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UO Matters

Board of Trustees post some materials for Friday’s ad hoc meeting

Here. NOTICE OF PUBLIC MEETINGThe Board of Trustees of the University of Oregon will hold the following public meeting: Friday, November 13, 2020, at 11:00 a.m. PT Due to current orders regarding campus operations and social distancing, the meeting will be held via video conference with a telephone conference option…

AVP for State Affairs Libby Batlan leaves UO for retirement home industry lobbying group

The Lund Report has the OHCA press release and some examples of OHCA lobbying here. Batlan has apparently already been replaced in UO’s State Affairs office by her assistant VP, Hans Bernard, according to his linked in page. And UO is searching to fill the job of assistant for him,…

Doneka Scott, VP for Student Success, to leave for NC State

Doneka was a big supporter of SAIL and worked with many Econ honors students on empirical research projects involving student retention and graduation. She’ll be missed! Dear Colleagues, I am writing to let you know that Doneka Scott, vice provost for Undergraduate Education and Student Success, has accepted a position…

UO Senators denied chance to provide crucial break-out room input on cultural agility legislation

11/4/2020 update: Apparently earlier speakers went over time with their charts – who could have guessed – so Pres Berkman had to cut this. But don’t worry, $202K AVP Melanie Muenzer promised the Senate that compliance with HB 2864 is a mere technicality. I’d post a video clip of her…

Why I still love Oregon:

Yes, Oregon’s state government wasted $500m on a failed Obamacare website, takes 2 months to process unemployment claims, and gave $200M away for fake green energy tax scams – which only came to light after a reporter’s public records requests. But it just takes our SOS and county voting registrars…

1/2 Price Provost calls bullshit on Senate’s diversity resolution & real Provost’s unreal plan

In the Daily Emerald here: UO has a long history of expensive and ineffective diversity and inclusion efforts, mostly coming out of the bloated offices of our Provost and VPEI Yvette Alex-Assensoh. Five year “Diversity Action Plans” with no follow through, an under-represented faculty cluster hire that brought 5 new…

UO Foundation retroactively changes endowment benchmarks to make Weinhold and Namyet look less bad

10/27/2020 update: This is very strange and troubling. (Full disclosure: I’m just an economist, not a finance professor or auditor, nor am I a UO Board of Trustees member charged by state law with a fiduciary responsibility to UO.) A month ago I put up the post below, centered around…

UO Trustees post agenda for Th meeting: Covid, what’s up with the UO Foundation, & IT

10/27/2020 Update:

1) Still no response to my public records request.

2) meeting to be 11AM to about 1 by zoom. Link at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_IPdpPUCNI&feature=youtu.be

3) AGENDA AND MATERIALS now posted:

Public Comment
Individuals wishing to provide public comment to the Board of Trustees may do so in writing via [email protected]. All comments will be shared with members of the board, but to ensure comments are provided to trustees in advance of the meeting, they must be received by 5:00 a.m. [sic] Pacific Time on October 28, 2020.

  1. Fall Term Operations and COVID-19 Health and Safety Update: Michael Schill, President; Patrick Phillips, Provost and Senior Vice President; and Andre LeDuc, Associate Vice President and Chief Resilience Officer.

Don’t expect any tough questions from our Trustees about this report:

2. University of Oregon Foundation Overview: Paul Weinhold, President, University of Oregon Foundation.

It’s generous of Mr. Weinhold, whom the Foundation paid ~$580K a year last time they released the data, to take a break from his second job as Chairman of the Board of Summit Bank to present to the UO Board.

Back in the day the Foundation broke out what it sent to UO for Academics, Athletics, etc in their annual reports. Weinhold has put an end to that, but it appears he will do some explaining about poor investment returns and expenses (most of which come from a fee he charges small donors, while giving a break to the big ones who want to, say, give the Ducks a $12M Jumbotron.

3. Information Services Report: Jessie Minton, Chief Information Officer.

All seems to be going according to plan.

10/26/2020: Trustee’s Chair Chuck Lillis and Angela Wilhelms still haven’t disclosed time & agenda for Th Board meeting

Nor have they responded to this public records request, which might give some clues:

MESSAGE FROM UO SENATE LEADERSHIP – NATIONAL ELECTION 2020

On behalf of Senate President Elliot Berkman and Senate Vice President and President-Elect Spike Gildea: Dear University of Oregon Community,   We are writing in our roles as faculty members serving as the University Senate President and Vice President. We are writing as individuals and not speaking on behalf of the Senate. But we have spoken with…

Enrollment down, UO refuses to share financial info with RG

Reporter Jordyn Brown. Some snippets below, full report here: UO’s overall enrollment is down about 3%, a drop of about 678 students, according to preliminary data shared with The Register-Guard. The majority comes from its freshmen class, which has 610 fewer students over last year’s class — a 13.3% drop. … [UO’s $278K VP for…

UO General Counsel to discipline Mario Cristobal for releasing HIPAA protected health info

Just kidding. Kevin Reed saves those sorts of threats for faculty, and Coach Cristobal’s about to get a big raise. The Oregonian’s James Crepea has the disclosure from Cristobal that 5 of the 32 positive Covid tests in Lane County today (yesterday?) were “associated with the program” and that the…