{"id":245,"date":"2019-12-10T01:18:25","date_gmt":"2019-12-10T01:18:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/government\/?p=245"},"modified":"2020-03-13T20:40:22","modified_gmt":"2020-03-13T20:40:22","slug":"closing-thoughts-from-jock-mills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/government\/2019\/12\/10\/closing-thoughts-from-jock-mills\/","title":{"rendered":"Closing Thoughts from Jock Mills"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This month marks the end of my 20-year career as Director of\nGovernment Relations at OSU. I was drawn to OSU by President Paul Risser in\n1999 after working with him while I served on a temporary federal appointment\nin Governor John Kitzhaber\u2019s office. The Governor asked Risser to chair a\ncitizen commission charged with resolving intractable water quality problems in\nthe Willamette River Basin, and I was serving as the Governor\u2019s liaison to the\ncommission. At its first meeting, Risser, an ecologist, asked the members to\nbriefly address the issues of interest to them. After listening to an hour-long\nfree-ranging collection of concerns which fully described Oregon\u2019s urban-rural\ndivide, Risser briefly synthesized the discussion into a cogent summary that\neventually became the commission\u2019s work plan. I thought he was the smartest\nperson I\u2019d ever met.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

A few weeks after I returned to my real job with the\nBonneville Power Administration, Risser called suggesting that I look into an\nopening in the Government Relations Office at OSU. I didn\u2019t exactly jump at the\nopportunity — the ignominy of becoming a \u201clobbyist\u201d was a barrier. I also\ndidn\u2019t really know very much about OSU, except that its football team rarely\nbeat Cal, which rarely beat anyone else. After a visit to the campus, like any\nrecruit, I was taken by the potential of living in a college town and working\nat a university. When the legislature was not in session, my commute would be a\nleisurely bike ride across a bucolic, brick-structured campus. I was drawn to\nthe opportunity of advocating for a cause that had changed my life. Both of my\nparents were first generation college graduates, and had, in fact, studied\nunder Linus Pauling. Although I did not attend OSU, both of my degrees are from\ntwo land grant universities. Just out of college, I had been employed on a Sea\nGrant project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Upon my arrival, Risser further affirmed my impression of him.\nI was immediately deployed to work on a well-planned effort with the Governor,\nthe State Board of Higher Education, and the legislature to meet Central\nOregon\u2019s higher education needs with the establishment of a branch campus in\nBend. What I didn\u2019t know, and came to love and appreciate, was that I had been\nenveloped by a great university and a wonderful family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Risser departed two years later for the Chancellorship\nin his native State of Oklahoma, my wife was certain that once his replacement\nwas named, I\u2019d soon be sent home with my possessions in a cardboard box. That,\nfortunately, did not turn out to be. And even more notable, the State Board of\nHigher Education managed to find someone who was clearly on par with Risser.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Much of the responsibility for introducing Edward John Ray\nto Oregon fell on me simply because I was the driver and there were always\nlegislators to meet on the itinerary as we visited OSU\u2019s multiple and far flung\noutposts. Over Ed\u2019s first year we covered the highways that connected Corvallis\nto Hermiston, Condon, Pendleton, La Grande, Union, Ontario, Burns, Bend,\nMedford, Klamath Falls, Coos Bay, Newport, and Astoria, among others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first experience with Ed in the car was indicative of the\nmany miles that were to follow. Prior to actually taking office we had arranged\nfor him to meet with Oregon\u2019s natural resource stakeholders in Hearing Room 50\nof the State Capitol. After the meeting, I had the privilege of driving the\nnewly-named president back to Corvallis. I chose 99W because it was the more\nscenic route on a beautiful early summer afternoon. Ed was initially a polite\nconversationalist, even after I cautiously suggested that farmers and ranchers\ndo not use the term \u201cexploit\u201d when talking about natural resources. Maybe as a\nresult of that comment, Ed spent most of the drive with his nose buried in a\nsheaf of papers drawn from a bulging briefcase. But he looked up briefly\nsomewhere between Rickreall and Monmouth and observed, \u201cthis is really pretty.\u201d\nAnd then dove back into his reading. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the next 17 years, the hours in the car included a\ngrueling game of \u201cmy great aunt\u2019s trunk\u201d[1]<\/a>\n(he won), conversations about our kids (they\u2019re wonderful and challenging), our\nspouses (wonderful), John Denver\u2019s music (odious, to me but divine to him), and\na million other topics, including how many miles the hay truck in front of us\nwould have to drive before it scattered its entire load to the headwinds of the\nhighway. Our frequent drives to Salem were often characterized by cathartic\ngrumbling about what we wanted to say to those \u201cknuckleheads\u201d and \u201cdumb-dumbs.