You can’t make this stuff up

7/29/2010: UO’s research expenditures are 63% of the nat’l public research U average. And our true spending priorities are revealed once more:

We’ve written once or twice before about how Charles Martinez can’t find time to do his job as UO’s Diversity Vice President. Because he’s got another job on the side, off campus at the Oregon Social Learning Center. So last month UO hired Martinez a “Strategic Communications Specialist” to help him out.

But he’s still not getting anything done. And now he’s got to manage this strategery person too. Solution? UO puts out an ad out for an OIED Executive Assistant with a simple job description: do Charles’s job for him:

Title: Executive Assistant to the Vice President for Institutional Equity and Diversity
Department: Office of the Vice President for Institutional Equity and Diversity
Reports to: Vice President for Institutional Equity and Diversity

… manages the daily operations of OIED, and assists in implementing the management and operational directives of the Vice President. The position regularly requires the ability to exercise independent judgment and a comprehensive knowledge of OIED, its programs and personnel, and the complex issues that accompany advancing diversity in a higher education environment. …

Qualifications:
…
* Tact, discretion, sensitivity, flexibility, patience, courtesy and the ability to maintain a calm demeanor when under pressure are required.
* Experience with the Microsoft Office Suite.

… The University of Oregon is an equal-opportunity, affirmative-action institution committed to cultural diversity and compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. 

 I like that affirmative-action institution bit. Charles has been Diversity head for 5 years now. UO has never had an open, public, Affirmative Action compliant search for this job. He gets reappointed on the sly every time. To top it off, last year they gave Charles tenure as a professor: no job announcement, no open search. 

But, you want to be his Executive Assistant and spend your day doing his job for him, for a third of his pay? For you, the University of Oregon will follow all the hiring laws.

Tact, discretion …