3/14/2014 update: The ODE reported back in October that ASUO and the administration had worked out a deal to keep this funded. Now Randy Geller seems to have changed his mind. From the UO Coalition to End Sexual Violence blog, here. In other news Jon Krakauer is apparently working on a…
Posts published in “Uncategorized”
The Oregonian has the story: Both sides are in a cooling off period, and the earliest that faculty could strike is April 3, after the start of spring term. Faculty have never gone on strike at an Oregon university, and it is unclear how the administration would manage to carry…
Post Mortem: We elected Rob Kyr as Senate President, to start in May. This will be his third term, following a one year break. Let’s face it, UO is in trouble, and anyone who remembers the Faculty Assembly with Pernsteiner knows that Rob Kyr can deal with trouble – in…
The Mail Tribune has the story, here: “We’re working our way through it all,” Cullinan told a meeting of the Ashland Rotary Club Thursday. “There’s a lot of turmoil right now and people are feeling very stressed and sensitive. The Senate has the ability to state their level of confidence…
I’m no Nate Silver, but I’ll go out on a limb and predict that it will be unanimous, and quickly followed with President Gottfredson’s signature. At this Wednesday’s Senate meeting, 3PM, 115 Lawrence. (Full disclosure, I was on the ad hoc committee that drafted it, but I shirked most of…
Troy Brynelson has the report in the ODE, here. The cover illustration is a little over the top, but the facts seem correct: this blog can be controversial, and, obviously, I haven’t vandalized any cars, I am disturbed to hear that someone has, and I feel bad for the students…
Video and interview with the recently released perp here. Oh wait, that was at the Supreme Court last Wednesday – apparently it’s the first time in history that anyone has managed to get video from inside the court. The SCOTUS arrested the protestor, then according to this NYU law blog, deleted…
It’s called the “Faculty Athletics Representative”. For the last 25 years it’s been Jim O’Fallon (law). He’s never had a performance review, and his reports to the faculty Senate have been, let’s say, erratic:
I pushed for an open search to replace O’Fallon, with finalists to talk with the faculty and answer questions about how they would deal with the many challenges of this important job. That’s not going to happen. Furthermore, the nominee’s names will be kept secret. President Gottfredson will make the decision. We will not know even know who the search committee recommends as finalists.
Given the secret nature of Gottfredson’s search, our next FAR can’t expect to have the faculty’s trust. But hey, it’s still a sweet gig. There’s a 0.5 FTE release, support staff, and of course free Duck tickets, travel, and bowl game junkets. All paid out of the academic budget – only to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest, of course:
Dear Colleagues,
The university is seeking to appoint a new Faculty Athletic Representative (FAR) for the University of Oregon. The current FAR, Jim O’Fallon, is retiring, and has agreed to serve through the 2014–2015 academic year to mentor the new FAR as he or she transitions into the position.
I went through the survey in the email below. It reads like an insulting push-poll, designed to collect responses that will justify hiring more RIGE administrators to coordinate research aimed at local businesses, and work with local government development offices. This is not a bad idea, but for the fact that there’s not much trust left in Espy’s ability to administer such an effort, or in Gottfredson’s ability to administer Espy.
A message from University of Oregon President Michael Gottfredson & Vice President for Research and Innovation and Dean of the Graduate School Kimberly Andrews Espy:
At the University of Oregon, we view promoting Oregon’s long-term economic well-being as a key component of our mission.
To help serve this mission, we are writing to ask you, our faculty and staff, to take a few minutes to complete a survey [link deleted, check your email] that will help us focus on our economic engagement in the community, region, and state.
Why are all these athletes suing the NCAA over their concussions, instead of the universities?
Hannah Golden has the story in the ODE. This quote will resonate with every professor who keeps a box tissues in their desk drawer: Administrative rules requiring faculty to report sexual [assault or harassment] can cause a feeling of discomfort and helplessness for university employees in her position. Stabile quoted…
Either Senior VP and Provost Scott Coltrane has lost his brain, or he thinks UO’s faculty has lost their memory. From Coltrane’s email today (full text after the break):
The UO was able to provide an across the board and merit process for all faculty and officers of administration in FY14. We are providing another across the board and merit process for FY15.
Thanks Scott, we appreciate this statement, really. But the truth is that “The University” fought the faculty union raise proposals long and hard, then bought us off with a $350 goat. And now Coltrane wants to take credit for the little bit of merit Gottfredson, Geller and Sharon Rudnick finally agreed to? Shame.
Really Scott? Not a word about the fact the faculty union contract requires that you implement these raises, or about the fact that the Lariviere plan, which you supported publicly and were prepared to implement as CAS Dean in 2009, and for which you had the funds, and for which you gave me the detailed spreadsheets for (OK, only after a public records request), would have meant raises sufficient to get UO within spitting distance of our AAU peers?
Come on Scott, you’ve got the permanent provost job now, you’re a better person than this, aren’t you? Because “The University” sure needs one.
Coltrane’s full email below:
Or something like that. NPR story here. IRS 990 here. Wow, ETS is a pretty profitable non-profit, for some people:
No comment yet on the University Board of Trustees website. Oh, wait, that would be President Vladimir Putin of Russia, firing Professor Andrei Zubov of MGIMO University in Moscow. Zubov compared Putin’s invasion of the Crimea with the Anschluss. From the Moscow Times, via the NY Times.
Regular readers may remember that I filed an ethics complaint with the Oregon State Bar about Randy Geller and Sharon Rudnick last year. Denied. Oh well, at least they did a thorough investigation, right? Well, now it turns out that Bar’s ethics committee is hilariously incompetent. They just tried to put…