This is sad news. HLGR’s noted big-tobacco litigator Sharon Rudnick was a gift to the UO faculty union – her bargaining stunts must have increased membership by 10%: And I’m guessing few of UO’s GTF’s will soon forget negotiating sick-leave policies with HLGR’s zoning law expert Jeff Matthews. How did HLGR end up with…
Posts published in “Uncategorized”
From his Washington Post law blog, here:
One of the latest things in universities, including at University of California (where I teach) is condemning “microaggressions,” supposed “brief, subtle verbal or non-verbal exchanges that send denigrating messages to the recipient because of his or her group membership (such as race, gender, age or socio-economic status).” Such microaggressions, the argument goes, can lead to a “hostile learning environment,” which UC — and the federal government — views as legally actionable. This is stuff you could get disciplined or fired for, especially if you aren’t a tenured faculty member.
In the FT, here: Is online education the solution to widening inequality, rapidly rising costs, and lack of access to high quality courses? Will it lead to the demise of traditional “brick and mortar” institutions? I was initially very skeptical about the claims being made about online education, but after…
MEMORANDUM June 16, 2015 TO: Executive Leadership Team (ELT) Academic Leadership Team (ALT) President’s Office Staff Johnson Hall Staff FROM: Interim President Scott Coltrane Incoming President Michael Schill RE: Reporting Lines and Organizational Structure Colleagues, As you are all aware, this is a truly transformational time for the University of…
Governor Kate Brown has just signed Senate Bill 9, calling for audits of state agency compliance with Oregon’s Public Records law. Good for her. Except for a brief period under President Lariviere, UO’s public records office has been notorious for its use of fees, delays, and redactions to frustrate the intent of…
6/15/2015 update: That would be UC-Boulder. The Chronicle has the report here.
5/27/2015 update: Asking Too Much, or Not Enough?
Jake New has the latest in InsideHigherEd, here:
… The questions asked students if they had ever experienced a number of specific sexual activities without their consent, describing those actions with words and phrases such as “oral sex” and “penetration,” and defining the terms using definitions such as “when a person puts a penis, finger or object inside someone else’s vagina or anus.”
… At Penn, some students also complained that they didn’t realize the survey was about sexual assault, as it was referred to as a “climate survey,” as these kinds of surveys commonly are. Thinking the survey was about climate change, the students claimed, they deleted the email. The university declined to comment on the complaints, and said it does not plan on releasing its response rate until the fall. Harvard had a response rate of 52 percent, thanks in part to a large ad campaign on campus, including a video message from Harvard graduate Conan O’Brien.
I still think John Bonine’s Chronicle op-ed (below) is the most serious critique, because it points out that the AAU will hide the college identifiers that would allow researchers to figure out what policies are most effective at reducing sexual assaults. And the new report points to a new problem along those lines. The AAU has allowed campuses to use wildly different strategies to encourage students to complete the survey, and the resulting differences in response rates and who responds will further complicate any such efforts.
4/17/2015 update: VP Robin Holmes kicks off intentionally crippled $87K AAU rape survey
Colleen Flaherty has the story in InsideHigherEd, here: In a statement submitted to the AAUP, Salaita (who was not at the meeting), said, “One can disagree with my viewpoints and still see that [the] administration made a grave mistake it refuses to redress, based on outside interference and a host…
The WaPo has the story, here: Twenty percent of young women who attended college during the past four years say they were sexually assaulted, according to a Washington Post-Kaiser Family Foundation poll. But the circle of victims on the nation’s campuses is probably even larger. Many others endured attempted attacks,…
Diane Dietz has the story in the RG, here.
No, I’m not talking about UO’s Jim Bean. I’ve heard nothing to suggest that anyone at UO was less than forthright with Northeastern about Bean’s inadequate performance as former UO Interim Provost. Josephine Woolington has the story on Berman in the RG, here.
Rich Read has the story in the Oregonian, here: A top U.S. Department of Education officialhas expressed concern about a loophole in a federal law that allows schools such as the University of Oregon to gain access to students’ private health-treatment records. Kathleen Styles, the agency’s chief privacy officer, sent a…
Apparently not everyone wants to live near a college campus. Steve Duin has the report in the Oregonian here: BEND – In Oregon college circles, we all know which valley school trademarked the take-no-prisoners, make-no-apologies, our-way-or-the-highway approach to civic engagement. But, shazam! Oregon State University is catching on, based on…
In economics, we call this revealed preference. Don’t listen to what people say, look at where they spend the money. The UAUO faculty union is collecting signatures for a petition to the UO Board of Trustees about the UO budget and the UO administration’s spending priorities, here.
For 2014-15 total ticket revenue was projected at $10K, expenses at $1.4M. So the coach gets a raise to $275K plus bonuses and perkola. For comparison, if you’re a UO professor, you are bringing in roughly $2000 tuition per student for each class you teach. One 300 student intro 101…
Here: A program that trained first-year female college students to avoid rape substantially lowered their risk of being sexually assaulted, a rare success against a problem that has been resistant to many prevention efforts, researchers reported Wednesday. Sexual violence is a serious hazard on college campuses. By some estimates, one…