\u201d\nBy the time we reached Ankeny Hill and were descending into Salem the\nconversation rationally decompressed into what we were actually GOING to say\nand how fortunate we were to have time with those who were elected to serve our\nstate. Following our meetings, we reversed this process as we returned to\nCorvallis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ed Ray is the second-best boss I\u2019ve ever had. (The first-best was the late Orcillia Zuniga Forbes<\/span><\/a>, a fellow native New Mexican, who served as Vice President for University Advancement and was my actual supervisor when I was first hired at OSU. In case you\u2019d like to know, the worst boss was a guy who fired me three times from a summer job on a Colorado dude ranch.) Following his arrival, Ed changed the organizational chart, had me report directly to him, and added the oversight of OSU\u2019s federal agenda to my responsibilities. That was a milestone in my career because with the addition of a federal director, I had a fellow political junkie as a colleague. Finally, somebody with whom I could commiserate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ed requires yearly plans which, for the sake of\naccountability, are to include a review of how we have fared in accomplishing\nthe previous year\u2019s plan. His feedback is to the point, both when it is\npositive and negative. He absorbs every detail in briefings and reproduces them\nprecisely when they are needed in a manner that is typically more adroit than\nhow they had been presented to him. When a decision is easy and obvious he\nmakes it right away. When it is difficult, he weighs the options cautiously and\nthoroughly. His moral and ethical compass is steady and always pointed in the\nright direction. And he never misses a typo. In short, Ed is a primary reason I\nnever looked up over the last 17 years to see if there were other opportunities\non the horizon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Ed is not the only reason my time at OSU has been so\nlong and so enjoyable. It would be folly to list all those who have had\nprofound, lasting, and positive impacts on my life at OSU. This includes a long\nlist of legislators, legislative staffers, agency people, and even other\nlobbyists. But I do want to briefly mention my two current professional\ncolleagues in the Government Relations Office \u2013 Gabrielle Serra (Director of\nFederal Relations) and Claire McMorris (Coordinator). Both were hired following\ngrueling, inclusive processes that involved multiple interviews with a range of\nstakeholders. At the time the decisions seemed difficult due to the competitive\nfield, but in hindsight both decisions were remarkable for the quality of the\nindividuals they brought to the university. Claire and Gabrielle meet two of my\nmost important criteria in hiring: They are smarter than me and they like to\nargue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over her five years with OSU, Gabrielle has increased the\nbreadth and depth of our federal presence both in DC and in the Pacific\nNorthwest. She is highly regarded by her colleagues and counterparts, by\nuniversity leaders, and particularly by those in the Congressional and agency\noffices with whom she works. In her first months at OSU she helped to solve a\nfederal statutory issue that had lingered for years. Each Congressional\nappropriation cycle is characterized by a formidable accounting of funding\nachievements that reach across our research, extension, and teaching\nresponsibilities. Nevertheless, to Gabrielle, it\u2019s not about the money \u2013 it\u2019s\nabout the impact that OSU has on the health of our people, planet and economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In just over two years, Claire has transformed the Coordinator position by increasing its scope, responsibilities, and interactions with legislators and university leaders. Since I first encountered Claire at OSU, I have grown to know and appreciate her as an accomplished student, an unsurpassed employee, and a highly valued and respected colleague and collaborator. On many occasions I have experienced the joy of synergy as we discuss a problem or concept. I can count on Claire to tell me when an idea can be improved. She is not shy about suggesting that an idea simply can\u2019t be improved and ought to be dropped. She is a respected colleague and leader among our counterparts across all seven of Oregon\u2019s public universities. She is directly responsible for the creation and success of the Presidential Student Legislative Advocates (PSLA) program<\/span><\/a> at OSU.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that leads me to where I am now headed. I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to continue to work with OSU students both in the classroom and in Oregon\u2019s political and public policy venues. As a part-time faculty member I will continue to lead the PSLA while teaching an occasional course in OSU\u2019s School of Public Policy<\/span><\/a>. This spring we will be expanding the PSLA to include a trip to Washington, DC and I will be working with colleagues in the School and the College of Agricultural Sciences on an upper-division class \u2013 \u201cThe Politics of Pesticides in Oregon.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am also relishing the opportunity to spend more time on\nactivities that have been patiently waiting by the wayside \u2013 like high altitude\nvertical snow pack research; riding trains, planes and automobiles; staying\nahead of projects on our 90-year old house; brewing kombucha; and exploring the\nart of silk-screen printing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being able to continue to work with students is a crowning achievement for a career in Oregon that started in 1983 when I arrived from Boston to work as a non-partisan legislative analyst in Salem. I well know the benefits I received from my time as a student in public universities, and I have greatly valued and enjoyed the opportunity to seek continued investments in the education, research, and outreach that OSU provides to the people of Oregon. But the most rewarding experience of my time at OSU has been the privilege of working with and for students. I am most thankful for the opportunity to continue in that role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

— Jock
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n

[1]<\/a>\nThis is a variation of the \u201cI\u2019m going to\na picnic<\/a>\u201d game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This month marks the end of my 20-year career as Director of Government Relations at OSU. I was drawn to OSU by President Paul Risser in 1999 after working with him while I served on a temporary federal appointment in Governor John Kitzhaber\u2019s office. The Governor asked Risser to chair a citizen commission charged with… Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8748,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8748"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":263,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245\/revisions\/263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}