9/1/2009: The staff here at uomatters.com tries to keep focused on numbers. UO’s numbers are really fascinating, sometimes even actionable. Just ask former Provost Moseley. But every now and then something like this comes across the screen: The University athletic department told Duck cheerleading advisors Laraine Raish and Corine Lewis…
UO Matters
08/30/2009: Suzanne Pardington has an interesting article in the Oregonian today, about Kulongoski’s stalled efforts to reform Oregon’s higher ed system. Pardington writes: Five years ago, Gov. Ted Kulongoski recruited a new slate of business leaders to serve on the State Board of Higher Education and charged them with saving…
The Teach Naked movement is about not using powerpoint for lecturing – or at least not relying on it as a crutch. The Chronicle has an article on it here. Last year I started posting powerpoint slides online, but lecturing just using the blackboard. Way more fun and interactive. The…
8/18/2009: The North Carolina News and Observer has a story about administrative bloat in the NC college system. This decade has been good for associate vice chancellors at UNC-Chapel Hill. Their numbers have nearly doubled, from 10 to 19, and the money paid to them has more than tripled, to…
8/14/2009: We’ve reported before on Frohnmayer’s amazing retirement contract. The OUS board created a new position for him, called “President Emeritus”. He keeps his $245,000 base salary plus whatever the Foundation gives him to top it off, (currently $50K as Knight chair) plus a secretary and a GTF, plus a…
8/14/2009: The Oregonian has a story today about former Provost Moseley’s expense account abuse. The OUS audit report mentioned in the story is available here. In that audit report UO President Lariviere agrees to stop allowing Moseley to claim any more expenses – between Eugene and his vacation home in…
8/10/2009: InsideHigherEd.com has several interesting articles today, including this on perceptions about access to financial aid for college, by Deborah M. Warnock at UW. From their summary of her paper: Hispanic and Asian parents of eighth graders are less likely than white parents to think about how to finance a…
8/6/2009: From the Oregonian. Combined with the tuition increases and with likely enrollment increases, UO is apparently in very, very good financial shape. It will be interesting to see how Lariviere spends the money. Governor Ted Kulongoski today followed through on his plans to veto a last-minute budget cut to…
8/4/2009: Fox news has a segment on the lack of political diversity among the faculty at UO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3L8TEiQQ1dY It’s apparently based on journalism student Dan Lawton‘s piece in the Christian Science Monitor. Dan reports that only a handful of UO faculty are registered Republicans, and argues the University should work…
7/30/2009: The RG has an editorial about the Portland sign, mentioning the cost (over $1 million for the sign itself) and arguing that UO administrators should have better things to do with their time. “The sign project is an eyebrow-raising expenditure in light of the state’s budget woes, which will…
7/27/2009: The Portland planning commission and UO have agreed to continue negotiations on the $1 million dollar UO-Portland sign, putting off a decision on this bizarre episode until Sept 14. ODE article here.
Here‘s a new paper on higher education productivity. I’m no economist, but it seems to have a wealth of interesting data, broken out by state. Oregon’s cost per degree is the 3rd lowest in the country. Oregon is 9th in terms of net in-migration of people with 4 year degrees…
7/17/2009: The Union site has a good article on the budget situation, here. The bottom line seems to be that UO will lose about $7 million in state funding and gain about $22 million in tuition. After we give 30% of the tuition back in discounts, we will still be…
7/17/2009: Our remote sensing stations continue to pick up chatter about Charles Martinez’s promotion to Vice President. Apparently Lariviere did this without much discussion with the traditional OIED constituencies or with faculty and administrators who have been skeptical about his commitment to the job and his priorities. The latest rumor…
7/14/2009: Washington is way ahead of Oregon in terms of public records access. Their law is not that different, but their DOJ actually enforces it. As an example, a reader sends UW’s budget report. Getting this level of detail from Francis Dyke – if she could figure it out –…