[Corrected Dec. 5: Fixed attribution]

A former UT dean was fired from his position of president at the University of Oregon after expressing clashing viewpoints with the state’s Board of Higher Education.

Richard Lariviere was fired Tuesday after members of Oregon’s State Board of Higher Education unanimously voted him out of his position. The board decided to remove Lariviere after he gave pay raises to more than 1,300 university employees even after an order from Gov. John Kitzhaber to limit salary increases. According to the Associated Press, he lobbied against the board’s goal to make the University separate from the rest of the University of Oregon System and worked against the opinions of board members by doing so.

Lariviere resigned as dean of UT’s College of Liberal Arts in 2006 to become provost and executive vice chancellor at the University of Kansas. He became president of the University of Oregon in 2009.

“I have never understood the argument that a strong University of Oregon was bad for the university system,” Lariviere told the Associated Press.

During his time at UT, Lariviere worked to create a positive atmosphere and improve problems associated with issues like diversity and academic excellence, said associate liberal arts dean Richard Flores.

“I had a very positive experience working with Richard,” Flores said. “He was a very strong leader because he had a very strong vision about how a college or a university should be running.”

During his time as dean, Lariviere would hold weekly team meetings to discuss issues and ideas on how to solve them, Flores said.

“He did a lot for the college,” he said. “It was clear that he would get input from us, but he would make the decision he thought was best for the college.”

Printed on Friday, December 2, 2011 as: Clash over salary leads to former UT dean's firing