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"No contract, no silly hats" – updated with parking hypocrisy

4/19/2013 parking update: ODE story on faculty union’s unsuccessful efforts to talk with Gottfredson about his bargaining team’s slow pace, here:

“It’s important for our representatives to work with theirs, and not to be jumping to different personnel,” Altmann said. “The president signs off on everything that the administration does, but as far as the fine details and collecting the data, he doesn’t have the time to deal with that. That’s why it’s important for the representatives of both sides to meet with each other, because that’s how work gets done.”

Barbara Altmann has been at about 2 of the 72 hours of bargaining sessions so far – which hasn’t prevented her from putting her name on the bargaining updates, here. Including this one on parking:

One Million Dollars – for parking! How evil. To reduce my carbon footprint I walk to school, so I’d forgot all about the parking clause in Phil Knight’s Jock Box contract with UO – and who paid for it. But “The Real Jim Bean” (pretty sure he’s not, though you never know, Bean might be pissed about losing his JH spot) reminded me in the comments. Uncle Phil drives a tough bargain:

Initially UO kicked the law school faculty out of their lot, then ended up paving over part of the student’s urban farm to build a new athlete-only lot on the north side of Franklin – complete with a parking-arm gate to keep out the little people. ODE story here. How much did this cost, and who paid for it? This and the underground garage at Matt Court led to steep hikes in parking fees for faculty, staff, and students. More from a series of ODE stories, here.

So, how much are we paying for sports parking? Looks like an annual $907K nut to me:

Our academic mission is a dangerous one, and we all must pay the price for its success on the field. Go Ducks!

 No contract no silly hats. 4/18/2013:

More talk around the putting green at the faculty club’s new golf course of boycotting President Gottfredson’s 5/30 investiture ceremony, helped out by the fact that most of us have no interest in blowing off an afternoon in the office to walk to Knight Arena in full drag while being taunted by crowds of angry students asking why we still haven’t got them back comments on the latest draft of their term paper. Lariviere held his ceremony in front of Knight Library.

“Around the O”‘s URL is a little unclear on who UO’s president is:

http://around.uoregon.edu/story/president/bob-berdahl/investiture-uo-president-coming-soon

but the story gets it right.

17 Comments

  1. Anonymous 04/18/2013

    They should have doubled up with Phil Knight, who I hear is planting trees at Autzen or something. How special.

  2. Irata 04/18/2013

    Someone should also tell Around the O that “investiture” is not a Latin term and it does not mean “in dress” or “in robe.” Instead, obviously, it’s an English word that means, as a two-second search online reveals, “the act or formal ceremony of conferring the authority and symbols of high office.”

    And just because some Latin roots meaning “in” and “dress” are in there, even the Latin word “investitura” doesn’t mean, as Around the O implies, walking around in funny outfits.

    We’re a university for crap’s sake; we even have some Latinists around. Don’t make shit up.

    • Anonymous 04/18/2013

      Hey, we pay people a lot of money to make shit up that sounds good to the uninitiated. I guess it’s your fault if you are too…uh…initiated.

    • Anonymous 04/18/2013

      Remember that when the provost is calculating percentages…

    • Anonymous 04/18/2013

      Oh wise one. I think it’s funny that you had to look it up online.

  3. Anonymous 04/18/2013

    Richard looks like he’s got Pernsteiner on the other end of that mace.

  4. Anonymous 04/18/2013

    Ah, what would an afternoon at the UO be without this exquisite snark in UOM? It makes working around the current disasters survivable. Luv you Irata

  5. The Real Jim Bean 04/19/2013

    It’s important to recognize the true cost of parking to the University. Take, for instance, the student-athlete parking on the corner of Franklin and Riverfront Research Parkway. From that experience, we learned that the cost of installing and maintaining a parking lot with electronic arms is substantial. Why, we could have funded one or two research labs from that investment! Never mind you that most of the time that lot is empty and generates no revenue, it’s important that the University not waste a cent (unless it is for athletics). Please, get your priorities straight. In this economy you should be happy to even have a job. I know I am!

    • Anonymous 04/20/2013

      “I know I am?” That’s a give away. You can’t be the real Jim Bean, as Jim is interim. (And, only for a few more days!!!)

  6. Anonymous 04/20/2013

    The Jacqua box parking is stupid. Asking for faculty parking electronic gates seems stupid too.

    • Anonymous 04/20/2013

      I just wanted to amend my statement above. Pretending that the only two alternatives are parking arms or a science hire is also pretty stupid. There are lots of ways to spend, or save, a million dollars.

  7. Anonymous 04/20/2013

    Why in the world is our union trying to get electronic parking arms installed?

    While Altman may be disingenuous in her claims the truth remains that our negotiating resources are limited. Every concession from the administration that we force on such frivolities as electronic parking arms decreases our ability to achieve more substantial goals (i.e. increased pay, shared governance, etc.).

    • Anonymous 04/20/2013

      The administration has money for both parking and salaries. They just choose not to spend it.
      Maybe a union proposal to convert JH parking to an open faculty/staff lot?

  8. Anonymous 04/20/2013

    Can Barbara Altmann please stop the junk “fact check” posts? It discredits even the administrative marketing that is going on these days.

  9. Anonymous 04/20/2013

    The admin team aims for the weakest of the union’s proposals – parking gates. Good choice, no one really cares about this. But JH can’t even get their attack on this right. First, there’s a reason you see these gates for private employers – they save on labor costs. “Altmann” just ignores that. And then it turns out JH has been using parking fees to subsidize Phil Knight’s athletic “gifts”. At about 20 times the amortized cost of the union proposal. They are so incompetent that they blow it even when the union gets it wrong.

    • Anonymous 04/21/2013

      So true.

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