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UO Matters

UO employee put on paid leave after exercising his First Amendment right to be a dumbass on Instagram

Thanks to a reader for the news. Apparently this has gone viral. There’s a story in the Daily Emerald here:

According to Director of Issues Management and University of Oregon Spokesperson Angela Seydel, the university found Serrato’s statementsin his Instagram video “abhorrent and not in alignment with our values or mission.”

Seydel also said that Serrato has been placed on “administrative leave” and an investigation has been opened.

Administrative leave means that Serrato is taking paid time off, pending a university investigation.

In the post, Serrato said to followers, which included some UO students, to “go f— yourself if you voted for Donald Trump.”

Serrato concluded his story, saying “I hope you go jump off of a f—ing bridge,” with a peace sign.

Seydel said that the university has opened an investigation into the matter and are reviewing it under “university policies and the individual’s role as a public employee.”

According to Seydel, while the university is investigating, they will be providing “support for concerned students and employees, including resources for mental and emotional health.”

That last part seems a bit Orwellian to me. What would the appropriate response be? Perhaps President Scholz should look to Shakespeare:

“We consider it was excess of wine that set him off. … If little faults proceeding on distemper shall not be winked at then …”

President Scholz agrees to across the board raises and guaranteed bonuses, no merit evals

For himself not the faculty, of course. Given Scholz’s intransigence in negotiating with the faculty union – the only movement from his Spring proposal of 3% merit pools for 3 years has been to convert the first year to 3% ATB – it’s worth taking a look at the contract…

Provost Long hires $40,000 an hour motivational speaker

“… the event is a must-attend for anyone looking to contribute positively to our workplace environment…”

Dear colleagues,

We are excited to invite you to an inspiring event, “Courageous Civility with Shola Richards,” on Thursday, November 7, 2024, from 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm at the EMU Ballroom. Doors will open at 1:30 pm.

Join us for a keynote presentation by Richards, a leading expert in workplace civility, equity, and inclusion. Richards is a dynamic and inspiring speaker, and the event is a must-attend for anyone looking to contribute positively to our workplace environment.

This event is open and free to all faculty and staff and the first 200 registrants will receive a complimentary copy of Richard’s new book, Civil Unity

Next bargaining session is Thursday, October 17 from 12:30-3:30 in Chiles 125.

From the faculty union: Thank you to all (200+) people who showed up at the last bargaining session. As you heard, the administration is more concerned with talking about bulletin boards than with our salary proposal. Eventually the administration is going to have to actually bargain over salary, and we…

Daily Emerald: Out-of-state enrollment increases, but not as much as hoped

The Daily Emerald’s Corey Hoffman has a good report on enrollment, here: … According to the Board of Trustees meeting minutes from Sept. 16 and 17, 2,984 out-of-state students were projected to enroll in 2024. The actual enrollment was 2,536 students. Although the out-of-state numbers are significantly lower than the…

UO SPICE science open house this Wed evening

Back in 1972, when I was 13, I heard about a similar event sponsored by the UVa engineering school. Every lab had an open house – wind tunnels, oscilloscopes, soil liquefaction, CNC machining with paper tapes. I still remember it all. My parents weren’t interested so I got to go by myself. I spent the next year going into the labs after school and driving the grad students crazy with dumb questions. I have no idea who runs this at UO but thank you!

The UO SPICE Science Open House is tomorrow (Wednesday October 9th, 6:30-8:30pm, Willamette Hall Atrium). Each year we welcome hundreds of children and community members to come explore hands-on science with SPICE, campus groups, and community partners.  We would love for you to join us. Please find our flyer attached. The event is free to the public.

We hope to see you there!

https://www.spicescience.org/open-haus

Pres Scholz boasts of his support for Free Speech, then sends his flunky so he doesn’t have to talk to advocates

Letter to campus from President Scholz and his PR flacks here:

Dear colleagues,
At the University of Oregon, we share a commitment to seek truth and advance knowledge, both for its own sake and to enrich the human condition. The academic freedom to develop effective practices of pedagogy, pursue research wherever it leads, and share the knowledge discovered is the fundamental principle that brings this commitment to life.
We are steadfast in upholding and affirming academic freedom at the UO, which is protected through policies approved of by the UO Senate.

