College as Country Club: Do Colleges Cater to Students’ Preferences for Consumption? Brian Jacob, University of Michigan and National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) Brian McCall, University of Michigan, Kevin Stange, University of Michigan and NBER This paper investigates whether demand-side market pressure explains colleges’ decisions to provide consumption amenities to their students.…
UO Matters
I don’t know who wrote the Provost’s letter below, but it doesn’t strike me as Banavar’s style. In any case the faculty union has now sent the architecture faculty a thoughtful response: Dear Department of Architecture and Interior Architecture Faculty,On Friday, Provost Banavar sent the faculty of the Department of…
Tonight at the $230M Knight Arena. I had better turnout today for a lecture on microeconomic theory and the Cournot equilibrium.
UO wants the Eugene planning commission to give it the right to put 4 astro-turf playing fields with lights just south of the Willamette river. They claim this is for intramural Rugby and PE and Rec classes. I don’t buy it. I don’t have the Rugby participation data, but it’s…
On all kinds of scams. Hillary Borrud and Gordon Friedman (former Emerald reporter) have the latest one in the Oregonian: When state and federal officials approved $8 million in taxpayer financing for a Southern Oregon sawmill project, they did so on the premise the investment would bring back jobs. But officials…
That would be former UO President Dave Frohnmayer, circa 2007:
In the Chronicle. From surveys and interviews of faculty on job satisfaction and other things, conducted by the “Collaborative for Academic Careers in Higher Education at Harvard University.” Some professors don’t put much stock in faculty governance. The ability to effect change on a campus appeared to positively influence job satisfaction, the…
The Head of School spoke, the Dean of the CoD did not. That’s most of what I know, except for the fact that their new website makes it pretty damn hard to find a list of the faculty. Their web-designer should try https://xkcd.com/773/.
Short version: The UO administration has been telling people that the Ross Fund modification was a routine part of the UO and UO Foundation’s normal processes. I don’t think that’s true. It was exceptional on many dimensions, as I document below. First, at ~$2.5M, it was by far the largest…
Dear Colleagues, The Faculty Club will be meeting this week, during the usual hours (Wednesdays and Thursdays 5:00-8:00 pm). On Wednesday we continue with our Senate-sponsored “Talk to Your Dean Night” series, with Dean Randy Kamphaus of the College of Education making himself available to chat about whatever’s on your…
I’m no engineer, but it was the UVa Engineering School’s annual open house that made me want to be one. UO’s version is this Saturday: Kids from across Lane County will fill Willamette Hall with homemade rockets, lasers and futuristic machines on Saturday, March 10, for the 2018 Science and…
Michael Tobin has the report in the Emerald here: Six months after the launch of the College of Design, some faculty members are complaining about a new level of bureaucracy and the fate of some of the old programs. Also, some faculty members are unhappy over a controversial court decision…
Justin Crover has a long polemic in the Chronicle. This is just a brief part of his argument: The humanities have both left and right defenders and left and right critics. The left defenders of the humanities are notoriously bad at coming up with a coherent, effective defense, but they…
From Franklin Lewis in the Emerald: … Campus Planning says UO needs more athletic fields to accommodate growth and attract students. Opponents say building turf fields on the riverfront is ecologically inappropriate and other viable options exist for the area. …