I mistakenly deleted all comments to UO Matters from 5/12 or so til now. I’m very sorry, there were some good ones too! I tried to recover them, but can’t. I really appreciate comments and the discussions that often develop. They make the blog much more interesting and I hope people will keep making them!
PS – will the person that keeps clearing their cache and giving Berdahl A grades in the poll just stop? I get it.
I wonder if UO Matters is being forced to post that deleting the comments was an accident. Send us a signal if you are in trouble UO matters.
Things are getting desperate here. Send more scotch.
Actually, I think it was censorship, not mere incompetence. And since UOMatters has cavalierly neglected to strap a live-streaming webcam to his forehead at all times, we have no way to know for sure.
Google Cache Dog:
I have some of the comments in my google cache and I suspect
other people also have them.
For example
Aren’t there many officers of research in the sciences?
AnonymousSaturday, 12 May, 2012
Yes, of course. But I suspect that many (most?) do not consider unionization to be relevant. ORs in science fall largely into two groups: (1) Postdocs who are continuing their education and aspire to TTF positions, characteristically in some other university. (2) Older postdocs who have strong ties to the group in which they work and know that their continued employment depends on the ability of the group to secure outside funding.
Both of postdoc groups are self-motivated to work well beyond and outside of any standardized schedule.
AnonymousSaturday, 12 May, 2012
I think pay is the big issue for postdocs. They’ve had a salary freeze for years.
What kinds of positions other than post-doc do officers of research have? A majority of ORs voted for the union, so it must have had some traction in post-docs unless there is some other group holding a different kind of position that was vastly in favor.
AnonymousSaturday, 12 May, 2012
Can you split your data re OR votes into Basic Science vs Other?
AnonymousSaturday, 12 May, 2012
Technicians, staff scientists…
AnonymousSaturday, 12 May, 2012
Dog wonders
don’t understand postdoc “salary freeze for years” ??
I can put in any salary I want (within reason) in a Federal
Grant for a PostDoc and I have annual pay raises built into
the budget for them.
Research Associates are in a different category and yes, their
pay is mostly fixed.
AnonymousSaturday, 12 May, 2012
Dog, I also put raises into NIH grants, but all actual attempts to give the post-doc those raises have been refused, citing a state-wide salary freeze. I know some science PIs were going to send back the money budgeted to raises since the money couldn’t be used for that, but I think in the end the lab needed funds for other purposes.
I don’t understand why your situation is different. I know multiple Pis who have had the same experience as I… there are bad feelings because some postdocs were brought in at a low first year salary and these have been frozen at that level for the following years (unless the postdoc gets outside funding). The postdocs are told they have to get an outside offer to get a raise. Maybe I’m confused about their actual job title?
Reply
You deleted my comments? But they were going to be the university service part of my tenure file! Where’s the UO Matters grievance office?