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UO appoints faculty union’s Scott Pratt as Dean of grad school

The UO administration has discovered that if they want to hire competent people who care about UO, they can recruit from the UAUO Faculty Union leadership. First it was Ron Bramhall, now it’s Scott Pratt. From “AroundThe0”:

The provost announced today that Scott L. Pratt, professor of philosophy, will become the new dean of the UO Graduate School.

As Acting Provost Frances Bronet communicated at the beginning of the search process, the position was proposed as an independent deanship reporting to the senior vice president and provost.

Pratt will be responsible for shaping, energizing and fostering excellence, innovation and inclusivity in graduate education at the UO. The dean serves as an advocate for graduate students and will craft and execute a vision to build excellent degree programs in which students can pursue path-breaking research, scholarship and professional skills, and receive training to develop careers.

“Scott has been at the UO for two decades and brings a wealth of experience to the position of dean of the Graduate School,” Bronet said. “He has proven skills of creativity, vision and innovation that will guide the Graduate School at UO. He will be a key leader as we build our strategic plan around elevating the impact of research, scholarship, creative inquiry and graduate education.”

Pratt has been the director of graduate studies in the philosophy department since 2012 and has served as department head, associate dean of the humanities and director of undergraduate studies for the philosophy department during his 20-year career at the UO. He has published seven books and dozens of articles and received a Williams Fellowship for Outstanding University Teaching. He is also editor for the Transactions of the C. S. Peirce Society, a leading journal in American Philosophy.

“I look forward to working with the faculty across the disciplines, schools and colleges to develop a vision of graduate education that advances the university’s mission as a public research university and a member of the Association of American Universities,” Pratt said. “And I am eager to work with our graduate students to ensure that they receive the support necessary to be successful students and to become the next generation of leaders in science, scholarship, teaching, business, journalism, the arts and the work of making the world a better place.”

Bronet thanked the search committee, led by Margie Paris as the chair, for their efforts to recommend candidates to provide creative, ambitious leadership and effective management.

The committee included: Lara Bovilsky, English; John Chalmers, finance; Victoria J. De Rose, chemistry/biochemistry; Brigid Flannery, education; Leonardo Garcia-Pabon, romance languages; Kellie Geldreich, graduate school; Lillie Manis, music; Jenny Mendoza, psychology; Margie Paris, law; Elizabeth Stormshak, research and education; Mark Watson, University Libraries; Frances White, anthropology; and Yuan Xu, mathematics, with staff support from Kathy Warden, Academic Affairs.

Pratt will begin as dean March 30.

—By Julie Brown, Public Affairs Communications

14 Comments

  1. Philip Zimbardo 03/17/2015

    Hmm . . . the prisoners become the prison guards. I wonder how that will turn out?

    [Editor: I doubt this is the real Dr. Z.]

  2. you have no idea 03/17/2015

    UOM, I do appreciate your blog and often defend you against those who say you are uninformed, but your statement at the top of this announcement is silly, uninformed, and truly unnecessary. So disappointing.

    • uomatters Post author | 03/17/2015

      I’m sorry, I am not understanding why that statement is bad.

  3. Competence or last candidate standing? 03/17/2015

    I think it will be shown that Pratt got the job because he is the only candidate left.

    • uomatters Post author | 03/17/2015

      Please start using a consistent screen name, troll.

    • dog 03/17/2015

      Correct, 2 of the 3 initial candidates have now accepted jobs at other institutions.

      • The real XDH 03/18/2015

        Dog is right – rats deserting a sinking ship….

        • Old Grey Mare 03/18/2015

          Last man standing doesn’t mean he’s not the best person for this job.

  4. NTTF 03/17/2015

    The first paragraph of the post is tongue in cheek.

    That being said, given that two of the faculty members of UAUO’s bargaining team–out of five(?)–have now been moved to admin positions *while* bargaining is actively in progress one could be forgiven for entertaining the notion that the administration is employing the classic “If you can’t beat them, have them join us” tactic.

    I’m absolutely not claiming that this is what is happening with either of these two cases. Rather, I’m merely supporting the idea that from a distance the optics do leave that kind of impression.

  5. Mark Alfano 03/18/2015

    I am proud to have dr Pratt as a colleague and look forward to his being a competent and honest administrator. The fact that he has gone into the administration before and come back un-corrupted speaks volumes.

  6. Gina Psaki 03/25/2015

    Scott Pratt is smart, experienced, principled, humane, qualified, strong, and independent. He will make a superb Dean of the Graduate School, particularly if he’s given *resources* that will allow him to strengthen graduate education at the UO. Frankly I’d clone the guy and put him in positions of responsibility all over the campus.

    • dog 03/27/2015

      I believe that most any competent individual, and I regard Pratt as competent, would do well in the Grad School. IF GIVEN RESOURCES.

      The Dean of the Grad School is not the real issue here, the far bigger
      issue involves continued and escalating investment in the Grad School as a critical part of the Research University. That clearly hasn’t been happening for years now.

  7. Working GTF 03/26/2015

    I sat in a GTFF bargaining session where Dr. Pratt spoke in strident and moving terms to the execrable Jeff Matthews and the rest of the administration team, regarding the mission of the university. Dr. Pratt laid out in no uncertain terms that while the university has a set of moral concerns constraining its action, it also has a set of moral concerns that should likewise constrain their actions. I can’t imagine many other faculty I would prefer to see in the administration, given that most of the current crop seem to have no grasp of moral constraints.

  8. Working GTF 03/26/2015

    *practical and moral, bleh

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