10/7/2011: From Greg Bolt in the RG:
Robert Berdahl will work just under half time, about two days a week, on a variety of efforts, such as helping align the state’s ongoing restructuring of higher education with Lariviere’s proposals for how the higher education system should be run and funded. Berdahl also will help with strategic and academic planning.
Seems like a great idea. Johnson Hall needs new blood quick. He’s got an interesting looking bio with many accomplishments. Not the sort of person Dr. Pernsteiner and Frohnmayer’s old guard will be able to ignore.
Jack Stripling of the Chronicle attacks this hire. I don’t understand why. We are paying $96,000 for 800 hours of consulting advice from a guy who is former UC – Berkeley Chancellor, etc. That’s $120 an hour. I’ve paid more for a plumber – no disrespect intended, it’s all flowing smoothly now.
dog says
yes but its old blood (the guy is now 74) – but I do know him peripherally (mostly in his Berkeley capacity) and he is an intelligent guy that understands a lot of what is broken now in Higher Ed. In principle, his insights could really help the UO.
I imagine that Old Man remembers Berdahl from his days as UO CAS dean so he might disagree.
Old Man remembers Bob Berdahl as a fine Dean. The circumstances of Bob’s departure from Eugene are too painful to recall in these pages. Old Man looks forward with great pleasure to Bob’s re-involvement in our future.
From one old man:
Berdahl is the most competent adm I have encountered in my 30+ years at the U of O. He is the only CAS dean to understand and support the humanities. He was the force behind creating the Humanities Center. Maybe he can bring it back to life from its current doldrums.
“one old man” notes that Berdahl understood and strengthened the humanities. The Old Man is pleased to report that he had the respect of respected scientists, as well.
At least with the plumber you get some plumbing left behind afterwards. This is another $100K down the drain of Lariviere’s empire building.
Challenge Lariviere? Hah! The guy is there to work for him. Note the words, Berdahl is to align the state plans with Lariviere’s proposals. Not the other way around.
It’s past time for some pink slips. Let’s start with Lariviere and his direct reports, Pernsteiner, and the OUS board in one big package.
A great hire, a very accomplished administrator — shows Lariviere is not afraid to get advice from someone with a stronger background — the AAU connection will help us keep in that club, where being forced out would be a disaster — the Texas then Berkeley top job experience will bring some really big-league perspective which even Lariviere doesn’t have.
If he has fund-raising contacts in California or Texas — which he surely must — he could be worth the $100K about 100 times over, or maybe 100 times 100 — imagine if he could convince a certain UO backer that he knows how UO could become an academic powerhouse the way it has in sports.
Let the Democrat in the legislature bellow all he wants about how the $100K should go to scholarships — ask him why UO support from the state is at an all-time low in real dollars per student. If he wants to tell Lariviere how to spend the money, then let him provide it — instead of relying on UO to hustle it from out of state and out of country tuition-payers.