And now they need to clean out Johnson Hall, starting with Gottfredson:
Dear friends and colleagues,
The University of Oregon is entering a bold and exciting new era. Today—July 1, 2014—signals the completion of the university’s transition of governance authority from the Oregon State Board of Higher Education to the University of Oregon Board of Trustees. This inaugural group of Trustees, appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Oregon State Senate, brings broad knowledge, diverse skills and experience, and a dedication to affirming the UO’s position among the best universities in the nation and world. The significant statutory changes passed by the 2013 Legislative Assembly give the Board of Trustees broad powers enabling the university to move more nimbly to meet the 21st century needs of students, faculty, and all of Oregon’s citizens for the creation, exchange, and dissemination of knowledge.
With this new authority comes incredible opportunity and responsibility. The UO is at a crossroads. We are poised to dramatically expand our academic and research enterprises. Students need affordable access more than ever to succeed in the global economy, and the university is facing serious funding challenges. But the new institutional board allows us to act; to build on the UO’s academic strengths, refinance the institution, and secure the UO’s place as a premier public residential research university.
Achieving this historic day took many years, incredible energy, and tenacious advocacy. We are deeply thankful to the many friends of the university, legislators, prior UO administrations, and the current faculty and staff for their incredibly hard work to get us to this day. And we are deeply grateful for all our supporters who will help us going forward.
The door to greater success, achievement, and access is wide open. Today we will walk through it, together.
Michael Gottfredson, President
Chuck Lillis, Chair, Board of Trustees
This has gott all over it. I am not a fan of the heavily modified hyperbole, however… “secure the UO’s place as a premier public residential research University.” MG should know by now that he’s ratcheted up our norms, this leaving us with the expectation that we are the best on the world.
The PR person who put this release together ratcheted up their written eloquence too. “The door to greater success, achievement, and access is wide open. Today we will walk through it, together.” These are the words that inspire revolutions.
Our 190over60 branders?
scary thought for the day
Dog actually meet with the 190over60 people. Dog is the last person on the planet you would ever want to involve in branding (unless its cattle …)
Tell us more, you dog!
not much to tell
however
http://www.aau.edu/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=14849
is an interesting new survey about AAU universities and undergraduate education and I don’t think the UO responded to this survey, just the UW in the NWAC
I wish to amend an earlier mistake.
After further research, in fact, it was the UO that put in the AAU
survey, it was the UW that did not.
Apologizes for the error, although it was a fairly honest error.
I got confused between the O and the W
Lets hope the door doesn’t hit us on the way out…
UO is at a crossroads, and we will walk through the door together. (Admins first, of course.)
I’m guessing Ann Wiens wrote this.
well perhaps the one positive message I gave was that the UO
needs to Brand Itself as more than just a liberal arts campus.
Science is done here.
A common perception is that OSU is the science school. Now, I agree that OSU is the Earth System Science school, but it is nowhere near as good as the UO’s traditional hard sciences and
that should be part of our next Pac 12 commercial, which is really what the 160/90 exercise is about.
but as I believe he was the one to remind us: science is among the liberal arts, dog
Did somebody say doors? Here we go….
“The martyrs go hand and hand into the arena; they are crucified alone.” ― Aldous Huxley, The Doors of Perception
Or, if you prefer, the modern translation by Morrison:
The time to hesitate is through
No time to wallow in the mire
Try now we can only lose
Or, as the writers for our current university president might say:
You know that it would be untrue
You know that I would be a liar
If I was to say to you
Girl, we couldn’t get much higher
Predictions?
One of first board actions will be to raise president and administrators’ salaries.
Board will rarely meet, especially actually at the UO.
The UO President and Phil Knight will select their cronies as board members.
With all information from the President, the volunteer board will be largely clueless and disengaged.
The board will largely act for private rather than public interests.
This is the Nike model, and that of corporate boards everywhere.
Yup, and it’s awfully hard to claim that U of O is a public institution. Not when the average Oregonian has to pony up tens of thousands of $$$ in debt in order to attend. But, the only game left is the public sector, which has to be gutted in order to wring out any remaining surplus….
Are you surprised? This was news a year ago when the vote took place in Salem. And one of the first casualties was and is shared governance, which will likely be re-branded as “a workable shared vision between the Board and administrators”.