Author Archives: uomatters

I need some ethics advice. An overnight visitor leaves a iphone charger in the guest bedroom. I should:

A: Fed-Ex it them immediately

B: Email them that I found it and offer to mail it back

C: Pretend you didn’t see it and leave it for the next visitor

D: Put it in the kitchen drawer with the iphone chargers from past decades

E: ?

From Eric Kelderman in the Chronicle:

According to the survey, presidents most often expect criticism from lawmakers. When asked “which group of people is most likely to respond negatively if you were to publicly take a position,” presidents pointed to elected officials for all but one of eight possible topics — state and national politics, but also Covid-19 policy; diversity, equity, and inclusion; free speech; gender and sexual identity; and racial justice. Only academic freedom was deemed relatively safe.

Back in 2015, in the midst of a lawsuit by the RG to force the Eugene School District to release public records about a potentially illegal firing decision, the District’s law firm Harrang, Long, Gary and Rudnick mistakenly emailed the entire file of documents to the RG. This ended the case, but not in the way the Harrang et al were being paid to end it. Original post here:

4/29/2015: Harrang, Long, Gary and Rudnick way too transparent with potentially incriminating public records

Bill Gary, Sharon Rudnick, and Randy Geller of UO’s HLGR law firm must be shitting their pants. I’m no lawyer, but sending a dump of emails that potentially incriminate your clients to the local newspaper, by mistake, seems unlikely to bring in the billable hours.

That would of course be OSU:

Meanwhile here at UO, application numbers are a closely guarded secret, to prevent department heads from getting uppity and asking tough questions about why JH is starving them.

Just kidding, they renovated the Alumni Center where the trustees meet, over by the basketball arena:

… I appreciate you beyond words and am so proud of the University of Oregon you showed the world. Thank you again. And, Go Ducks!

Michael H. Schill
President and Professor of Law

Full yada yada here.

Meanwhile for those interested in numbers instead of mindless sports boosterism, here’s the ECONorthwest economic impact doc. It looks like the reality may have been a bit shy of the numbers that were ginned up to justify the state subsidies:

The NYT on the failure to expand the aging fan base:

… “The fans gave me almost chills.” The problem is, there have not been many of them compared to other championships. Hayward Field has a capacity of about 30,000. Once sponsors and delegations from every country were taken care of, it sold about 12,000 seats per session. It still sold 90 percent of available tickets, with some but not all night sessions selling out.

If you want to put on the best track meet in the United States, Eugene is an obvious choice. If you want to expand the reach of the sport in the United States, it is not the best choice. Only locals or fans willing to make a long pilgrimage could have attended. Both of those groups are composed of people track and field already has. …

“We knew there was a risk,” Coe said. “I do politely make the point there weren’t a lot of options available. There should have been, and we should have engaged earlier.” Coe wished more cities had engaged with USATF, but only Eugene pushed to host after World Athletics made clear it wanted to bring the event to the United States.

The Eugene Weekly on the shitty local economic impact:

… My Soul Hot Chicken’s business model is focused on locals, Wiley says, and doesn’t rely on tourists or students. But after hearing that Oregon22 would be good for restaurants, he says, he ordered a lot more chicken and bread than he normally would for a week. 

But business during Oregon22 has been so slow, he adds, that for this week he only ordered some cabbage. “I am 25 percent of what I projected to do,” he says. 

So far, Wiley estimates he’s lost thousands of dollars — a big number for a new business. “I was paying payroll and had barely enough to cover it,” he says. “It’s been shitty.” 

Losing so much money in a 10-day event that the state of Oregon poured $40 million into has been frustrating, he says. “You think they’d want to make sure local businesses would do well,” he says. “Everyone I’ve talked to has done poorly.”

When the actual data is out it will be interesting to revisit EcoNorthWest’s 2015 Economic Impact study, which was used as justification for the state subsidies.

In the Oregonian:

… While representing clients, mostly in professional football and basketball, he was fond of the “holdout,” a tactic where the represented player would sit out for an extended period of time during the season to put on pressure during contract negotiations. In a 1985 profile on Slusher, People magazine described his execution of the gambit as an “art form.” …

Link is updated as new shit comes to light. No idea if 5.5 is bad, informed comments welcome.

