UO VPAA Doug Blandy: 3/4/2013: Basically it’s another version of Michael Moffit’s CnC scam – but 5x bigger, thanks to the miracle of online education. And while the instructors in those CnC courses kept to pretty much the same curve as the rest of UO, 60% of the students in…
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Rumor is that SOU, bleeding students and money and now starting a retrenchment process to layoff tenured faculty, will try to attach itself to UO. No money for teaching, but it looks like OUS board chair Matt Donegan is spending freely on consultants, and an attachment to OSU may be…
1/30/2014 update: Betsy Hammond of the Oregonian has some details, here. A more complete story here includes quotes from Conoley saying she had not sought the UO job, was approached by UO about applying, and made clear all along that she was interested in the Long Beach president’s job.
#3 Jorge Jose statement and vita here (fixed). Public talk is Monday at 4:30 at the Art Museum. The schedule for his meetings with the usual JH suspects is here. JH has now removed the Jane Conoley info from their website, here’s a backup.
In other news, Coltrane will hold a public session on “academic planning” today at 3:00PM in Gerlingher. He’s posted a few docs here. Maybe he’ll tell us what our “clusters of excellence” and fundraising priorities are, and explain how Gottfredson picked them?
Good news on PERS. High investment earnings and Kitzhaber’s cuts mean that it’s now 87% funded. I think that’s the best of any state pension fund. Ted Sickinger has the report, here. But let’s face it, no one reads this blog for the good news. And the bad news is…
“Around the O” has the news.
ESPN’s OTL has the story: Ramogi Huma, president of the National College Players Association, filed a petition in Chicago on behalf of football players at Northwestern University, submitting the form at the regional office of the National Labor Relations Board. Backed by the United Steelworkers union, Huma also filed union…
This is calculated for 9 month employees with average merit and equity raises. Go to Duckweb, employee information, earnings statement, then 2014. I’m in CAS and this now shows all the raises for July 2013, plus the retroactive payments. Other colleges may not have received the merit yet. You can…
Athletic Department salaries now total $35M, versus roughly $70M for all UO tenure track faculty. From the just released Moss Adams audit of their books, here: Looks like the UO Foundation is laundering $47M of Duck Athletic Foundation money. All to promote UO’s academic mission, I’m sure.
The 2013 state CFD is now closed, final results are at https://www.ipledgeonline.org/_cfduniversities/. The CFD allows OUS employees to give by payroll deduction, and earmark the gifts to a wide variety of state and local causes. Consistent with preliminary data reported earlier, overall, UO giving was $220,855, down slightly from $228,970…
1/24/2014 update: The UO Board has elected Chuck Lillis as chair, and Ginevra Ralph as vice-chair. RG report here.
Disclaimer: This is my opinion of what people said, meant, or should have said. Nothing is a quote unless in quotes.
1/23/2014: Cocktail party version from day one, caveat being I missed the last two hours, including Coltrane on “academic plan”, Andreassen on fundraising, Moffitt on finances. Sorry, I was unable to attend day 2. Presumably the minutes will be posted soon.
- Low turnout, as in me and 2 or 3 others, probably because UO was unclear about the fact this was a public meeting. Good work Tim, you’re earning that $218K.
- Gottfredson wasted a lot of time on vague generalities and mission statement. Avoided AAU issues, etc.
- Brad Shelton was generally forthright about UO’s academic and financial weaknesses, but did not explain where the money was going.
- Randy Geller was unusually in control of himself, and generally lucid for a guy who is no longer allowed to update his website or email the faculty.
- Trustees: Chuck Lillis and Kurt Willcox were the most engaged and informed. Allyn Ford is no dummy, Connie Ballmer, Ginevra Ralph, and Mary Wilcox had some good questions. Most of them hadn’t done the reading.
- Elephants in the room: How much debt will Gottfredson take on to expand undergrad capacity and get more out-of-state and Chinese students? What strings will be attached to Phil Knight’s $1B donation? Are we trying to stay in the AAU or will we fold and concentrate on sports product design?
- Jamie Moffitt said that there are economies of scale in administration. I think she means in theory, not in practice.
- Bylaws set up so that board will be dependent on UO administration for information. No independent legal counsel or access to information about UO finances or academic issues. Gottfredson controls Counsel, Treasurer, Auditor, etc. No discussion of how the Board – which includes only one PhD and no one with experience at a research university – can possibly execute its responsibilities while being spoon-fed by Johnson Hall administrators with every incentive to make themselves look good.
Looks like Coach Dana Altman will have to go lower still on the SAT cutoff for athlete special admits, if he wants to get his fat March Madness bonus next year: I’m guessing that Lorraine Davis and Roger Thompson aren’t going to stand in his way.
Latest news on cannibal rat ship, now approaching Scotland.
Jennifer Hernandez has the story in the ODE.
Matthew Kish has the story in the Portland Business Journal, with links to Wheeler’s own version of Lariviere’s “New Partnership”, to sell bonds and use the money to subsidize tuition. As endorsed by noted economist, electrical engineer, and early American blogger Ben Franklin: “An investment in knowledge pays the best…
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