PORTLAND — Boos and hisses greeted the news Monday that University of Oregon President Richard Lariviere has only 30 days left on the job.

The state Board of Higher Education voted unanimously Monday afternoon to terminate Lariviere’s contract without cause. The 12-member board, which is charged with overseeing the state’s seven public universities, made the official decision in a room packed with Lariviere supporters, many of whom sported yellow and green shirts reading “We love our prez.”

Students, professors and community members urged the board passionately, and at times rowdily, to reconsider its decision to oust the president.

But board members defended the move, saying Lariviere created a dysfunctional dynamic between himself and the board, continued to push for UO independence despite the board’s insistence that he stop and threatened the well-being of the state’s other universities.

The governor has supported the board’s position, arguing in a statement released last weekend that the decision to fire Lariviere would be “fully justified.”

During the portion of yesterday’s meeting reserved for public testimony, Robert Kyr, the University of Oregon’s Senate president, pointed to Lariviere’s successes in his short tenure.

“He came here … with a vision that has inspired us all, and he has asked us to dream and develop ourselves beyond what we thought possible,” Kyr said.

“He asked the whole system to do this … What other university president in this country has done something of this magnitude? What other president of a university in this country has led a university, in only 2.5 years, to the heights we are now ascending?”

Those heights include increases in fundraising and student enrollment and retention.

Lariviere said he was “humbled and grateful for the support” and warned the board that “clinging to old structures and ways of doing business will not deliver the outcomes we want.”

Lariviere said the outpouring of support in response to his termination is a sign that Oregonians are frustrated with the state’s system of higher education.

“These people who so love the university, who have such confidence in its potential, who know what it must do for future generations, had hoped that there was change in the air,” he said. “They see today’s board move as a denial of that change.”

Gov. John Kitzhaber has taken issue with Lariviere’s characterization of the situation as an “ongoing difference of opinion over the future of the University of Oregon.”

Kitzhaber argued last weekend that Lariviere had eroded trust, pointing specifically to his decision to give raises to more than 1,000 administrators and faculty members despite specific direction not to.

Many of those who testified criticized the board for a lack of transparency and said its decision was already made before Monday’s public hearing.

Brian Obie, the former mayor of Eugene and one-time president of the UO Foundation, told the board its responsibility is to the people in the room, not to the chancellor of higher education.

“How many of your minds are made up? Whose comments were prepared beforehand? This is about leadership,” Obie said. “This is about where we are going with this institution. … What you’re tinkering with here is a world-class organization. This is not an average deal. You are going to screw it up if you follow this course.”

Laura Hinman, a UO junior, said she felt the board’s decision, arrived at over the holiday and during a dead week, made it hard for her to believe the board was interested in what students thought about the future of their school. More than 6,000 students signed a petition against Lariviere’s firing.

“I ask this board, please be transparent,” she said. “Because as a student, I don’t understand why this is happening.”

Board members, echoing the governor, took issue with those in the crowd who claimed that Lariviere was targeted for being a change agent.

“This isn’t about bold creative leadership, nor bold visionary ideas,” said board member David Yaden. “Those are still on the table. … This is about whether one person, no matter how talented, no matter how popular, gets to set his or her own rules or agenda without regard for consequences for the larger whole.”

After listening to about two hours of testimony from the public, the board made a motion to vote. Before doing so, however, some board members attempted to respond to their critics, only to elicit more criticism.

Reading from a prepared statement, Jill Eiland said that “today’s vote should come as no surprise.” Many in the crowd took this as an acknowledgement that the board members’ minds were made up before they heard from the public.

“This is a sham,” one person said.

Another said, “You’ve already voted. Is there someone without a prepared statement?”

Paul Kelly, who was the board president when Lariviere was hired, told the crowd he would respond without a statement and directed his comments at Lariviere. He spoke of many conversations with Lariviere and said the two shared similar goals.

“During all those conversations we continued to pursue the idea of a common goal, and the methodology simply didn’t jive,” Kelly said. “And all I’m asking you to do is for the entire University of Oregon community, to acknowledge a shared responsibility for the breach of trust that has led us to the position today, that none of us, you nor us, want to be in.”

Lariviere will receive at least one year’s salary of $245,700. On Dec. 28, he will no longer be president of the university. His contract was set to expire at the end of June.

Matt Donegan, the board’s president, summed up Lariviere’s tenure as “a long, deep divide, with a great number of steps of intervention.”

Lariviere said he plans to stay at the UO in a different capacity.

“I’m a professor of Sanskrit at heart,” he said. “I’ll do some teaching.”