Dear members of the University of Oregon community, Today marks day 12 of the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment.” In that time, I have received many emails and other forms of communication from UO faculty and staff. I apologize that I have not responded to each. Please know they are being read.…
Posts published by “UO Matters”
Whatever you think of this decision, kudos to him for taking responsibility for it. Pres Schill would have made some VP take the blame: Dear University of Oregon community, The last nine days have been marked by the expression of strong convictions following the establishment of an unauthorized tent encampment…
Actually, he got VP Kris Winter to do his dirty work with this email to students:
… In short, no student should be encouraged or compelled by UO employees to be exposed to the protest or encampment. This includes visiting the encampment for any academic or instructional purpose including class or office hours. I encourage students to reach out to report concerns through the links in this message, to practice self-care and mutual support, and to make use of the following resources as we navigate this challenging time. …
As it happens, UO has a policy on academic freedom that addresses this, and does so far more liberally (in the classical sense) than what UO is telling its students:
b. TEACHING. The University’s responsibility to help students to think critically and independently requires that members of the university community have the right to investigate and discuss matters, including those that are controversial, inside and outside of class, without fear of institutional restraint. Matters brought up in class should be related to the subject of courses or otherwise be educationally relevant, as determined primarily by the faculty member in charge of the class.
…
The academic freedoms enumerated in this policy shall be exercised without fear of institutional reprisal.
Scholz’s message to students below:
Stephanie Hensley in the ODE: For professors at the University of Oregon, salaries are notably lower than those of their peers at other universities. The average annual salary of a full professor at the UO is $139,800, whereas the American Association of Universities averages $174,300. … Since joining the University…
Did we forget to teach our students about how Nixon got re-elected in 1972? https://www.kezi.com/news/local/pro-palestinian-protest-encampment-at-the-university-of-oregon-nearly-triples-in-size/article_98270c3a-0739-11ef-8289-13901edbc5be.html
Dear University of Oregon community, We are living through an extraordinary moment in which people at universities across the nation—including on our own campus—are expressing their passionate views about the ongoing conflict and devastating loss of human life in the Middle East and particularly in Gaza. The destruction and suffering…
Thanks to a regular reader for the link: Announcing Ian F. McNeely as the College’s next senior associate dean for undergraduate education
What I learned in bargaining today, on zoom at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81254557403?pwd=Nkh2L1ptaDhpRmlvdWNaaXYxaHcxQT09 In response to this news from Keaton Miller (Econ) your union has lowered its salary demand from “Average, in 3 years” to “99.4% of average, in 3 years”. The new proposal will be posted at https://www.uauoregon.org/bargaining/ Presumably it will be…
Dear University of Oregon community, I am thrilled to announce that Christopher P. Long, dean of the College of Arts & Letters and the Honors College at Michigan State University (MSU) and professor of philosophy and MSU Research Foundation Professor, will join the University of Oregon as provost and senior…
I’m no astronomer, but in my family’s “faith tradition” we were taught that this annual increase in light was caused not by hope, but by the tilt of the earth’s axis of rotation relative to its solar orbit – and also that springtime for us was a depressing advance of darkness for those in, say, Patagonia.
On Apr 5, 2024, at 12:32 PM, Yvette Alex-Assensoh <[email protected]> wrote:
Welcome to Spring Term 2024: A Time of Light and Hope
Ultimately, Springtime in Eugene is beautiful, but that beauty only emerges after months of a dreary sky and rain. The fact that beauty can and, often does, emerge from the rainy seasons of our lives is an encouragement, as people across our world experience wars, conflicts, unnecessary suffering as well as death at home and abroad.
This year, Springtime in Eugene is a time that diverse members of our community are celebrating Ramadan, Easter, and Passover. As members of a university community, we are called to life-long learning, which hopefully includes broadening our understanding of the diverse ways that people worship and connect to their collective memories and tradition. Our shared commitment to one another, therefore, invites us to support the time that our students, staff and faculty take to honor cherished beliefs and traditions.
Email from the UAUO Union:
United Academics is back at the bargaining table this week, Thursday April 4, from 12:30-3:30 in Chiles 125. Come out and support your bargaining team! The administration has promised to walk us through their lackluster salary proposal which fails to keep up with inflation, puts us farther behind our comparators, and excludes raises for many of the faculty in your bargaining unit.
Let’s pack the room again!
Your presence in the Zoom also makes a difference, but in-person sends a stronger message! …
Presumably Bruce McGough, Soc Sci Assoc Dean and Professor of Economics, will take the lead on explaining why President Scholz has not bothered to make a serious response to UAUO’s modest proposal to get faculty pay to average, three years from now.
The Knight Campus, Ed School, and Journalism faculty are doing OK (and this does not include their lucrative consulting gigs or summer money). Business is at 91% of peers. CAS at 86%. Law salaries are the worst at 83%. All comparisons are to the other AAU publics, data and computations from the AAUDE. In the past I’ve found significant errors in the data JP Monroe’s office of Institutional Research submits to the AAUDE, but I have not checked these most recent numbers.
You can drill down to the department level at https://ir.uoregon.edu/sites/ir1.uoregon.edu/files/AppendixIIIALLAAUPUBLICSHighLowAvgbyDisc_2012-13.pdf and find individual salaries by name at https://ir.uoregon.edu/sites/ir1.uoregon.edu/files/Unclassified%20110123.pdf
Thanks to our UAUO Faculty Union, the Senate, Michael Dreiling (sociology) and John Bonine (law) UO’s policies were already much stronger than the oversold and poorly written “Chicago Principles”, in that they give the faculty, and all UO employees, explicit protection to criticize the university administration.
Former President Gottfredson’s failed efforts – with the collaboration of then Senate President Margie Paris (law) – to keep this protection out of the policy under the guise of promoting “civility” earned him one of many critical news reports, this one in Inside Higher Ed:
The union’s proposed statement is similar to existing policy, calling free inquiry and free speech “essential components” of academic freedom. The statement is also more expansive, and includes language guaranteeing faculty the “right to engage in internal criticism, which encompasses the freedom to address any matter of institutional policy or action, whether or not as a member of any agency of institutional governance.”
The Senate passed this despite Gottfredson and Paris’s efforts, and in the wake of the alleged basketball gang-rape coverup Gottfredson signed it shortly before the Trustees fired him.
So it’s disappointing but not surprising to hear the rumors down at the faculty club that Sandy Weintraub, the JH administrator charged by Pres Scholz with keeping the Senate in line, tried to keep the Faculty Union’s presentation about uncompetitive UO salaries off the agenda – on the same day that the Senate will take up a recommendation from our accreditors at the NWCCU, led by former OSU administrator Sony Ramaswamy, that UO consolidate and reiterate its academic freedom policies.
General Counsel Kevin Reed is already dealing with one lawsuit claiming that UO violated the First Amendment by blocking a critic from commenting on DEI’s twitter feed – does he really want another? I guess not, since the Union is on the agenda:
March 13, 2024 Senate Meeting Agenda:
Pres Lincoln: It may seem strange that any men [sic] should dare to ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men’s faces but let us judge not that we be not judged. Alicia Santiago of The Daily Emerald has more on the lawsuit…