Press "Enter" to skip to content

UO Matters

Why can’t $278K VP Kyle Henley get UO positive publicity like this in the NYT?

Maybe the $278,168 Pres Schill is paying his VP for Strategic Communications Kyle Henley just isn’t enough to induce him to provide his best work? Or maybe his best work is just not very good. UO’s efforts to help Eugene seem almost as impressive as UC-Davis’s. But while Henley can’t…

UO has 7% of Lane County’s population, and 44% of this week’s new Covid cases

1/29/2021: For the week ending yesterday there were 406 reported positive tests in Lane County, 178 of which were UO students or employees. As shown below, Lane county cases that are not linked to UO are decreasing, while UO cases are increasing: Note that UO has a more rigorous testing…

Covid deaths, stock market recovery, and benefit cuts will end Oregon’s PERS retirement crisis even earlier than expected

UO administrators and Republican legislators love doom and gloom stories about the cost of PERS and its outrageous retirement benefits. But the truth is that they’re repeating fake news, and are now going to have to look for a new bogeyman. The truth is that the state could redirect a…

Covid has cut costs of Oregon state employee health insurance by $75M, so far:

Compared to a pre-Covid predicted 3% annual increase, though presumably costs will rebound after elective tests and surgeries resume. I don’t know if PEBB will rebate the savings to UO, or add it to their reserves. If it’s a rebate, it would be about $1,300 in costs per employee, or…

Pres Schill shit-cans Pac-12’s Larry Scott. Will his replacement be Rob Mullens, or someone who supports academics?

CBS here: “We appreciate Larry’s pioneering efforts in growing the conference by adding new competitive university programs and accelerating the Pac-12 to television network parity with the other conferences,” Oregon president Michael Schill said in a statement. “At one point, our television agreement was the most lucrative in the nation…

UO Chemistry students caught paying to cheat on-line.

Daily Emerald reporter Claire Warner has the story here: … Launched in 2014, Chegg Study provides students 37 million Q&A’s “to help students better understand their schoolwork,” according to its website. While many of its customers use the service to do just that, some students pay the $14.95-per-month subscription fee to…

Update: Pres Schill and GC Reed relent on Freyd, after bad publicity and pressure

1/19/2021 update, posted with permission: Sent: Tuesday, January 19, 2021 3:18 PMSubject: Re: PsychList: Inside Higher Ed reports on Jennifer Freyd’s Open Letter to UO Board of Trustees (and the support she has received for this) Dear Colleagues, Today I learned that the University of Oregon (UO) has decided to alter the…

Retirement buyout updates

1/18/2021 update: After years of paying buy-outs to fired coaches like Mark Helfrich, you’d think our General Counsel’s office would have a clue. But, in response to complaints, they’re claiming they’ve just now identified “a tax compliant way” to split the payments: NEW: Retirement Incentive may be split into two…

UO Senate to meet on Robert’s Rules, Excellent Teaching criteria, etc

3-5PM Wed Jan 13, Zoom link at https://uoregon.zoom.us/j/94535299849 January 13, 2021 Senate Meeting Agenda Call to Order Land Acknowledgment; Suzie Stadelman Intro Remarks; Senate President Elliot Berkman/Vice President Spike Gildea ASUO updates Approval of the Minutes December 2, 2020 State of the University President Schill New Business US20/21-03: Change the majority…