Strike Next Year? While we are making good progress on non-economic articles at the bargaining table, the administration has made only minor movements towards our salary needs. Soon we will send another message about the very real possibility of a strike next academic year. Many steps must be taken before…
UO Matters
Reposted in honor of Pres Scholz’s investiture:
5/23/2013: An anonymous source in the Provost’s office sends this memo about Gottfredson’s investiture ceremony:
Memo: Investiture Contingency Planning
Date: 5/23/2013
From: Provost Jim Bean
To: President Mike Gottfredson
Mike, I’m starting to worry about faculty turnout for your Knight Arena Investiture Ceremony next Thursday. I’ve warned the department heads that we’ll be taking attendance, but they don’t seem to care anymore, even when I dropped a hint that those 2% merit raises you put on the table might be at risk. It’s a big hall, and we need enough appropriately garbed faculty types in the audience to keep this from turning into another embarrassment for you.
President Lariviere had a huge faculty turnout for his investiture, in no small part because he’d just fired a widely despised General Counsel, and an Athletic Director who was burning through the academic side’s money like, well, like it was the academic side’s money. Something to think about. But if you’re not quite there yet I hope you’ll be happy with the ELT’s plan B:
VPAA Doug Blandy will grant all Duck student-athletes PhD’s and adjunct faculty status. They just need to pass a simple online exam he wrote. The Jock Box advisors say they can help out as usual, since it’s not even proctored. Mullens has cleared this with FAR Jim O’Fallon, who says that adjunct status won’t affect their NCAA eligibility so long as we don’t pay them. As if! (Say, this gives me a great idea for if the faculty go on strike.)
I got a deal on academic regalia from “Parties R Us”. The media will want a few full-professor greybeard types to focus on. I’ve lined up Frog, the guy who sells joke books on 13th – you’ve seen him, looks just like a biology professor. And then there’s the guy who bikes around campus yelling “Go Ducks, but LTD can kiss my sweaty nut-sack.” Turns out you were wrong about him being CAS Dean Scott Coltrane, but no one will know the difference. Best to keep him away from the mic though.
Dave Hubin tells me you’ve signed off on the heartfelt extemporaneous comments that Ann Wiens and the Gallatin Public Affairs consultants wrote. It took me a while to find a professor willing to deliver these. Tublitz is in Italy, and while Harbaugh was plenty interested after I brought up the stipend, it’s hard to hear him when he’s sober. In the end Frank Stahl agreed to do it. I think you’ve met him, very distinguished and his voice carries well.
Oh, one last thing – I’m afraid I won’t be able to make the ceremony. The Caddis fly hatch is peaking, and I’ve got a fishing date with John Moseley over at the lodge in Bend.
Good luck though, really.
Jim.
It’s a serious question. I have no idea, and “creativity, political and strategic acumen, and wise counsel” is the kind of thing your boss writes when he’s not sure either. Dear colleagues, I am writing to announce that Tim Inman, vice president for government and community relations and university secretary,…
Dear UO faculty and staff colleagues, It is my pleasure to announce that Carol Stabile has been named dean of the Robert D. Clark Honors College. Carol has served as interim dean since 2020. She was selected following a national search with input from our incoming Provost and Senior Vice…
Congrats are due to Senate Pres Gerard Sandoval, VP Alison Schmitke, and I’m sure many others who made this happen. It sounds like an expensive agreement, although if we go by revealed preference President Scholz must have thought it was cheaper than the alternative. Or maybe it’s just that UO…
Or maybe they have a different agenda? What to Watch For: University President Michael Schill gears up for congressional testimony
Congrats to Thompson, and good luck to Brooks in a crazy year for admissions. My experiences w/ Brooks were all positive, including one year where the TFAB convinced Schill to devote a good chunk of a tuition increase to increased need-based scholarships. Dear colleagues, I am writing to announce that…
It used to be that UO’s daily press email included a link to pretty much every news story that mentioned UO, good or bad. For example under Pres Gottfredson we got links to the local and national stories about the basketball rape allegations, the Me Too demonstration, and even this…
In the Emerald, here, focusing on carbon divestment. This is pretty much as I remember the history, although Dreiling was kind enough to omit the nastygrams UO Foundation CIO Jay Namyet sent the students.
Shortly after accusing the union of “cherry-picking” its list of overpaid administrators to come up with the result that top admins are paid 99.4% of comparators while faculty are only paid 84%, one of the union team members used the H word to describe how the faculty felt after the…
His last offer was another round of real pay cuts. How insulting will he be today? Show up or zoom in to find out. Of course he won’t be there himself, he’s got people to do that for him.
Full disclosure: When I was young I also did some dumb things late at night, but I do wonder about the thought process that led them to decide this made sense. In the Daily Emerald: According to a statement by EPD Public Information officer Melinda McLaughlin, “at 1:55 a.m. on…
Thanks to a reader for the link: In US higher education, faculty members may receive an outside offer of employment from an external organization, and then receive a corresponding counteroffer from their current institution. Counteroffers are written contracts made to individuals — either prematurely in anticipation of an outside offer,…
In economics one good paper a year is a respectable career and the review process can take many years. Apparently the physical sciences are more responsive to market pressures: https://www.wsj.com/science/academic-studies-research-paper-mills-journals-publishing-f5a3d4bc?st=sgc2yq1xhe54ij4&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink Fake studies have flooded the publishers of top scientific journals, leading to thousands of retractions and millions of dollars in…
Dear members of the University of Oregon community, Today marks day 12 of the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment.” In that time, I have received many emails and other forms of communication from UO faculty and staff. I apologize that I have not responded to each. Please know they are being read.…