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New profs to get bitchin 4×4’s instead of labs

1/11/2012: At the Senate meeting today Institute for Neuroscience director Shawn Lockery raised the very reasonable question of where UO was going to get the startup money for the 20 new science hires that Russ Tomlin has authorized. A new science hire can easily expect $1 million or so to get their lab up and running – money that UO eventually gets back in grant overhead and in the prestige of staying in the R1 AAU category.

But it turns out that former VP for Research Rich Linton and former VPFA Frances Dyke have blown all the startup money on junk ranging from remodeling the General Counsel’s Office in Johnson Hall to the Huron contracts to Bean’s 5 pet ideas to ???? It’s not clear what will happen next. Will Scott Coltrane come up with the money? Out of whose hide?

My suggestion? If we can’t give them a lab, let’s at least let them have their pick of UO Police Chief Doug Tripp’s new 4×4 cruisers – since that’s where Dyke spent a bunch of the money that should have gone to research.

And as a commenter asks, where was Provost Jim Bean while all this was going on? Asleep, or just clueless as usual?

11 Comments

  1. Anonymous 01/12/2012

    And where was Jim Bean while all this was happening?

  2. Anonymous 01/12/2012

    A very serious issue, and one that has been obfuscated for some time now. How can research startup be funded out of income from a budget model that is based on income derived from tuition and credit hours? Or is the whole budget model now at risk? There appears to be little discussion about how startup can / should be funded? and about how to do so without reducing the ability to hire and provide facilities for the faculty who have to deliver quality instruction in the classroom.

  3. Anonymous 01/12/2012

    If they are interested in public safety they should just ban cars in the front of the rec center. I have seen two people hit on bikes this week by pizza delivery dudes.

  4. Anonymous 01/12/2012

    Dog barks

    Thanks UOmatters and Shawn for the, I think, first public outing of this
    disaster. I can tell readers a little here that the situation is not nearly as bad as is perceived but don’t want to say any more other than some extra dedicated money can be made available for startup for these “authorized” hires. However, not nearly at the $1M level per science hire.

    But in the big picture, this is another example of extreme dysfunctionality at the UO as a research University. Yes Linton is mostly to blame since he didn’t give a shit and always played favorites, but the entire ICC funding model at the UO is now completely broken and there is never any reason that any research University should have trouble with startup to hire future researchers … Its NOT THAT HARD!

  5. Anonymous 01/12/2012

    That is a pretty sweet ride… If they put duck wings on it, perhaps it would seal the deal?

  6. Anonymous 01/12/2012

    Yeah where are the shinny chrome spinners on the wheels?

  7. UO Matters 01/12/2012

    The top candidates are going to hold out for a Beamer, like the provost got.

  8. Anonymous 01/12/2012

    Back to public safety again? I thought you had gotten over your rage-on for them. A 50 thousand dollar 2×4 truck got you in a tizzy? Tragic, why don’t you go have a seat on the 121k replacement floor in Jaqua and have a cry about it.

  9. Anonymous 01/13/2012

    Yes, I saw 3 of said cruisers on my lunchtime walk. All idling on 13th in the center of campus. Can those morons walk? Get in shape to prepare to become the super gun totin’, taser shootin’, real cops……?

  10. Anonymous 01/14/2012

    Alas, the notion of “walking a beat” and talking to constituents appears to have been lost in the dust of these thoroughly excessive police cruisers.

    But the point is still:what are the priorities? More funds for ” police interceptors?” Or more resources for scholarship?

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