From FIRE:

SEATTLE, July 13, 2022 — When Professor Stuart Reges challenged the University of Washington’s position on land acknowledgements, administrators punished him, undermining his academic freedom. Today, backed by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, Reges sued the university to vindicate his First Amendment right to express his opinion — even if it differs from the party line.

Colleges increasingly promote land acknowledgment statements that recognize indigenous ties to the land on which a college sits. On a list of syllabus “best practices,” UW’s computer science department encourages professors to include such a statement and suggests using language developed by the university’s diversity office “to acknowledge that our campus sits on occupied land.” The fact that the statement could be adapted seemed clear — until Reges wrote one that administrators did not like.

“University administrators turned me into a pariah on campus because I included a land acknowledgment that wasn’t sufficiently progressive for them,” said Reges. “Land acknowledgments are performative acts of conformity that should be resisted, even if it lands you in court. I am pleased that FIRE joined with me to fight back against University of Washington’s illegal viewpoint discrimination.”

Is it normal for host countries to use international track meets to show off their military hardware? From the World Athletics press release:

On opening night on Friday, July 15, a flyover will take place when the session kicks off at 5 p.m.

On Saturday night, there will be an F-15 jet flyover right before the introduction of the athletes in the men’s 100m final.

On Monday, July 18, the night belongs to women, beginning with a Women in the Spotlight presentation followed by a Black Hawk helicopter flyover at 5 p.m. The helicopter will be flown by a female pilot.

Or as they call it in Johnson Hall, the “University Tower“. Ken Goe has the story in the Oregonian, mostly about why the thing is so damn large. OK, it’s mostly about the lousy seating: https://www.oregonlive.com/oregon22/2022/07/goe-new-hayward-field-site-of-world-athletics-championships-oregon22-is-big-on-flash-but-short-on-function.html

Thanks to an alert alumnus for the link. As the story notes UO is not the only university involved in this deceptive scam:

… Christina Denkinger wanted something new after 14 years as an elementary-school teacher in Portland, Ore. After shopping around for a course in data analytics last fall, she requested information through a University of Oregon website portal for an online training program, called a boot camp, offered by the university’s continuing-education division.

She received a “uoregon.edu” email from someone identifying herself as admissions adviser for the boot camp. It had the university logo, and there was no mention in the email of 2U. Ms. Denkinger paid $11,995 to enroll last December.

“The only reason I signed up for this boot camp was because of the reputation of the university,” she said.

One month into the course, she was disappointed with the quality of instruction and began asking questions. That was when she realized that instructors and course materials were all provided by a unit of 2U, Trilogy Education Services.

When she went back and looked on the boot camp website, Ms. Denkinger saw “powered by Trilogy” at the bottom of the landing page.

“I thought it was technical services,” said Ms. Denkinger, who left the course early and has just received a refund. “I do, honestly, feel like I was misled.”

…

A spokeswoman for the University of Oregon said that it provides administrative oversight and that the partnership with 2U is noted in several places on the website and in its enrollment agreement. After The Wall Street Journal asked about disclosures in April, a line was added to the top of the boot camp landing page saying “in partnership with Trilogy Education Services, a 2U, Inc. brand.”

2U, which isn’t accredited as a university, kept 80% of the tuition from the University of Oregon program, according to its contract with the university, which the Journal reviewed. The university said its 20% share was about $600,000 in the fiscal year ended June 30, 2021.

I’m no econometrician but I figure it’s never too late to learn this data analytics stuff, so I signed up for further info. No mention of 2U in the response – it’s all UO.

Interestingly, our for-profit collaborators at 2U seem far more concerned about the health of their students, faculty, and staff than our administration is:

Governor Brown spent $40M in state money for this? I like how they cropped out the Phildo and photoshopped in some fall foliage:

No word on the rumors all employees will be required to undergo 23andme DNA tracing to help us complete this form accurately.

Strangely, there is no option for you change your “legal sex”.