11/6/2014: Trustees to appoint Duck Athletic Director Rob Mullens as next UO President
Diane Dietz has the story in the RG, here. I know I’ve written a few unkind words about Dr. Mullens in the past, but let me be the first to say that I believe he has the necessary fundraising connections, and an unusually creative mind when it comes to finances and academic matters.
11/3/2013 Update: UO Trustees ask The People’s help in choosing next Great Leader
11/6/2014 update: What a surprise. Jim Bean’s got *two* consulting gigs to top off his UO salary. And the Sacramento State University Counsel, Jill Peterson, is trying to use $2.20 in fees to delay the release of documents on Bean’s contract there. Must be some good stuff in those docs:
10/26/2014: Jim Bean takes 2 days a week off from teaching for consulting work
I’ve got a bunch of new data on the UO Foundation from various sources, but haven’t had time to put it together. Fortunately Matthew Kish of the Portland Business Journal is on it, with several recent stories: http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/print-edition/2014/10/31/cover-story-can-2b-help-uo-take-flight.html http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/blog/2014/11/woeful-endowments-oregon-universities.html
12/6/2014 update: New reports on legal and consulting expenses, here. Some to HLGR for GTFF bargaining, some for the UOPD union, some for things JH really doesn’t want to attach an accounting code to:
Legal:
Consulting:
11/6/2014 update: I don’t know, I’m crowd-sourcing this one:
In response to questions about the total cost of the hiring HLGR for the GTFF bargaining, here are links to some public records on legal (and consulting) expenses. File dates are approximate and a mix of xls and the badly scanned pdfs Dave Hubin’s public records office sends out to make life harder, but I think I’ve got complete coverage from 2011 to the end of October. If someone wants to put together a spreadsheet for just the GTFF costs please email me a copy and I’ll post it.
1/1/2013-9/15/2014 consulting and 6/1/2014-9/18/2014 legal
Sept and October 2014 legal and consulting.
(new) October 2014 legal and consulting.
(link fixed)
Here’s a sample of a detailed HLGR invoice from the faculty union bargaining, after redactions by our General Counsel’s office:
I’ve made a PR request for the September 2014 invoices, which should show more about what Rudnick, Matthews, and Grado are doing to justify the astonishingly expensive GTFF bargaining:
Subject: Re: Public Records Request 2015-PRR-092
Date: November 5, 2014 at 4:48:17 PM PST
Cc: doug park
To: Lisa Thornton
Dear Ms Thornton –
Thanks for these accounting reports.
This is a public records request for the six detailed HLGR invoices with transactions dates of 24-Sep-14.
I ask for a fee waiver on the basis of public interest. Because of the timeliness of issues around HLGR’s work for UO on GTFF bargaining and other issues, I would appreciate it you could expedite this request.
I’m ccing Doug Park on this request as his office has these documents and can easily make them available.
Thanks,
Bill Harbaugh
UO Prof of Economics
http://harbaugh.org
11/5/2014: Coltrane still letting Frohnmayer’s HLGR firm rake in the billable hours
It took another petition to the Lane County DA, but at least Doug Park didn’t accuse me of harassment this time. here are the latest HLGR billing numbers. Presumably UO was sitting on these because they didn’t want the grad students to know how much Coltrane was willing to pay noted tobacco company lawyer Sharon Rudnick and Jeff Matthews to bargain against them:
Of course some of those invoices are probably for other things, like negotiating Gottfredson’s buyout, or perhaps for dealing with the rape allegation cover-up. And here are the consulting payments – looks like Huron is back:
9/26/2014: Has Coltrane fired Sharon Rudnick and Frohnmayer’s HLGR law firm?
That would be the UC-Berkeley Senate. Story in the SF Chronicle, here.
CoDaC Faculty Writing Center Opening this Week—please forward
Looking for a quiet, distraction-free space to finish that article, book chapter, conference paper or proposal before the end of the term?
The new Faculty Writing Center, in the offices of the Center on Diversity and Community (CoDaC) provides a comfortable, supportive, and quiet space for faculty to make progress on writing projects away from the distractions of the office or the noise of a cafe.
Agenda below, I’ll try to live-blog a little. And don’t miss the Faculty Union’s General Membership Meeting, 5-7PM tonight at the Alumni Center. The hand picked “President’s Review Panel” that Coltrane inherited from Gottfredson has scheduled its final meeting for a luxury hotel in Portland, to get away from the pesky students…
11/4/2014 update: UO Auditor to investigate Affirmative Action waiver for Triplett hire
The UO administration spends millions on promoting student and faculty diversity. But will it follow the law when it comes to hiring Johnson Hall administrators? UO’s new Auditor is going to look into it:
From: Brenda Muirhead <[email protected]>
To: William Harbaugh <[email protected]>
Subject: RE: PR request, AAEO documents
Date: November 4, 2014 at 3:47:51 PM PST
Bill,
Thank you for the email yesterday. I will review this case and determine if a request to waive a search was appropriately approved for this position. If you have any questions about the fraud and ethics reporting process, please don’t hesitate to contact my office at 541-346-6541.
