That’s the conclusion from a new paper by economist Michael Anderson from Berkeley, that uses Vegas odds to control for endogeneity: According to the report, if a college improves its season wins by 5 games, it can expect alumni athletic donations to increase by $682,000 (28 percent), applications to increase…
UO Matters
6/30/2012: That would be the University of Maryland. From the WaPo: With its multimillion-dollar deficit mounting and no deep-pocketed donor to cover the shortfall, the University of Maryland’s athletic department will proceed with plans to cut at least seven of its 27 varsity teams this weekend. The downsizing is an…
The famed Pulitzer prize winning historian of the civil rights movement has turned his attention to college sports and the NCAA hiring cartel. His 3 point program for reform is here – it starts with transparency: 1 . TRANSPARENCYAt any college or university that hosts an intercollegiate sports program, the principal…
From her meeting with the editorial board of the Statesman Journal: Ellen Rosenblum will seek changes in Oregon’s 40-year-old public records law to make government responses to citizen requests “earlier, cheaper and better.” This sounds nice. Oregon is rated one of the least transparent states for public records access. But…
I’ll be making a public records request for the 2012-2013 contracts for the usual Johnson Hall suspects, at the beginning of July. In past years these have yielded info on all sorts of interesting financial arrangements. Post a comment if there’s anything you are particularly interested in seeing. 6/27/2012.
6/27/2012: I wrote a while back about the economic department’s election of representatives to the union organizing committee. The OC rejected that idea, and came back with their own process. I followed it, and they have agreed to accept me as a member. In return I have agreed to abide…
of UVA. From The Hook: In his remarks prefacing his reinstatement resolution, Fralin conceded that all Board members possessed advance knowledge of the desire to remove the president. He says he regrets that he wasn’t “clever enough” to know that he and just two other board members could have called…
A UO economist’s study shows medical marijuana doesn’t increase HS marijuana use. And people call this this the dismal science? On the other hand, football wins are bad news for UO students’ grades. I wonder what will come out of the economics department next? 6/25/2012.
That would be Susan Herbst, the new President of the University of Connecticut. From the Chronicle, which also describes similar plans by Iowa and Minnesota: Our power is always going to be in the faculty,” she says. “They’re the people with the ideas. I feel sometimes in higher education we’re…
6/25/2012: From the Daily Progress: “I think the whole process by which people are appointed needs to be revisited,” said House Minority Leader David Toscano, D-Charlottesville. “I think there’s probably a role for having a designated slot for someone who has a lot of background in academia, perhaps a faculty…
6/23/2012: From back in fall 2009. The first part is the usual Oregon higher ed is in trouble stuff. The second part is considerably more aggressive regarding the rights of independent university boards than anything I’ve seen lately from OUS or anyone else. Pdf here, 2009 RG story here. The…
6/23/2012: From Camilla Mortenson: Currently the county manual says “fees shall be calculated to reimburse the county for actual costs in making records or information available.” Those fees include the full cost of the staff position providing the information plus 2.5 percent “to cover costs associated with building, maintenance, utilities,…
6/22/2012: Insidehighered is keeping a close watch on developments at UVa, here. Looks like the board may cave to intense faculty pressure and reappoint President Sullivan. The last graph makes clear how rare faculty input into independent boards is: Presidents have to make controversial decisions that can alienate campus constituencies.…
Update: Wondering how DPS managed to increase spending from $2.8 million in 2010 to $4.0 million in 2012? Financial Transparency reports here. A few days ago the RG had a story on the $2.8 million budget for security at the Olympic trials, $500,000 of which came from an emergency state…
for the next few weeks. 6/20/2012.