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UO Matters

Johnson Hall can’t hire a Library Dean without paying a search firm $150K?

No wonder Brad Shelton is running a $10M deficit. It’s not like this is something important like a new Duck offensive co-ordinator. In fact, according to the glossy brochure put out by WittKieffer search consultants Suzanne Teer, Philip Tang, and Jessica Herrington at [email protected], who are charging us $150K or…

Update: OSU hired F. King Alexander, despite censure by LSU Senate and the AAUP after he fired a professor for cussing in class

Updates: I wonder how much of this the Witt/Kieffer search consultants, Zachary A. Smith, Ph.D., Suzanne Teer and Kim Brettschneider passed on to the OSU Board and hiring committees. In 2018 the UNC system banned its schools from hiring Witt Kieffer for searches, after they failed to do due diligence…

UO Senate live-blog today, Wed Dec 11th, on Data Science proposal etc.

Location: EMU 145 & 146 (Crater Lake rooms) 3:00 – 5:00 P.M. Livestream here. 3:00 P.M.   Call to Order Introductory Remarks; Senate President Elizabeth Skowron Discusses possibility of move senate and committee elections and appointments to earlier in the year, so we’re not filling seats in the summer. Great idea.…

Live-blog Full Board meeting, Tu 12/10/2019: $0.1M for Schill, $1M for Cristobal

Disclaimer: My summary of what people said or should have said. Nothing is a quote unless in quotes. The Monday committee meetings are here. The wrap up (Note: I skipped out before the votes on some of these, but I assume the board rubber-stamped whatever Lillis and Wilhelms put in…

OSU lobbyist Jock Mills sends out his last report, with info Angela Wilhelms won’t give the UO trustees on capital funding disaster

Jock Mills has been OSU’s lobbyist for ~20 years. I’ve never met him, but he sends his legislative updates to anyone with an email address – even a @uoregon.edu one – and they are far more informative than anything I’ve ever got from UO’s lobbyists. He is retiring from lobbying…

Live-Blogging: UO Board of Trustees to meet Dec 9 committee meetings

Disclaimer: My summary of what people said or should have said. Nothing is a quote unless in quotes. This is a bit disorganized but I made it through the entire set of Monday committee meetings, and will be here for the full board meeting at 9:30 AM Tuesday.

The gist of the agenda, with details, links, and live-blogging below.

  1. Re-elect Charles M. Lillis as Chair to a 3rd term, since no one else will take on the job of being Phil Knight’s amanuensis. Avoid mention of his ERISA lawsuit settlements and the ~$175M he and the other WaMu board members had to pay out after they led it to the largest financial bankruptcy in US history. Video here.
  2. Offer President Schill a retention package with a $100K bonus and a fat retirement deal – teach two courses a year for $450K – in the vain hope he won’t use it as proof of how highly his current board values him while shopping around for his next job.
  3. Avoid any substantive discussion of what work our trustees might do to carry through with the promises Lillis, Knight, and the other backers of SB270 and UO independence made about stabilizing UO’s funding. They don’t like to work or think, that’s why they’re using tuition money to pay people like Angela Wilhelms to do it for them.
  4. Thank VPFA Jamie Moffitt for her hard work ensuring that ASUO is on board with the next round of tuition increases, and that they will result in only minor student demonstrations and minimal public embarrassment to the Trustees.
  5. Issue $120M in debt to finish constructing the Athlete Village for Phil Knight’s Oregon21 T&F championships. Bonds to be repaid with higher room and board charges for UO students.

The board’s meetings are open to the public – even faculty and students if they tug the forelock. All sessions are in the Ford Alumni Center Ballroom and are webcast here. Note that the committees meet on Monday, but I’ve put the Full Board agenda for its Tuesday meeting at the top:

Finance and Facilities Committee, December 9, 2019 | 1:15 p.m.