InsideHigherEd has the report on a new meta-analysis, here: A number of studies suggest that student evaluations of teaching are unreliable due to various kinds of biases against instructors. (Here’s one addressing gender.) Yet conventional wisdom remains that students learn best from highly rated instructors; tenure cases have even hinged…
UO Matters
Andrew Theen has the story in the Oregonian here. For most students community college is a dead end.
Judging from my recent junk mail, the UO Foundation is selling the addresses of academic donors to some class acts:
Dear Campus Community, By now everyone knows that I am focused on three pillars for achieving excellence and preeminence at the University of Oregon—building academic quality and research, improving access and success, and enhancing the student experience. So it should come as no surprise that these priorities are driving my…
Around the O has the good news here: Thanks to a $16 million estate gift for scholarships, scores of high-achieving UO students on the path to becoming public school teachers will be spending less time worrying about debt and more time focused on becoming outstanding educators. The R.H. and Jane…
From his “Open Mike” emails: Dear Colleagues, As I look at my calendar, I am excited about the start of the new academic year and eager to welcome our students back to campus. While every fall brings a fresh opportunity for us to build upon our high aspirations for the…
Bloomberg has the comparatively good news here.
Insidehighered has the report here: Increased faculty diversity has long been a goal of many colleges and universities. But a number of institutions have recently put their money where their mouths are, so to speak, launching expensive initiatives aimed at making their faculties more representative of their respective student bodies…
Interesting story in the AAUP’s Academe, here: With so much technology emerging in recent decades, it can be hard to work out what’s going to be a fad and what’s there to stay. The TrueDialog text messaging software? That’s here for the long run thanks to its amazing results. Rejecting…
Today at Ford Alumni Center, https://academicaffairs.uoregon.edu/content/fall-leadership-retreat. President Schill’s speech focuses on improving academic research and undergraduate retention and graduation. The New New Budget Model will not mindlessly allocate money on the basis of how many easy on-line gen-ed/MC credit-hours departments can churn out, but instead it will allocate at least some money on…
Or is it vice-versa. The 538 website has an interesting post on explanations for tuition increases, here: All of those trends add to the cost of college, but not by that much. At most, about a quarter of the increase in college tuition since 2000 can be attributed to rising…
But just a little. The Bend Bulletin has the story here: The Oregon Department of Justice on Monday lifted an order requiring some state agencies to charge the public for government records, overturning its own 14-year-old advice. Deputy Attorney General Frederick Boss ruled that the Public Employees Retirement System declined…
9/12/2016: The Emerald has the story here, and it’s on the UO Divest facebook page here. Back in April, Foundation CFO Jay Namyet was writing nastygrams like this to our students about their efforts to get the secretive UO Foundation to join the CO2 divestment movement:
Subject: RE: follow up meeting
Date: 2016/03/30 14:14
From: Jay Namyet <[email protected]>
To: [UO Divest undergraduate student]
[UO Divest undergraduate student],
No, indeed we did not. As I told you, based on your conduct, our dialogue was over. I hope in years to come you will appreciate a life’s lesson in this affair. That is what a university experience is all about.
Regards,
Jay
From: [UO Divest undergraduate student]
Sent: Wednesday, March 30, 2016 2:11 PM
To: Jay Namyet <[email protected]>
Subject: RE: follow up meeting
Hi Jay,
I know we didn’t end our last meeting on the best note, but we’d be happy to try and get a fresh start and meet again to discuss divestment sometime this term if you’re willing. Let me know.
Sincerely,
[UO Divest undergraduate student]
On 2015/04/09 18:30, Jay Namyet wrote:
Great, we are in agreement then, no more dialogue.
Sent from Outlook [1]
And
On 2015/04/09 10:05, Jay Namyet wrote:
[UO Divest undergraduate student],
When I asked you all why you were meeting with the president, the response I got was to learn his personal thoughts about this issue.
Turns out, not really.
As is indicated by [UO Divest undergraduate student] below in [pronoun redacted] email to the president’s office, and just as you three did with me this morning, this is about pressing your argument for divestment even though you have already received responses from all parties involved.
I offered an olive branch to you all last meeting and was the basis for today’s meeting. You all chose to ignore that and continue to beat the same drum of divestment.
I don’t appreciate being lied to about your intent of meeting with the president and I don’t appreciate your not honoring the reason for meeting today with me.
As a result, you have now lost the opportunity for further dialogue with me.
Jay
I’m mystified as to why Namyet didn’t want the students to talk to the President of their university, but whatever.
After a Johnson Hall sit-in, a free-speech controversy that sucked in FIRE, and some outraged letters from UO donors he and Weinhold came back to the table, and are now true believers:
Investment Management Statement
The University of Oregon Foundation is an independent, non-profit organization that exists for the sole purpose of supporting the academic mission of the university. We carry out our mission through prudent investment management, maximizing the value of private gifts for the benefit of the university and honoring donor intent.
Our strategy is to invest in a diverse set of smart, longer-term investments. This approach has created a well-diversified, progressive portfolio whose performance ranks in the top 10 percent nationally of all university endowments. Our philosophy and approach are guided by making prudent, socially and environmentally responsible investments that advance the financial objectives needed to support the university’s academic mission.
We are proud to lead the Pac-12 in adopting the first ever environmental, social and governance considerations to help inform our investment decisions. We believe that green energy initiatives, such as solar and wind power, sustainable forestry, and organic farming will steadily replace investments in carbon-based fuel sources, and we do not have any investments in coal. We intend to let those carbon-based investments –which were initiated many years ago– expire without renewal, ending our investment in carbon-based fuel sources.
Our responsibility is to balance financial support for today’s students, faculty and staff, with those of future generations at the university. We are currently providing more than $45 million each year in direct student, academic and operational funding to support the academic growth of our university and students. We are pleased that with our approach, we continue to successfully deliver on that mission.
Jay Namyet
Chief Investment Officer
4/22/2016: Students arrange marriage of Duck & CO2, mock secretive UO Foundation
More news from Johnson Hall: Dear Campus Community, Our students attend the University of Oregon for the excellence of our faculty and the strength of our research opportunities. Academics are at the heart of everything we do, but our students also choose to be Ducks because of the exceptional student experience…
The puck drops at 7:30PM. Data from IPEDS 2014 and USA Today 2015. Ducks Cavaliers Game Points: TBA TBA Finances: Endowment $659,671,118 $5,876,310,216 Instructional spending $294,436,620 $405,715,209 Research spending $81,982,046 $332,297,288 State funding $49,430,860 $145,711,683 Athletics spending $103,880,557 $91,345,925 Athletics spending as % of academic 28% 12% Students: Undergrads 20,538…