That would of course be Oregon State, for Assistant and Associate Profs. UO’s Fulls are still slightly ahead. The last time I looked, about 10 years ago, UO salaries were about 5% above OSU’s. Obviously the mix of disciplines is different, but I’d have expected UO’s shift away from liberal arts toward sciences and the Knight Campus to have increased the gap in UO’s favor. More bad UO administration? Or is Johnson Hall just greedier than OSU’s administrators?
Data from the just released AAUP compensation survey at https://www.aaup.org/report/annual-report-economic-status-profession-2023-24
I don’t know what these people are thinking. In the old days, UO at least had enough pride in itself to keep out front of poor ol’ OSU.
Are the trustees just morons? Have they no pride? Seems hard to believe on both counts. Then what drives them? Are they just ignorant tools? I don’t get it.
Steve Holwerda, an investment adviser who is now Chair of the Trustees (good way to pick up clients in the skybox) – has said his choice of a second career would be to work for the Duck Athletic Department. Faculty and academics do not rate: https://uomatters.com/2013/11/university-sends-blog-cease-and-desist.html
Just look at the differences in the promotional materials students get.
OSU sells science. UO sells DEI and belonging. One is selling education and the other is selling identity. Not surprisingly, very different students pick UO than OSU, and UO’s branding activities isolate it from the conservative regions of the state, but ring nice to rich out of staters. Just my reading of the materials my kid has got in the mail and the focus of their tours through UO and OSU.
Know thyself = education.
First of all, yes some of the board members are morons, particularly Steve Holwerda. I can’t believe that this story did not get more traction: https://www.si.com/fannation/college/cfb-hq/ncaa-football/oregon-chair-golf-course-big-ten-football-realignment-vote.
And to UO Matters’ comment, Mr. Holwerda does not just aspire to join Duck Athletics, he has already been there. After getting his degree at South Dakota State, followed by an MBA at the illustrious UO School of Business, Mr. Holwerda served as the Southern Oregon lead for the Duck Athletics fund. That is, his background and university frame is as an athletics fundraiser. That is how he built his network for his current job and for his university service.
No one on the board has experience in higher ed, nor, except for Tim Boyle, have they even helped to lead nationally-relevant organizations or businesses. UO Matters loved to dump on Chuck Lillis, but the guy knew what he was doing at a high level, both academically and in terms of running large complex organizations. The current board was put together to be doormats for previous leadership, but no one was counting on them having to choose and supervise current leadership. These things matter, although the UO is not unique in this circumstance nationally at this point.
UO is the Flagship.
Oregon State pads their resume with online students like U. of Pheonix or ITT Tech did.
I don’t hear anybody talking about the Beavers on National TV.
Do You Bill?
I’ll confess, I don’t watch national TV anymore, at least not for news programming. My broadcast news source tends to be NPR – and, curiously I heard them talking about the Beavers, at least an Oregon State University researcher, a week before Christmas, in a story about microplastics. Prior to that, in October OSU folks got shout outs twice; one for research into the western spotted skunk and for data analysis of maps revealing damage in Gaza in the first year of the post-October 7 action there.
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The Ducks, at least an emeritus professor, also got some airtime to consider all the things about the devastating effects of a bag of Cheetos in Carlsbad Caverns. Back in September.
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But what is a flagship, anyway? And is that status established and measured by national news headline counts? If so, which outlets?
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If flagship status is to be achieved through promotion in national media, then, yes, I suppose the UO is the state’s flagship. They have the nation’s flagship football program, which, as we all know, is vitally important in assessing snack food in caverns. UO has one of the nation’s flagship donors, who, to his credit, has given a billion bucks for his eponymous science campus in addition to the largess he has gifted UO in raising the brand through athletic promotions.
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But you had to take a swipe at “padded” enrollment numbers, as if to suggest that empirical measurements, not brand awareness, tell the true tale. Fine, let’s follow your lead: all OSU has done this year is enroll, for the 28th consecutive year, a larger class than last year. Yes, a growing number of those student are through Ecampus online programs, but let’s be fair: students who graduate via that platform don’t get an “Ecampus” diploma, they get an Oregon State University diploma. That said, OSU’s accreditation is merely by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU), but, I mean…padded numbers right? An NWCCU-accredited diploma isn’t quite the same as a UO diploma, right?
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Because we all know UO diplomas are not only backed by the full faith and promotion of Uncle Phil, they are, in fact, backed by an accreditation by the…oops…Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities.
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Numbers: UO has 24,624 students this fall. Of those, 12,693 are Oregon residents. By comparison, OSU has 38,125 students. Let’s be generous to your position and remove the “padding” that is the 11,682 Ecampus students, leaving only 26,443 physical students enrolled. Of those, only 14,747 are Oregon residents.
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So, yeah, in a metric that matters – I mean, it must matter, because you brought it up as the only objective data point – educating students in Oregon: by having fewer overall students AND fewer Oregon students, yeah…UO is definitely the flagship, if only because it’s importing more young folks to Oregon as a percentage of its enrollment than OSU.
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Honestly, from an academics viewpoint, it’s not a fair comparison from either side. UO is a fine liberal arts and science public university, with well regarded arts and humanities programs, and a very good science program that is growing in the research realm, thanks in no small part for Uncle Phil and Aunt Connie. OSU is a land-sea-space-sun grant university with a legislated mission for teaching and research and a footprint across the entire state via Extension, with a very strong engineering, ag, marine, and geosciences bent. One’s a Big10 school, the other isn’t. One’s an apple, one’s a Cascades hop. Both schools excel in their particular areas.
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If you want to swing a defense of flagship status around, go for it; but when you start looking at measurable comparisons other than how many cheerleaders get a closeup from a horny camera operator, ask yourself this: which school has done more in the past twenty years to solidify and expand their core mission of teaching and research – and in OSU’s case, its additional legislated mission of outreach and engagement – to better server the people of Oregon in answering pressing questions of the day…beyond the over/under on the big game?
With apologies about the last link taking three and a half paragraphs – I’ll own my failure to close the link and promise to try harder this year.
Sorry, don’t watch TV.