Brenda Muirhead
UO Office of Internal Audit
11/3/2014: UO violated Title VII in Asst VP of Collaboration hire, according to Public Records Office:
Title VII is the section of the 1964 Civil Rights Act involving hiring, generally known as “affirmative action”. UO’s affirmative action policies require basic good hiring practices such as an open search and public job announcement, or an explanation for the exception. I’m no detective, but I think this evidence that UO violated its policies in hiring its new Assistant VP for University Initiatives and Collaboration is called “the dog that didn’t bark”:
From: “Thornton, Lisa” <[email protected]>
Date: October 16, 2014 at 12:14:09 PM PDT
Subject: Public Records Request 2015-PRR-076
10/16/2014
Dear Mr. Harbaugh-
The University does not possess records responsive to your request made 10/06/2014 for “documents related to the job search for the new UO Assistant VP for University Initiatives and Collaborations… [s]pecifically I am requesting any documents showing exemptions or exceptions to the UO job search procedures”. [The full request is below].
The office considers this to be fully responsive to your request, and will now close your matter. Thank you for contacting the office with your request.
Sincerely,
Lisa Thornton
Office of Public Records
University of Oregon
Office of the President
Presumably Ms Thornton and Dave Hubin have already brought this potential non-compliance with state and federal affirmative action law to the attention of Interim General Counsel Doug Park, for swift investigation and appropriate remedial efforts. But just in case, I have cced Park on the notification – at the risk of another set of retaliatory emails from him, accusing me of harassment.
10/16/2014: Administration kicks off diversity plan by hiring new AVP without an affirmative action search
“Around the 0” has the latest window dressing, here:
Sounds great. So, did they do an affirmative action compliant search for their latest Assistant VP hire? Doesn’t seem likely:
Subject: Re: PR request, AAEO documents
Date: October 15, 2014 at 11:04:18 AM PDT
To: Lisa Thornton <[email protected]> Cc: doug park <[email protected]>
Dear Ms Thornton
It’s been more than a week since I made this PR request. I would appreciate it if you could let me know when you expect to be able to provide the documents.
On MondayOct 6, 2014, at 3:19 PM:
Dear Ms Thornton –
This is a public records request for documents related to the job search for the new UO Assistant VP for University Initiatives and Collaborations, announced here: http://around.uoregon.edu/content/uo-gains-statewide-education-system-expertise-latest-hire
Specifically I am requesting any documents showing exemptions or exceptions to the UO job search procedures explained at http://ups.uoregon.edu/content/new-appointments and http://ups.uoregon.edu/content/interim-recruitment-guidelines-unclassified-personnel
I believe that this search and hire may have violated UO policies and procedures, and Oregon and Federal affirmative action hiring laws, and therefore I ask for a fee waiver on the basis of public interest.
10/1/2014: Chuck Triplett, who helped Pernsteiner fire Lariviere, now works in JH
Sent out by United Academics today: Non-tenure-track Faculty Professional Responsibilities Policy Over the coming weeks, all units around campus will begin crafting workload policies for non-tenure track faculty. Deans and department heads will be providing input in this process, but in the spirit of shared governance and the collective bargaining…
United Academics General Membership Meeting Agenda November 5, 2014 UO Ford Alumni Center, 5-7pm Update: I’m not sure how they slipped this by the Union Treasurer, but apparently it’s an open beer and wine bar, tacos, and donated door prizes. Not quite as fancy as one of Jim Bean’s “clusters…
Diane Dietz has the story on the new Mission Statement in the RG, here. I’m not going to post excerpts, you’ve got to read the whole thing for the hilarious quotes. And for a not so hilarious previous mission statement’s bullet point about “conservation and betterment … of our racial…
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 3 9:00 a.m. — Executive Leadership Team weekly meeting 11:00 a.m. — Faculty Advisory Committee weekly meeting 1:00 p.m., Ford Alumni Center, Room 402 — Academic and Student Affairs Committee meeting 2:00 p.m. — Welcome visiting international faculty to the College of Education 3:00 p.m. Free Speech Plaza,…
Campus Forum: Discussion & Response to the Final Report of the Senate Task Force to Address Sexual Violence and Survivor Support. Students are particularly encouraged to attend and participate in this event. Date: Mon, 11/03/2014 – 4:00pm – 6:00pm, Location: Ford Alumni Center Ballroom
The OA Council is the professional organization of UO’s Officer’s of Administration. Not the JH Central Admin’s, but the regular OA’s that keep your department and UO from sinking into lord of the flies anarchy as the central admins fly higher and higher into their widening gyre of bloat, excessive…
11/2/2014: The most striking part of the story is the news that half our peers give their grad students the sick leave benefits our administration has been refusing to offer ours, “because of the principle”. Huh? Diane Dietz has the story in the RG. (link fixed). It’s a good sign…