I spent a lot of time talking to Linda Brady about Charles Martinez’s double dipping, UO’s first 5-year diversity plan, and John Moseley’s UO-Bend scheme. Before I met her I assumed top administrators needed to be reasonably smart, competent people. But she was clueless and easily manipulated, which was presumably why Frohnmayer hired her. That was something of a revelation to me. When she left, Frohnmayer appointed Jim Bean to as interim provost, presumably for the same reasons. That said this is a bit surprising – not least because she let Martinez get away with much worse:
4/25/2011: Former UO Provost Linda Brady is the subject of a feature article in the Chronicle on UNC-Greensboro (4/25/2011). She left UO to become Chancellor (president) there:
Ms. Brady says that communication, particularly with the faculty, is something she needs to improve. She’s heard that professors think she is distant and unsympathetic. When a news story about the university’s $31-million renovation of the dining hall came out in the local paper, she worried that students and professors wouldn’t understand that the project was covered through auxiliary money, separate from state funds.
Brady was hired by Frohnmayer to run things after John Moseley took his Bend golden parachute. She spent a remarkably ineffective two years at UO – except for helping Frances Dyke spend millions remodeling Johnson Hall. Frohnmayer didn’t trust her, so Melinda Grier ended up running UO. Brady left as soon as she could, to everyone’s relief – I’m guessing not least hers.
Frohnmayer then appointed Business School Dean Jim Bean as interim Provost on a two year contract. When Lariviere arrived he appointed Bean as UO’s permanent provost, without going through the normal search process.
Dog says
Yes, its really a sad situation when you look back to JTM as a provost and say those were the good ole days.
What in the hell is wrong with the UO? I mean seriously – this constant
void in Academic Leadership is beyond explanation and should be beyond tolerance. But collectively we (student and faculty) are sheep, myself included, even tho I am a dog.
back to bricks and mortatar, the important stuff. Wonders never cease. Our campus plans to hire 100+ new faculty to help teach the rising number of students, but with no visible plans to build the classrooms or offices required, esp in areas where enrollments, majors and degrees have increased the most since any major new instructional buildings were built. Both a speedup and a squeezein! but why should now be any different than the last 20 years? Is there a single VP who does not have a pet new building project intended for noninstructional purposes? the answer is yes, the new vp for enrollment, a good guy from indiana, where they build with limestone. These are not the priorities of an academic-centered campus or of campus faculty and their academic deans. This is but one example of why having so many vps is a very bad idea, esp. when it is not made clear to them by their supervisor that primary weight will be put on the academic priorities of faculty and our academic deans. do you think we could schedule classes in the two new olympic pools? floatees are cheap, and its wet in the winter anyway.
During Senate Coltrane blamed the donor, saying they would only plunk down $10 Million if CAS administrators got new offices, but there will be a couple new classrooms too.
When will the illegal shenanigans and bureaucratic ineptitude stop? When people lose their jobs, face criminal charges and go to jail. Nothing short of real, meaningful consequences will stem the parade of idiocy at Johnson Hall.