Category Archives: Uncategorized

7/27/2009: The Portland planning commission and UO have agreed to continue negotiations on the $1 million dollar UO-Portland sign, putting off a decision on this bizarre episode until Sept 14. ODE article here.

7/14/2009: Washington is way ahead of Oregon in terms of public records access. Their law is not that different, but their DOJ actually enforces it. As an example, a reader sends UW’s budget report. Getting this level of detail from Francis Dyke – if she could figure it out – would take forever and she would charge the person requesting it hundreds of dollars.

7/14/2009: I’m no economist, but it’s hard to read the email below without thinking Lariviere has just pulled off a real hat trick with the OUS Board. Even after discounts recent tuition increases have got to bring in about $20 million a year. The cut in state funding seems like it will be no more than $9 million. So is UO in fat city now? Can anyone explain if there’s something wrong with my math?

The following message is forwarded on behalf of Senior Vice President and Provost Jim Bean:

Last Thursday and Friday the State Board of Higher Education met in Portland. As a result, we can share two important new pieces of information. Tuition increases were approved. For UO undergraduates they are 7.5% for resident students and 12% for out of state (see http://www.ous.edu/news_and_information/news/071009.php for full detail), increases vary by credit hours registered). Given the current economic conditions in Oregon, we are concerned about the impact of these tuition increases on our students and their families. For that reason, we are holding back 30% of all increased funds over inflation for financial aid. This will require sacrifice since the pool of funds from increased tuition will be smaller than the funding lost from decreased state appropriation, even net federal stimulus. This aid will be distributed based on student financial need through the PathwayOregon Program and normal FAFSA processes.

We also learned of the overall state reduction to Higher Education. It is limited to about 11% due to the planned gubernatorial veto of additional legislated cuts to the Higher Ed budget. However, we will not know how that is distributed to individual universities until October.

This leads to the second important point of the email. We feel that waiting until October to process contracts is unfair to the great staff and faculty at this institution. Therefore, we will process all expected contracts beginning today and hope to have them done by the end of August. We feel that we have enough information to do so prudently. The decision to issue contracts is guided by the principles established earlier – that we will do everything possible to protect faculty and staff salaries and increase financial aid for students during these difficult economic times.

President Lariviere, as well as the other OUS presidents, has agreed to a 4.6% FTE reduction for the current fiscal year. The savings from President Lariviere’s salary achieved through the FTE reduction will be directed to support student scholarships.

Thank you again for helping us get through this difficult year. We have a couple more ahead of us, but we are well positioned to come through this stronger relative to our peers.

Regards, Jim

Alex Tomchak Scott of the ODE has a clarifying article on Lariviere’s decision to reverse Frohnmayer’s decision to move finals to the week *after* graduation so that none of that unpleasant education stuff will interfere with the NCAA Track meet. Beans’s recent email to the faculty tried to attribute Lariviere’s decision to the argument that the NCAA was considering shortening the meet. I think he was thinking that admitting otherwise would mean acknowledging the original move was a mistake. Apparently UO administrators don’t make mistakes. But Nathan Tublitz is quoted as saying Lariviere decided to change it back to signal that academics comes first. So next spring when you students are spending those beautiful days in the library trying to grok the eigenvalues of the Dolbeault complex for Hermitian manifolds, remember it’s Lariviere’s fault. Back when Frohmayer was President, spring at UO was all about naked frisbee (mostly SFW).

A commentor writes:

It is highly likely that the NCAA will be moving
the date for the national championships back
to the previous week as a result of streamling
the regional quals. I don’t believe the decision
for the UO to reverse itself has anything to do
with athletics vs academics, but everything to
do with logistics.

Do you have any inside knowledge on this?

Suzanne Pardington at the Oregonian writes a story about the OUS Board voting to let UO raise tuition 7.9%.

7/5/2009: The RG has an editorial about Lariviere here. (With the apparently obligatory sloppy kiss to Frohnmayer.) There’s some vague talk about faculty salaries – but nothing specific on how he plans to deal with it, beyond some statements about how the sciences and professional schools have done better than the humanities in terms of funding – I assume he doesn’t mean better in terms of salaries. There are no specifics about what he is willing to sacrifice to get the money to increase salaries – not that this would be expected in a piece like this. We hope he begins with a serious re-examination of Bend, Portland, OIED, and the 5 new Sustainability big ideas. Interestingly the last UO President who tried to deal seriously with the salary problem at UO was Paul Olum, president from 1980 – 1989. The OUS Board fired him. The RG editorial on that is here – it’s interesting reading. The board has known about the salary problem for a long time – and they’ve spent UO’s money on many, many other things instead. Even if Lariviere himself is serious, he may have a tough time convincing the board this should be their #1 priority!

6/24/2009: Yes, posting is random for a while. Don’t worry, the expected value will be high.

6/16/2009: No responses yet to our public records requests for data on the Bend program losses, the $3 million on Johnson Hall remodeling, and we are still waiting for copies of Frohnmayer’s retirement contract and Lariviere’s contract – presumably meaning that they are still haggling out the details with OUS. We really hope that Lariviere is insisting on getting it in writing that the OUS board will not allow Frohnmayer to meddle in his decisions.

WWeek, Frohnmayer rogue of week for hiding public records
http://wweek.com/editorial/2008/04/23/dave-frohnmayer/

Senior administrators at UO earn 100% of their comparators.
President Frphnmayer earns $150,000 more than his comparators.
UO Faculty earn 83% of their comparators.
We’ve taken voluntary cuts for years.

When Frohnmayer and the VPs have given back enough salary to get down to 83% like us, we should have a serious conversation.

For comments regarding general UO Matters: parking, misfeasance, malfeasance, sustainability, diversity, and architecture.

(From May 2009)

MEMORANDUM
To: Units receiving ICC beginning budget allocations
From: Rich Linton
Subject: ICC Beginning Budget Allocations- FY10

ICC- FY10 Beginning Budget

The ICC beginning budget for FY10 will be posted in the coming days, and I write to communicate two key decisions regarding the overall allocations effective July 1, 2009.

1. I do not plan to “sweep” any FY09 fund balances from existing ICC indices, other than those already negotiated with the units directly impacted. In light of the voluntary FTE reductions in ICC-funded positions for the remaining three months of FY09, some of the ICC carryforwards should be impacted favorably.

2. I will apply a 4% “across the board” cut to virtually all line items in the ICC beginning budget for FY10, including research administrative units reporting to me. The few exceptions include the library, lease payments for off-campus research space that involve fixed costs, and a few instances for centers that are involved in pre-existing agreements related to ICC “backstops” or ICC deficit reduction. No cuts will be made to prior commitments to provide multi-year ICC allocations, for example faculty start-up packages or grant matching funds.

It should come as no surprise that the state budget crisis impacting the University of Oregon has placed escalating stresses on my overall ICC budget, especially in aspects such as faculty recruitment and retention, graduate student support and research infrastructure. In addition, the federal F&A “overhead” rate at the UO was reduced from 48% to 42% effective July 1, 2008 and is beginning to impact on reduced F&A recovery from grants and contracts. The funds available for ICC distribution are being significantly constrained despite the growth in new sponsored program awards.

I will evaluate the need for recurring reductions in ICC allocations as we move through FY10. I am hopeful that the Federal “Stimulus” will enhance UO’s research funding and associated F&A generation in the months to come.

Thanks, as always, for your understanding and support. Please let me know if my office can address any questions or concerns.

Best regards,
Rich