7/15/2011: Here. It’s a mix of the usual complete bullshit and some hopeful signs that we might actually hire someone who will make some progress on these important issues. The best part is that when the administration decides we are still “under-administered” and need a VP for Sustainability, they can…
UO Matters
7/15/2011: They allowed a football player to keep $312 in free clothes. That’s right – a player. Not a coach or an athletic director or an ESAADFFAA, but a player. Unspeakable. We all know what rewarding people for their work can lead to. So our protectors in the NCAA have…
7/14/2011: Costs and benefits matter. People are more likely to remember information if they think it won’t be on Google. From Science. I forget who wrote it.
7/14/2011: Charles Martinez’s OIED spent $903,587 last year – that’s just counting salaries and administrative overhead for his office, not program costs. Add another $100,000 to cover the cost of hiring a search firm to find a competent and honest replacement for him. For comparison, in 2009-10 UO awarded $1,706,250…
when he reads this in the morning Oregonian: SALEM — The Oregon Government Ethics Commission voted Wednesday to issue letters of reprimand to three investment officers at the Oregon State Treasury. A majority of the commission agreed there were violations of state ethics law involving travel expenses and reimbursements while…
7/13/2011: to the “Diversified Search Odgers Berndtson” firm. $75,000 so far, and we don’t have a job description yet. From their prospectus letter: The draft I saw today – it will be posted here on Friday – was a hodgepodge of the usual platitudes – prepare a new “5 year…
7/14/2011: To the most disadvantaged. Richard Kahlenberg of the Chronicle reports on a recent study by some economists: … At the same time, those Pell students who were more disadvantaged (had lower ACT scores and parents lacking a college education) benefited a great deal from the supplemental grants. Their persistence…
7/14/2011: From a study by Stuart Rojstaczer and Christopher Healy reported in insidehighered.com.43% of college grades are A’s, 4% are F’s. Good discussion in the NYT. In my department it’s more like 20% and 5%. I’ve heard the average grade in the UO education school is A. Here’s a link…
7/14/2011: Alan Pittman of the Eugene Weekly analyzes the NCAA report we extracted from the athletic department last week: THIRD OF UO IS SPORTSJust how big is sports at the UO? A third of the value of all the buildings at the UO are sports related and a fifth of…
7/13/2011: It’s a state case in Illinois, but very relevant to the similar effort to unionize UO faculty and adjuncts. Last I heard they were preparing for a card-check election, this fall, and < 0.5FTE adjuncts will have the same vote as full time profs. From Scott Jasik at Insidehighered.com.
7/13/2011: That’s the Governor of California, Jerry Brown. From Insidehighered.com. Now why can’t we get Governor Kitzhaber’s new Higher Education Finance Board to start cutting some of Chancellor Dr. Pernsteiner’s perks? Even just his free meals and maid service?
7/12/2011: From the NY Times: The law he signed not only banned the university and the higher education board from taking any action to discontinue the name, it also said the state attorney general should consider filing a federal antitrust claim against the N.C.A.A. if the organization penalized the university.…
7/13/2011 update: I’ve written UO Public Records Officer Liz Denecke asking her to forward *all* the agreements, and I copied Dennis Galvan and John Manotti. Still no reply. Maybe it makes sense for UO to cut deals with corrupt politicians (as with Pernsteiner for example) but not in secret. 7/12/2011:…
7/12/2011: From the Texas Tribune. Motivated by the debate about measuring faculty productivity. Hamermesh is a labor economist at UT, Riley is the author of “The Faulty Lounges“. The clip is mostly about tenure. “The Hammer”, as he occasionally tries to get his colleagues to nickname him, has no hesitancy…
7/11/2011: Bob Wolfe and Barry Kast have the best Laffer curve argument ever. I’d use this in class – if I were an economics professor.