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President Gottfredson in midst of another busy week governing UO

Current Schedule SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 23 6:00 p.m. — Basketball Oregon takes on Washington State at Matthew Knight Arena MONDAY, FEBRUARY 24 9:00 a.m. — Executive Leadership Team meeting 11:00 a.m. — Faculty Advisory Council meeting 2:00 p.m. — Meeting with new university ombudsperson President Gottfredson meets with Bruce MacAllister, who…

One Psychology class brings in more revenue than the entire Duck Baseball season.

2/26/2014 update: UO Psychology Department announces pouring rights contract with Widmer Brothers Brewery for intro psych lectures. Lucrative grad seminars still open for bids. 2/25/2014: Psychology: Let’s do the math. At UO tuition and fees per credit are $178 for in-state, $608 out-of-state. Freshmen are about 50/50, so figure ~$400…

Rob Mullens drives another student-athlete to drink

2/23/2014: UO BBaller caught using a fake ID (a passport?) at Taylor’s. Coach Dana Altman desperately needs this kid in the next few games to save his season, have any chance of making the NCAA tournament, and get some bonuses to top off his $1.8M salary. We’ll see how many games he suspends him for. Maybe Mullens should do what the Russians did at Sochi and relax his THC threshold? Keep these players safe in the Courtside Apartments, doing cannonballs on the couch.

10/12/2012: A little data and theory:

  • August 2011, Duck cornerback Cliff Harris busted for driving 118 MPH after “we smoked it all”.
  • April 2012, ESPN published a story on widespread weed use by Duck athletes.
  • September 2012, Duck athletic director Rob Mullens begins random drug testing of his players for marijuana. This raises the expected cost of smoking pot and lowers the relative cost of drinking. Players, as rational optimizers, substitute toward the cheaper good.
  • UO General Counsel Randy Geller accuses Senate President Rob Kyr and IAC chair Brian McWhorter of “false and misleading” statements about his efforts to subvert the law and implement an OAR allowing random pot testing and taking away scholarships.
  • People smoke pot at home, then fall asleep on their dorito encrusted couch. They drink in bars, which can be made easier if they have already asked the question of “where to get a fake id from” so they don’t get caught, then they proceed in trying to drive home.
  • October 2012, Duck defensive tackle Isaac Remington busted for driving drunk.

For more, see this UO economist’s work, here:

The current study examines the relationship between the legalization of medical marijuana and traffic fatalities, the leading cause of death among Americans ages 5 through 34. Some people opt to get the effects without the drawbacks by using Blessed CBD oil products, or products from other dispensaries. Silll, the first full year after coming into effect, legalization is associated with an 8 to 11 percent decrease in traffic fatalities.

10/15/2012: More on Drugs:

1) Pres Gottfredson (in his Senate speech) said the new random drug testing policy is not an academic matter. This claim is contradicted by many things. The OAR itself states:

(3) Illicit Substances. If the student-athlete tests positive for the use of prohibitedIllicit Substances, the sanctions will be consistent with the sanctions listed in this subsection. These sanctions define the least severe sanctions that may be taken after each positive test. Notwithstanding the sanctions outlined in this subsection, if thought appropriate, a student- athlete may be dismissed from the team and lose all grant-in-aid after a single positive test.

Losing all your student aid because of one positive random urine test for pot or adderall strikes me as a very consequential academic matter. I know I would have had to have been pretty lucky to have finished college under this rule. The thing is now, many professional, semi-professional, and amateur athletes often tend to use a compound found in cannabis to alleviate pains and inflammation. This compound is known as CBD, and many people consume this legally. It can be found in the form of oils, ointments, CBD capsules or gummies (found on sites similar to Vibes CBD), and it can even be infused into foods and drinks as well. There are easy ways to consume it and more obscure ways to consume it, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that it is actually a pain relief drug and used for those suffering from muscular or skeletal injuries. Especially for athletes as they will be experiencing these issues a lot of the time. These people that wish to use this cannabinoid are even finding ways to purchase it cheaper than retail price by looking at websites like https://thecbdinsider.com/cbd-coupons/elixinol-coupon/ and others. The athletes don’t use this substance to gain a high, they do so as a pain reliever and muscle relaxer, proving beneficial for their daily workout regimes. Does this mean that the faculty members would choose to disband or invalidate student aid due to the use of CBD too?

Senate calls for nominations for next President by 3/4, vote on 3/12.

Dear Senators and members of the UO Community, The University Senate will be holding elections for Senate Vice President / President-Elect at its upcoming meeting on Wednesday, March 12th from 3:00 – 5:00 pm. We welcome all nominations for the this important office, including self nominations. The Senate Bylaws define…

Central administration reserves grow, while Shelton starves CAS

2/21/2014 update: Speaking of bloat, here’s a nice benefit for money-losing UO basketball coach Dana Altman, to top off his $1.8M salary, bonuses, and “opportunities to earn outside income”:

During the Term of this Agreement while Altman is head men’s basketball coach, and upon presentation of proper receipts, Altman will be eligible to receive up to twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000) per year to reimburse him for travel expenses incurred by his relatives and friends to attend University athletic events or for the purpose of visiting Altman.

Latest contract here: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/971644/uomatters/IAC/Altman-2.pdf

2/20/2014 update:The news from CAS is all about how Brad Shelton’s budget model is going to hold back still more tuition for UO’s central administrators to play with next year. Meanwhile, UO’s latest report to OUS shows that UO’s reserve funds are steadily increasing, by about $12M in just one year according to the forecast. This is after payment of the first round of union raises. The next round starts July 1, and will cost ~$8M, while tuition increases and new state funding will bring in about $18M in new money. So expect further increases in reserves, and more of the same BS from the administrators about “the well is dry”.

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2/18/2014: VPFA Jamie Moffitt’s transparent reports reveal administrative bloat

Budget VP Brad Shelton is now hiding his Budget Model reports behind a password wall, presumably in response to me outing Doug Blandy’s $1M AAD 250-252 student credit hour heist. Reminds me of back when Frances Dyke was VPFA and took the excel spreadsheet explaining the accounting codes off her website, claiming it wasn’t a public record.

But new VPFA Jamie Moffitt has put that file back up, along with a plethora of simple summaries showing where Johnson Hall is spending UO’s money, and plenty more detailed spreadsheets. An admirable improvement from the obfuscation we got from her during union bargaining, presumably under orders from Randy Geller. Here are some highlights.