Meanwhile, on the hot and gritty south side of campus: From: CAS Dean <[email protected]>Subject: [Casfac] Budget NewsDate: May 19, 2021 at 3:41:28 PM PDTTo: “[email protected]” <[email protected]>, “[email protected]” <[email protected]> Dear faculty and staff, As many of you know, the pandemic created a substantial loss in tuition revenue this year, in large part due to a 20%…
UO Matters
Also some poorly thought out requirements legislating faculty requirements re Canvas, office hours and email responses, back for the third time I think. No discussion of the Board of Trustees proposed student conduct code changes, which will allow discipline a) which causes substantial disruption to the University community or any…
Rumor down at the faculty club is it that the Covid vaccine requirement announced by Pres Schill and Provost Phillips will not actually be enforced. Students, staff, and faculty will be able to declare a medical, religious, or philosophical exemption, but will not have to provide documentation or explanation.
Thanks to SB270, the aging boomers on UO’s Board of Trustees have complete authority over the Code of Student Conduct, and they want to make a few changes. First, expand UO’s control of students when off campus to include such things as substantially disrupting any UO community members – which…
John Canzano has the interview here. A snippet: Kliavkoff: I truly believe that if we do our job well at the conference level that it will create a revenue stream for the schools to be used for scholarships and other academic pursuits that will change the lives of men and…
Just kidding, rumor is they’ll announce a mandatory vaccine policy today, following OSU, PSU, WOU, etc. Update: Pres Schill announces vaccine will be required for students, staff, and faculty, with exceptions for trypanophobics.
Gleason, who will perhaps be best remembered on campus for his firm stance against faculty viewing child porn during the first union bargaining sessions, is retiring and Johnson Hall is searching for a replacement “Faculty” Athletics Director to sign the NCAA compliance reports. Pay is $100K or so – from…
The deadline to notify assistant profs about tenure decisions was May 1. That was Saturday, so I imagine most people thought the university would tell them Friday. Nope. No notices went out. I can imagine how stressful this was – to be told you’ll get a tenure letter by May…
May 2 2021 update:
The resolution that was to be considered by the Senate this Wed had 90 or so faculty and senate co-sponsors. The gist was:
2.1 Therefore be it moved that: The University Senate declares its belief that university professors should not be excluded from the protection of the Equal Pay Act, and in particular that if women professors believe that the policies and procedures followed by any university have resulted in them receiving lower pay for equal work, they should have the right to present their case in a court of law and to challenge policies and procedures that result in inequitable pay.
2.2 Be it also moved that: The University Senate rejects the suggestion that it is a legitimate “business necessity” to engage in practices with discriminatory results, as the university has argued in this case with respect to retention raises.
2.3 Be it finally moved that: The University of Oregon Senate asks the University President to direct its counsel not to seek further review, and the senate wants all to know that the University of Oregon Administration’s and its attorney’s efforts to create a legal precedent that would prevent faculty and other professionals from using the Equal Pay Act to sue for redress of discrimination are not done in our name. [Emphasis in original.]
At 8PM Tu, the evening before the 3PM Wed vote, the administration’s GC Kevin Reed sent the Senate the email here, saying:
The core of the resolution seems directed at persuading the university not to pursue further review of the summary judgment decision in the United States Supreme Court. Such persuasion is misplaced, as the university has decided to proceed to trial in this matter and not to seek Supreme Court review at this stage. [emphasis added]
Given that the goal of the motion had been achieved (for now at least) the chief co-sponsors, myself and Beatrice Dohrn (Law), decided to withdraw the motion for now as moot and we explained this to the Senate.
April 23 2021 update: Full 9th Circuit rejects UO Administration’s latest attempt to stop Freyd discrimination suit from going to trial
4/23/2021 update:
Appealing this to the SCOTUS would seem like a stretch for UO’s lawyers, but they seem to have an unlimited budget for outside attorneys so who knows. Meanwhile the UO Senate will be voting next Wed on a resolution asking our Administration to give up these appeals so as to not further sully UO’s brand, and just let Professor Freyd take her case to trial.
March 15, 2021 update: Prof Freyd gets an easy revise and resubmit as appeals court rejects attempt by UO lawyers Paula Barran, Kevin Reed and Pres Schill to gut the Equal Pay Act
In the Oregonian today, from Daily Emerald reporter Shane Hoffman. A few snippets: … Data obtained by The Oregonian/OregonLive through a public records request show 91 out of the university’s 520 student-athletes tested positive for COVID-19 between July 17, 2020, and March 2 of this year. According to the university’s latest enrollment…
Update: Rumor has it that the EPA resolution will come up around 4:15. 3-5 PM Wed April 28th 2021, on Zoom here: https://uoregon.zoom.us/j/95815283199 Land Acknowledgment Intro Remarks: Senate President Elliot Berkman and Senate Vice President Spike Gildea ASUO updates; Ella Meloy Approval of the Minutes April 7, 2021 State of…
4/25/2021: When it comes to the Duck athletic budget nothing surprises me, certainly not the news that the 10% paycuts for coaches that President Schill announced last year were a sham. James Crepea has the story in the Oregonian: All of Oregon’s returning assistant football coaches received new contracts this…
4/24/2021 update: When I first wrote about this earlier this month a reader emailed me wondering if UO had notified the investors holding the Knight Arena bonds that UO VPFA Jamie Moffitt had loaned out the reserve fund. It turns out that she hadn’t even told the Oregon State Treasurer.…
Full log here: https://publicrecords.uoregon.edu/requests Request Date Title Requester Status 04/08/2021 Invoices Houston, Henry Awaiting Payment from Requester 04/06/2021 RFP Mead, Max Records Exempt From Disclosure 04/05/2021 Contract Hernandez, Luis Records Provided 04/05/2021 Contract Hernandez, Luis Records Provided 04/05/2021 Contracts Young, Carrie Awaiting Payment from Requester 04/02/2021 Financial Records Harbaugh, Bill…
April 7, 2021, on zoom here: https://uoregon.zoom.us/j/94175088714 Call to Order Land Acknowledgment; Kirby Brown Intro Remarks; Senate President Elliot Berkman and Senate VP Spike Gildea ASUO updates Approval of the Minutes March 10, 2021 State of the University President Schill New Business Vote: US20/21-11: Human Research Protection Program policy; Emily Tanner-Smith…