6/25/2009: I haven’t had time to digest these issues, but the AAU / AFT union people have been raising questions about the switch to a self-insurance health plan. Details here. The Gist: Starting in January 2010 PEBB will “self insure” our health insurance with Providence as the plan administrator. Providence…
UO Matters
6/24/2009: Yes, posting is random for a while. Don’t worry, the expected value will be high.
6/20/2009: Last week we asked UO Counsel Doug Park for documentation on how many millions UO administrators had spend remodeling their offices in Johnson Hall, and if it was true that Frances Dyke had diverted some of the money from a fund Linda Brady had set up for faculty offices.…
6/18/2009: From the HR website: Richard Lariviere, Incoming President, wishes to announce a reorganization within the President’s Office. The reorganization is necessary to ensure a smooth transition in leadership that is as seamless as possible and will allow the business of the university to move forward quickly and effectively during…
6/16/2009: No responses yet to our public records requests for data on the Bend program losses, the $3 million on Johnson Hall remodeling, and we are still waiting for copies of Frohnmayer’s retirement contract and Lariviere’s contract – presumably meaning that they are still haggling out the details with OUS.…
6/15/2009: The RG has an editorial today on low faculty salaries at UO – repeating the now infamous $7,300 less than Missouri number, and making enough other comparisons to head off the counter-arguments and excuses we’ve been hearing from President Frohnmayer and UO’s administrators on this. The RG then argues…
6/14/2009: Taken from the official web biography of which chronically insecure leader: Dave Frohnmayer, Kim Il-Jong, or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad? “No president has served so long nor, many would say, been so admired—even loved.” Frohnmayer is leaving soon, and we hope a few of his cronies too. While we think it’s…
6/13/2009: We’re building a list of things to cut to get more money for the academic side. The $3 million Frances has spent remodeling Johnson Hall offices is sunk – but Bend is an ongoing expenditure. We are trying to find out how much. Please use the comments to nominate…
6/12/2009: BTW, the Union has a new web site, here. After posting this we got a comment asking if UO Matters is going to become a Union site? Never. Our only loyalty is to skepticism. Rumor has it that Frances Dyke has now spent $3 million on her Johnson Hall…
6/11/2009: One thing that will inevitably come up when discussing the fact that UO’s pay is last in the AAU and 10% below that of Missouri is benefits. Administrators claim that UO’s benefits are better than average. What they really mean is that UO pays more for benefits than other…
6/10/2009: Update on Frohnmayer’s Foundation slush fund: Apparently he has been in a mad rush to spend $1 million in leftover money as quick as possible. Anyone with details, post a comment. We’re guessing this money is not going to Faculty!Provost Bean has now selected UO’s next “Big Ideas” which…
6/8/2009: After a year on the job Provost Jim Bean discovers – from a news article in a Missouri student newspaper we posted here – that UO’s faculty are the lowest paid in the AAU. This is after he wasted a huge chunk of IR and Senate time trying to…
6/5/2009: UO’s Under-represented Minority Recruitment Plan or UMRP gives $90,000 to departments that hire faculty who self-report as racial or ethnic minorities. What do those faculty spend this money on? Here is a link to the accounting statement for one history professor’s UMRP account. He took $62,000 as supplemental summer…
6/2/2009: OSLC has now released its latest IRS form. Page 20 shows that UO Diversity VP Charles Martinez has continued with his second job there, working 25 hours per week off campus – I think this makes 3 straight years, ranging from 25 to 29 hours per weak. This blows…
The Daily Emerald has been doing good reporting about UO politics again. So far it hasn’t risen to the standard of Ryan Knutson’s Bernsteinian investigative pieces on the arena, but reporter Alex Tomchak Scott seems to know how to do an interview. See this story on the UO Senate’s version…