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UO Matters

Texas university proposes annual collegiality reviews for faculty

From InsideHigherEd, here: … Sam Houston State’s proposal links poor collegiality assessments to comprehensive performance evaluations and assisted faculty development plans. Timelines for remediation vary by plan, but the maximum extension of any plan is one year. After that, the faculty member’s fate is in the hands of the dean…

Leave PEBB and give everyone a 5% raise with no cuts to benefits

3/6/2020: Given the proposal by the UO Administration’s lead bargainer Missy Matella along these lines during Thursday’s bargaining, this seems like a good time to repost this from 2013. The numbers below are old and for all Oregon universities not just UO, but very roughly they suggest potential savings for…

Academic Council, Senate Pres, Provost on Academic Continuity Plan for coronavirus

Dear University of Oregon Faculty, As you are probably aware, the coronavirus situation is changing quickly as COVID-19 spreads and there is a lot of concern about how it may potentially disrupt our campus. The UO has fully activated the Incident Management Team (IMT), which is reviewing and updating the…

MMXX-IX: Bargaining live blog

Synopsis: Coming later. MMXX-IX live-blog. Bargaining teams seem corona free, operating at a cool 91.6 degrees so far: 125 Chiles 12-3PM 3/5/2020: My continuing series on Budget Buckets is here. If you don’t like my blog read the official Union tweets or Facebook page. Usual disclaimer: This is my opinion and…

UO Senate’s Academic Council to meet on coronavirus & Academic Continuity Plans

No panic yet, (although see the change.org petition from students here) and the university has processes in place for an orderly response, at least in terms of classes and grades, and it’s under the control of the faculty and Senate.

The Academic Continuity Policy was passed by the Senate and adopted by the University Administration last year, and is designed to cover situations like this. The gist is that, after the University President declares an Emergency, the Senate’s Academic Council can declare a “Significant Academic Disruption” and authorize an “Academic Continuity Plan” which could authorize emergency grades, etc:

  • The Academic Continuity Plan shall include provisions for continuation of academic activities and awarding of grades. Because a Significant Academic Disruption will affect academic activities differently across campus, the academic continuity plan shall provide a range of options which maintain academic integrity, transparency for students, and fairness for students as described above. These might include alternative instructional times and methods, use of online technology for instruction and assignments, modified assignments, extended deadlines, exceptions to prerequisites and grade requirements, etc.
  • Department heads, under the direction of their Dean, will coordinate implementation of the academic continuity plan with instructors in their unit.

It’s at https://policies.uoregon.edu/vol-2-academics-instruction-research/ch-1-curriculum-instruction/academic-continuity-and-emergency and the full text is below, followed by a message from the Provost.

Gov. Kate Brown gets $25K from Nike, IAAF 2021 gets another $20M

3/2/2020: Nigel Jaquiss has the story in Willamette Week, here. The donation was made in January. Nike’s ROI is $20,000,000/$25,000, or $800 per dollar invested, assuming the Legislature passes the pork legislation, and Gov. Brown then signs it. She’s term limited, so what will she spend it on? 12/9/2020: Quid Pro…

Bad news for troubled UO Board as Connie Ballmer steps down early

Governor Brown had reappointed her to a 4-year term just last year. The Board’s next meetings are March 16-17th, in Eugene. Begin forwarded message: From: Board of Trustees <[email protected]> Subject: Board of Trustees Update – Vacancy and Appointment Process Date: March 2, 2020 at 1:43:42 PM PST To: Board of…