9/9/2011: I’d hoped to have copies of the last 3 months of expense reports for OUS Chancellor George Pernsteiner and his VP Jay Kenton to post here today. I made a public records request for them 4 weeks ago, and I paid OUS for them. But the copies I received…
UO Matters
9/9/2011: An email sent to everyone on campus. The overproduced online guide – complete with sports photos and a Mullens headshot – is pretty hilarious. Good luck with it Rob. What are these rules designed to protect – students and UO’s “academic excellence” or the salaries and car payments of…
9/8/2011: Dennis Thompson of the SJ has a story and a long post on his excellent State Workers Blog: I am proud of the work our union has done to help make health care more affordable not only for ourselves, but for everyone. In Oregon, we worked hard to get…
9/8/2011: A law professor closely involved with the case sends this update on the sexual harassment situation in philosophy: Due to some probing by the Eugene Weekly, Russ Tomlin has already retracted a central claim in his statement about the Philosophy Department sexual harassment situation. On 8-11, Tomlin told the…
9/7/2011: #2 in a continuing series on OUS Chancellor George Pernsteiner’s plans to rebuild Oregon’s higher education system: Sweet deal George. Must be nice. Many people in Oregon are not so lucky, and can’t count on their buddies on the OUS Board to spend other people’s money covering their bills:
9/7/2011: From the Register Guard editorial page: Bottom of the heap: UO rates dead last in faculty salaries In a time of 12.1 percent unemployment, Oregonians may have a hard time mustering much sympathy for University of Oregon faculty members whose pay averages a mere $73,300 a year. But by…
9/7/2011: Seems like a good time to repost the data on UO faculty salaries produced by Sarah Douglas and Marie Vitulli for UO’s AAU chapter: Full professor salary was at 81% of peers, associates at 86%, assistants at 94%. My guess is that with the June 2011 raises full professors…
9/7/2011: WGU comes up a lot these days as a new model for higher education. Website here. Fully accredited, started by western states to provide 4 year online degrees. Mostly licensure fields, like teaching, nursing, accounting. Tuition is $2890 for a 6 month term. From their website: Your degree requirements…
9/7/2011: I don’t get it. First the two Diane Dietz stories, now this editorial. They repeat Di Saunder’s misinformation, put Bean’s quote in the worst possible context, and say nothing about the raises the OUS administrators took for themselves while they were forcing furloughs on the UO staff. Nothing on…
9/6/2011: This was billed as a major policy speech for his education plans. From Harry Esteve in the Oregonian: “The state does not run the schools. The state invests in schools,” Kitzhaber says. “As long as students are progressing and succeeding, why shouldn’t we let go of some of the…
9/15/2011 update: I asked Mr. Martin for the AA documents on this hire. After a very little back and forth, I got them. They give convincing reasons for the interim appointment. This is a big improvement from the way UO used to handle these things. And I made a comment…
9/6/2011: I’m no economist, but this is about as dumb as government policy gets: lay off teachers during a recession. Oh wait, it could get dumber: do the layoffs by seniority rather than merit. Let’s combine bad short run economic policy with bad long run educational outcomes. Bingo, that’s the…
Oregon has none. That’s according to the just released QS world ranking. Who knows what their methodology is, but I’m guessing football doesn’t get a lot of weight. Not a good sign for Oregon’s future economic growth. We know what Lariviere’s plan to address this problem is – what’s Pernsteiner’s?
9/2/2011: I’m sorry, but there’s no polite way to state that simple fact: More docs on Pernsteiner here. And more on order from OUS. We also pay his mortgage. And thanks to an anonymous commenter for explaining what’s really going on here: The fact is that the UO would like…
9/6/2011: I’ve got no ideas about the EmX vs “more buses everywhere” vs bikes vs electric nuclear-friendly cars debate. But who could oppose people posting signs protesting the EmX expansion, on their own property? The city of Eugene, of course. Mark Baker of the RG has a great story on…