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UO Matters

Faculty Union to hold town hall to answer questions about pay cut deal

Dear Colleague, All members of United Academics are invited to a Town Hall on Tuesday, August 4 from noon to 1:30. The Zoom link is below. We are soliciting questions from members on a variety of issues we are facing as a community. Please submit your question(s) here. We will also take questions during…

Hiring freeze won’t stop Prov. Phillips from creating new “Director of Entrepreneurship and Economic Transformation” job

8/2/2020 update: According to an often reliable informant, a donor (presumably one with an optimistic view of the effectiveness of transformational change facilitators) has contributed the funds for the first few years of this new position. After that it is meant to be self-funded by money raised by this office. We’ll…

UO relaxes hiring freeze – for learning specialists willing to help Duck players with “a lack of academic preparation”

This is the first time I’ve seen Lorraine put it so plainly – or lay out what a tough and poorly paid job this is: Quoting from the full ad here: The Learning Specialist must be willing to work a flexible year-round schedule, including evenings and weekends. Master’s degree or…

Bargaining IX, Tu at 9AM

July 28 @ 9 am. You can register for the sessions here. Usual disclaimer: my thoughts on what people are saying, trying to say, trying to be thinking, etc. Nothing is a quote unless in ” ” ‘s.   Costs faculty and OA’s $19.5M Admin Caucus until 10:15. 11:10. The…

Bargaining VIII, this Wed at 3PM

7/22/2020: Liveblog, usual disclaimer: my thoughts on what people are saying, trying to say, trying to be thinking, etc. Nothing is a quote unless in ” ” ‘s.

Matella: We’re OK with the all in employees idea, and a 15-35 window. (That’s a very low threshold. UO has already cut costs more than this.)

Brad Shelton: I realize my initial model was too complicated for some people to understand, so I’ve made it more like the tax code. Also, I updated a lot of information which I haven’t shared with you before now.

(Typo in second to last bullet – $185K should be $285K)

Caucus break.

3:58 They’re back.

Caucus break.

4:53: Admins want another 10 min to caucus.

5:00: Admins want another 15 min to caucus.

5:15: Admins want another 5 min to caucus.

5:20: They’re back. 

Took Brad awhile to turn his crank, but he’s got a new plan to protect the highest paid administrators:

Cecil: It would be helpful if you shared your data, as we shared the data we painfully scrapped from IR’s pdfs because UO won’t post machine readable files and Schill stopped reporting quarterly numbers.

Matella: OK, I think.

Cecil: What to do about TRP? High salary suggests high tax, low FTE suggests low tax. Keaton goes low, Brad goes high. Caucus til 5:45.

They’re back.

Cecil: We’re going to want to trim a little more off the top. We need Brad’s data.

Matella: We’ll get you his model. [Here’s hoping she means data, not model.]

Cecil: We’ve got the outlines of a deal, just need to hammer out parameters of the cuts. Can’t do that until you share Brad’s data.

Cecil: Hope we can get this done this week.

New Duck Asst coach McClendon to get only $360K because of pandemic clause

Mario Cristobal’s latest helper hire Bryan McClendon got a special exemption from the hiring freeze because, you know, sports. Coach Cristobal paid his previous employer $50K for the right to hire him. And of course he gets free tickets and travel for spouse/partner, car allowance, bonuses for this and that,…

Board of Trustees fires 97 faculty, keeps sports subsidies

That would be the University of Akron’s board, InsideHigherEd here: “For years, the university has disinvested in academics while simultaneously losing millions on its athletics programs,” Akron’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors wrote in a position paper about proposed cuts earlier this month. “In the spirit of shared sacrifice,…