LBJ slept around, drank whiskey, got rich selling his influence, and lied a lot even for a lawyer. Then one day he gave the best speech in American history. Four minutes before Congress gets over the shock and realizes they need to applaud. “… and should we conquer the stars,…
UO Matters
9/25/2009: Blackboard and research – posting will be light for a bit.
9/19/2009: From openuporegon.com: Carl Malamud has now sent Oregon Attorney General Kroger this letter, stating that he has posted the Oregon Public Records manual online for free access. He also tells Kroger he will soon do the same for several of the other law manuals that the DOJ trys to…
9/18/2009: OK, we’re starting to like this Lariviere guy. First he ditched Frohnmayer’s weird plan to have students graduate first, then take exams. Now, from the Oregonian, it seems he is going to abandon Dave’s attempt to blow $1 million of UO money on the Portland Old Town sign –…
9/17/2009: Times are tough for UO faculty, what with salaries stuck at 80% of those at Missouri. Lots of us are looking around for something on the side, to make ends meet. Apparently former Pres Frohnmayer is now in the same boat. And his golden parachute contract – which pays…
9/15/2009: Oregon law requires the OUS Board to keep minutes of their meetings and make them publicly available. They haven’t done this since December 2005. Check their website if you think we are making this up. Back in mid July (2009) we tried to get a copy of the minutes…
9/14/2009: What is it about UO administrators. Do they take a blood oath to defend each others’ paychecks til the bitter end? We’ve written before about the OUS audit which found current Provost Bean had cut former Provost Moseley’s retirement contract job duties without reducing his FTE, and was letting…
9/11/2009: The Bend Bulletin editorial board writes: Although it’s difficult to be gleeful in light of the big picture, supporters of the Oregon State University-Cascades Campus must be at least hopeful today. Alone among public higher education institutions in Oregon, it may well see its finances improve in the coming…
9/10/2009: The Institutional Research web site at http:/ir.uoregon.edu is a clean, well lit and informative place. One curious UO Matters reader has been digging around there and reports on recent trends in administrative growth. Note that the most recent numbers are 2007, and are head counts – not dollars. Most…
9/9/2009: From the Chronicle: The cost of goods, services, pay, and benefits in higher education rose 2.3 percent for the year ending June 30—a figure that is nearly a percentage point higher than the Consumer Price Index for the same period but less than half the 5-percent rate that colleges…
9/7/2009: The PSU AAU union has an active website, with information about the staff contract among other things. They report staff furlough days will be scheduled as follows: Monthly pay of $2,450 or below: 8 days Monthly pay $2,451 to $3,105: 12 days Monthly pay $3,106 to $5,733: 14 days Monthly pay $5,734…
9/6/2009: From the AP: … The tentative agreement calls for eight to 16 unpaid furlough days over 21 months pegged to salary levels and a one-year freeze of scheduled raises. … Before the agreement was reached, workers had begun preparing for a possible strike after Chancellor George Pernsteiner demanded far…
9/4/2009: Contrast President Lariviere’s statement below with what the RG wrote in May, about then President Frohnmayer’s refusal to say anything to condemn the threats by Duck fans against Professor Sohlberg. Change we can believe in? Update: Lariviere has suspended the player for the year, while letting him keep his…
9/4/2009: OUS Board Secretary Ryan Hagemann hasn’t made minutes of Board meetings publicly available since December 2005. He says he is too busy. OUS does send out press releases, however. Here is an excerpt from the latest, on budget allocations. Higher Ed Board committee recommends 2009-10 budget allocations for campuses…
9/2/2009: Regular readers of UO Matters know that we spend a lot of time and money trying to pry public records from the cold grasping claws of UO General Counsel Melinda Grier and her Associate Counsel Doug Park. They resist, we appeal to Oregon Attorney General John Kroger. Sometimes he…