The University of Oregon encourages its employees to engage in outside activities that advance the mission of the university. Employee engagements with non-profit organizations, NGOs, and private industry make valuable contributions to the advancement of knowledge and are vitally important to the UO's successes today and aspirations for tomorrow.
The UO's Conflicts of Interest, Conflicts of Commitment, and Outside Activities Policy supports employees in their pursuit of outside activities by helping them understand what activities are generally permitted or prohibited by Oregon law.
The policy outlines some disclosure requirements associated with outside activities for which employees must seek and obtain approval. Disclosure and approval helps ensure that when an employee’s outside activity is permissible but presents a conflict, the conflict is adequately managed. Ultimately, the policy is intended to enable employees to pursue outside engagements with confidence that the UO supports the activity and their success with it.
Based on the guidelines in the policy, many employees’ outside activities and financial interests do not require disclosure and would not create a conflict of interest or conflict of commitment. The policy encourages employees to disclose, or at least seek additional information, if they have any questions about whether or not they should disclose something to the university.
By clarifying expectations and ensuring an official UO response to disclosures, the policy functions as a mechanism for:
- Affirming employees’ outside activities
- Protecting individual employees and the university
- Promoting high ethical standards within the UO and with the entities it reaches through its employees