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Posts published by “uomatters”

Murk

10/4/2010: I’ve talked to way too many reporters over the years. They would spit in the phone everytime UO’s public records boss Melinda Grier’s name was mentioned. Steve Duin of the Oregonian compared her operation to the KGB. It took a rebellion of sportswriters over the Bellotti payoff to get…

Bolt on Bloat

10/3/2010: Greg Bolt has a few articles today on the athletic department budget (Mullens’s report is here), including one on how little data Jamie Moffitt and Rob Mullens are willing to provide the press. Here are some additional spreadsheets, that include somewhat more detailed breakdowns of revenue and expenses than…

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My god: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/30/nyregion/30suicide.html?hp Three lives. Universities need to spend money on counseling for their students, not police. Sell those new police interceptors and start hiring on Monday.

There goes the reserve

9/29/2010: Utterly unsurprising news in the RG today. The arena is not going to bring in the revenue Frohnmayer promised when he was selling the bonds to the legislature. And Chip Kelly needs another big raise to keep him on board. So the ticket money will go to Kelly, and…

NRC Graduate Rankings

9/28/2010: The NRC graduate rankings are out, Chronicle.com has a spiffy interactive tool, probably only accessible from campus. Many UO programs do very well – even without adjusting for shitty faculty pay and the fact that UO research support is 63% of average. The new quantitative methodology adopted by NRC…

President, Governor on student spas and administrative bloat

9/28/2010: President Obama that is: In a conference call with student journalists on Monday, President Obama renewed his calls for reining in college costs, saying that every institution should provide a chart showing how each tuition dollar is spent. He also questioned the need for expensive amenities. “You’re not going…

No guns yet

9/28/2010: In several recent posts I’ve said or implied that the Dyke-Tripp proposal is to create an armed UO police force. This is wrong, and an informed reader clarifies:  … the proposal on the table is to have the DPS officers elevated to the status of police officers WITHOUT arming…

Facebook Riots

9/27/2010: Mat Wolf of the ODE has a story on Friday’s riot. Remember all those stories about how computers and texting make our students withdraw from reality? Never mind – turns out somebody organized a party with facebook and it got out of control, the cops were called, and now…

Sanskrit

9/26/2010: I’m no Sanskrit scholar, though I learned some interesting things from this video of President Lariviere explaining the history and logic of the language – to 9th graders. I particularly like the bit on the power of words, and the ancient efforts to understand the mystery of their power.

Riots

9/26/2010: I’m hoping that the Friday night freshman riots don’t turn into a regular event. I also hope that  DPS does not attempt to use them as a reason for yet another big budget increase. 110% in 6 years, while crime rates are decreasing, should be enough. So long as…