidly. With the Board of Trustees in place and booming enrollment numbers, the functions of being the president are also fluctuating. Some days the president will be raising funds from donors, some days the president may be in Salem lobbying. Regardless, the Board of Trustees is still figuring out its own flex across the state. Lillis said on Thursday that Coltrane won’t have to worry about “external constituencies” – donors, politicians, etc. because the board will, while searching for Gottfredson’s permanent replacement.

Instead, Coltrane will be a “super provost,” talking to faculty publicly about how the university is going adjust to swelling enrollment and to bolster research through the new “clusters of excellence” program that will hire 40 new professors to research departments. Coltrane will pick up the president’s $540,000 a year salary and move into the presidential house off-campus called the McMorran house.

As of Thursday, there was not yet a search committee for the next president. The Board of Trustees is determined to find the ideal candidate, a president who handles tee times with alumni and politicians as well as he conducts an open meeting with the faculty. The board told Coltrane to expect to be sitting on the interim for a year.

Alex Cremer contributed to this report.