12/14/2011: Kitzhaber’s just full of good news for UO lately. From the RG:
Oregon universities, including the University of Oregon, will abide by Gov. John Kitzhaber’s call for a state hiring freeze while lawmakers wrestle with expected declines in tax revenue.
Presidents of all seven state universities are expected to meet with Oregon University System Chancellor George Pernsteiner today to discuss the freeze and how it will be carried out.
This is the middle of the hiring season for a lot of departments – mine has interviews scheduled, starting in a few weeks, fly-outs start in mid January. The Oregonian has more here. Did anyone need another example of just how right Lariviere was about the New Partnership, and how little Dr. Pernsteiner, Matt Donegan, and Dr. Kitzhaber understand about our “higher education business model”?
No new hires, but Oregon State gets pay raises? Way to go, OUS! You’re awesome!
I supposed a new education Czar making 300k or more (and don’t forget all of there staff) is of course essential personnel and therefore not subject to the freeze.
more bark-out orders from the kremlin and blame shifting. same old stupid results. love the statement by lecarre’s Smiley, in smiley’s people, ” I’ve lived long enough to watch politicians and bureaucrats jump up and down and call it progress, while good people are lined up against the wall and shot.” Lariviere’s unpardonable political error was to refuse to pretend that jumping up and down is progress. it has been over thirty years since oregon had a decent, sensible governor who had any real commitment to higher ed in the state. that eliminates, for example, goldschmidt, roberts, kitzaber, and kulongoski. see anything in common?
They’re all Democrats? Interesting that Chris Dudley supported Lariviere, before and after the firing. Several Republican governor candidates have publicly supported higher education in a way that no Democrat has that I remember.
UO should announce that it will limit out of state enrollment and private giving, inasmuch as there is no outlet for the revenue that it would bring into the state and metro area.
Doesn’t a hiring freeze make it difficult to spend grant money?
Doesn’t this hurt the economy as money which the UO has from tuition now will sit collecting dust, rather than bringing in new faculty which need to buy houses, cars, eat at restaurants, etc.
It’s been a huge point of pride and success that UOregon been able to maintain conservative numbers of faculty hires, even when other places across the country had to shut down in mid-search. Several faculty searches are in progress here and I know of at least one offer out. It would be tragic to cross the line and block them now, especially when it’s for the sake of politics rather than because of economic necessity on this campus.
I hope that President Berdahl can make the case to the Board in particular to not stop any current searches. It is highly advantageous to be able to search now- applicants are outstanding and competition is diminished, so now is a special opportunity to bring significant talent to Oregon.
I’m no Keynesian, but you don’t have to be to see Anon above is exactly right.
Say what you will about Provost Bean, but I always liked his take on the UO being “counter-cyclical.” If we can expand in a moment when universities nationally are contracting or frozen, then we can get the best people. Years from now, when the dust from the “Great Recession” clears, everyone will look around and see that Oregon won.
Unless of course Kitzhaber goes in the Assisted Suicide direction. Which he seems to be doing.
You mocked 242 for being worthless. But it’s what gets us out of this. As of January 1. So, go OUS!!
Democrats are joined at the hip to public employee unions. K-12 teachers are unionized. Higher education teachers are not. Guess who wins when Dems have to balance a limited budget?
Point taken above, but this is about not letting the UO spend money it has independent of the state. This is about looking good politically, but reality not letting us spend our tuition dollars doesn’t help balance any one else’s budget, unless they plan on stealing it.
Why on Earth are people willing to support 242!?
242 is [mostly] worthless. It doesn’t eliminate OUS. It makes OUS a public education system and not a state agency, which means that the state can not use tuition money to build roads.
It does NOT keep OUS from taking UO’s tuition money and redistributing it as it sees fit.
SB 242 very CLEARLY gives OUS and the SBHE (which becomes bigger) more power. It grants the SBHE the authority to negotiate “performance based” appropriations with the Legislature. Additionally, because the SBHE is bigger under 242, and all appointments are made by the governor, it gives him/her MORE power.
Between SBs 242 and 909, education in the State of Oregon is in [more] trouble.
242 will make UO subject to “performance goals” such as graduating even more marginally qualified students. It will make UO subject to the Governor’s absurd plan to have 40% of Oregon high school students (students, not grads) get college degrees. If taken seriously, these things will lead to even more of an erosion of standards than we already have.
UO needs to get as far away from the state as it possibly can. Fast!