Daily Emerald report on what happened when people pushed him on what he meant here:

The protestors marched to Johnson Hall where Smith, Urbancic, O’Neal and Tuten attempted to make the delivery to President Scholz, but Mark Schmelz, chief human resources and vice president, “intercepted,” according to O’Neal.

… “These measures include but are not limited to the University’s requests that students report their instructors’ political course content and targeting peaceful student protests using video recordings from the Board of Trustees public meetings. The CLC interprets these measures as threats to free speech on campus and the practice of academic freedom for educators at UO,” the media advisory said.

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education gives UO a yellow rating for Free Speech, noting:

University of Oregon has been given the speech code rating Yellow. Yellow light colleges and universities are those institutions with at least one ambiguous policy that too easily encourages administrative abuse and arbitrary application.

UO Senate motion calls for fair compensation, whatever that means

From the Senate website here. It’s disappointing that this motion does not endorse the union salary proposal and does not call on President Scholz to accept it. Scholz’s bargaining team has already claimed that faculty are currently paid “fairly”.

You can find your Senator here and ask them to support an amendment to change 2.3 below to:

2.3  BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED that the University Senate advocates for prompt negotiations and fair resolutions between the university administration and United Academics to avert any potential academic disruption resulting from a strike and calls on President Scholz to accept the United Academics proposal for raises of 8.5% for each of 3 years, to get faculty compensation to a fair level compared to our AAU public comparator universities. 

I expect the motion will come up for a vote at the Senate meeting on Oct 9th.

Sponsors

Alison Schmitke (College of Education, UO Senate President); Dyana Mason (College of Design, UO Senate VP)

Motion

Section I

1.1  WHEREAS the purpose of the University Senate is to further the academic mission of the University of Oregon; and

1.2  WHEREAS the University Senate is a partner in shared governance and will be a central to supporting Oregon Rising; and

1.3  WHEREAS when faculty are supported and valued, they are better equipped to contribute effectively to the academic mission that is the core focus of the University Senate’s work; and

1.4  WHEREAS a timely resolution to negotiations will allow the University Senate to focus on advancing the University’s academic goals;

Section II

2.1  BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED that the University Senate affirms its commitment to respecting and recognizing for the essential contributions of faculty in advancing the academic mission of the university; and

2.2  BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED that the University Senate believes fair and competitive remuneration is integral to sustaining faculty who uphold the university’s standards of excellence in research, teaching, and service; and

2.3  BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED that the University Senate advocates for prompt negotiations and fair resolutions between the university administration and United Academics to avert any potential academic disruption resulting from a strike.

Union to respond to Scholz’s “Fuck Off Faculty” salary proposal on Thursday

Bargaining started in February. The union put out a 3-year plan to get UO salaries from 86% of the average of our AAU Public comparators to 100% – a publicly stated goal of UO administrators going back to Pres Richard Lariviere and Provost Jim Bean.

President Scholz’s bargaining team countered with the offer of 3 years of 3% raises – not even enough to make up for recent inflation, much less move us up from the bottom of the AAU, PAC-12, Big-10, etc. Scholz’s bargaining team justified this by arguing they did not have the money – meaning they had other priorities for spending their ~$1 billion budget. The union responded by proposing they just get faculty salaries up to the level of Johnson Hall’s senior academic administrators – who are paying themselves 99% of the AAU average, plus bennies such as Provost Long’s $130K startup and alcohol budget.

The administration responded by refusing to increase their 3-for-3 offer. They did however switch their logic from “we don’t have the money” to “you are already overpaid” – arguing the cost of UO’s benefit package was high enough, and the cost of living in Eugene low enough, that in terms of total compensation faculty are already at 98.3% of the AAU average. I expect the union will disagree with the assumptions behind this number.

Here’s the union’s statement asking faculty to show up to hear their union’s response:

Our Fight for Fair Salaries

Your bargaining team meets with administration again this week on Thursday, September 26th, from 12:30 to 3:30pm. Please note that we will gather in Lillis 112 – right down the hall from the room we typically meet in.

We will present several articles, including Article 26: Salary. We have poured over the data underpinning the administration’s most recent proposal and have developed our counterproposal based on, and in response to their data. We anticipate a robust conversation about compensation during the session. We will also present our counterproposals on review processes for tenure-related and Career faculty.

Come to bargaining for as long as possible. If we are to avoid a future job action (such as a strike), it is imperative that faculty show up and remain engaged in bargaining throughout the coming term.