UO Matters
Raking through UO's muck since 2007
Twitter RSS Facebook
  Menu
Skip to content
  • Home
  • academic freedom
  • Athletics info, scandals
  • Crap-free UO homepage
  • SPQUO: Senate links
  • U of Nike
  • Your unions

Tag Archives: Expense account abuse

State opens ethics inquiry

By uomatters | 09/12/2011 - 9:11 pm |09/12/2011 Uncategorized
Comments Off on State opens ethics inquiry

9/12/2011: of PSU VP Burton. He’ll end up with a slap on the wrist. The current Director, Ron Bersin, was hired for his remarkably incurious disposition. Too bad Pat Hearn is no longer in that job! Still, this has got to make Frohnmayer and Pernsteiner a little nervous.

Tagged Expense account abuse

Pernsteiner Kenton calendars and expense reports for May, June, July

By uomatters | 09/12/2011 - 5:10 pm |09/12/2011 Uncategorized
8 Comments

9/12/2011: I won’t have a change to look through these for a bit, entire pdf here. One sample below. Kenton is following Pernsteiner‘s lead, billing OUS for every croissant he can. Read Steve Duin’s Oregonian post on Kenton’s new contract. Last year’s story on Pernsteiner here is just as damning.

Tagged Expense account abuse, OUS Board and Chancellor, Pernsteiner

Pernsteiner and Kenton expenses

By uomatters | 09/10/2011 - 3:10 am |09/10/2011 Uncategorized
Comments Off on Pernsteiner and Kenton expenses

9/9/2011: I’d hoped to have copies of the last 3 months of expense reports for OUS Chancellor George Pernsteiner and his VP Jay Kenton to post here today. I made a public records request for them 4 weeks ago, and I paid OUS for them. But the copies I received today – after weeks of delays – were not properly redacted, and personal information was visible in the pdfs. I told OUS as soon as I saw this. So it will be at least Monday before I can post anything more than extracts of these impressive expense accounts.

Like most state agencies, OUS has a public relations arm of well paid brown nosers, dedicated to puffing up the accomplishments of the agency and its administrators. But if you want to get public records that might  show that these executives have been less than perfect you will have to pay the agency and endure all kinds of delays. An abuse of power, at our expense.

But I’m a patient guy. I will get these documents and I will post them. Meanwhile, the info I *do* have on OUS Chancellor Pernsteiner is easily enough to trigger the sort of Oregon Government Ethics Comission investigation that is now underway for PSU VP Mike Burton.

But let’s nail this shut friends – keep sending documents, stray emails, innuendo, unsubstantiated rumors, and mp3s to [email protected] You can hold off on the Laphroaig until the docs are posted.

Tagged Expense account abuse, Pernsteiner

UO staff face strike vote

By uomatters | 08/23/2011 - 4:40 am |08/23/2011 Uncategorized
10 Comments

8/22/2011: From Dennis Thompson in the SJ:

OUS
workers ultimately are outraged by what they see as better raises, deals
and perks being handed out to faculty and administrators while service
staffers go without, Nisenfeld said.

Perks like VP Burton’s PSU paid vacation to Europe? Or Chancellor Pernsteiner’s 2 houses, lawn and maid service, and $23,120 for “professional development expenses”?

Tagged Expense account abuse, staff

PSU Vice Provost Mike Burton expense account rip-off

By uomatters | 08/23/2011 - 3:23 am |08/23/2011 Uncategorized
3 Comments

8/22/2011: This fool is still protesting his innocence. Steve Duin asks why he is not being prosecuted for theft:

In a telling series of e-mails with Don Olcott, head of the Observatory on Borderless Higher Education in London, Burton engages in the most blatant horse-trading to secure “an excuse to visit” London for his stepdaughter’s 50th birthday.

After
Burton asks Olcott to find him “a conference of some sort,” Olcott
promptly replies, “Any chance you could get me in for a half time
special assistant position for 6-9 months so I could get benefits and
30K. I can work on a conference for you here in London.”

“We’ll
work something,” Burton promises in July 2010, even as he continues to
press, “Meanwhile, any chance of a gig for me in London in the Fall?”

A
brief review of Burton’s bio is in order. At the time he was
negotiating for this free lunch — or a virtually free 11-day swing
through Europe — Burton, 70, was drawing an annual salary of $143,136
at PSU. …

And
he has the gall to ask PSU to reimburse him $4,500 — including a $140
per diem for meals — for a trip in which he has only two morning
meetings, Burton admits in an e-mail, and “the rest of the time is
mine.” …

The Observatory on Borderless Higher Education. Nice one.

Tagged Expense account abuse

Vice provost rips off PSU students

By uomatters | 08/20/2011 - 2:26 am |08/20/2011 Uncategorized
Comments Off on Vice provost rips off PSU students

9/19/2011: Be clear: this is not some lowly professor abusing the system. It’s a politically well connected administrator, using $4500 in state funds for his “working trip” to England and Paris. From Brent Walth in WWeek:

“We concluded that there was not a valid conference to justify PSU’s reimbursement of Mr. Button’s European trip,” the audit says. “While Mr. Burton may have attended one to two business meetings, he was unable to account for the majority of the trip itinerary.” …

… The auditors also said emails sent by Burton show he set up the trip in part to visit family in Europe. Auditors found that Burton wrote to an official in Europe to say he was looking for a conference he could attend to help justify his trip. According to the audit, Burton wrote, “My stepdaughter lives in Surrey and her 50th birthday is coming up in September and I’m looking for an excuse to visit.”

… He said he did attend meetings in England and one day of a conference in France. He said he spent three days in Paris ill in bed at his hotel.

Bummer, except he’s probably lying about that too. Audit report here. The only other case I’ve heard of where an administrator had to pay back an Oregon university was our own Dave Frohnmayer. Both he and Burton – also a former state legislator with some political pull – were allowed to leave gracefully.

I hope Governor Kitzhaber does the same with Chancellor Pernsteiner, and quick. With or without the grace. And yes, I’ve got a PR request in for more expense reports, so keep that single malt coming.

Tagged Expense account abuse, PSU

Under-represented Minority Recruitment Plan

By uomatters | 06/05/2009 - 6:00 pm |12/08/2015 Uncategorized
Comments Off on Under-represented Minority Recruitment Plan

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 salary, and spent the rest on things ranging from moving expenses to research support to dining at the Excelsior. We hear most new history professors are lucky to get $6,000 in summer pay.

Affirmative action law (in our view appropriately) allows employers to make certain specific extra efforts to recruit minorities – but it is completely illegal to use race, ethnicity, or gender when determining pay, benefits, or working conditions. OK, the UMRP is illegal – but is it effective? Well, the professor in question (who has given permission to make his accounting statement public) left UO for another job the same year he spent the last of his $90,000. (A reader has told us this professor left because UO wouldn’t give his partner – who may also have been paid out of this $90K – a permanent job.)

Tagged Expense account abuse, Melinda Grier, Under-represented Minority Recruitment Plan

Provost Moseley and UO’s Bend campus

By uomatters | 04/02/2009 - 4:45 am |04/02/2009 Uncategorized
Comments Off on Provost Moseley and UO’s Bend campus

In 2006 UO Provost John Moseley retired and was given a 1/2 time $124,000 a year sinecure as Director of UO’s Bend Programs. He wanted this because it allowed him to pad his PERS account and because he has a vacation home on the Deschutes. It turns out he’s been billing UO for his trips there – as these UO mileage reimbursements show. One reader pointed out that “Between June and Sept 08 JTM racked up $4441.75 reimbursable dollars for mileage, at about 50 cents per mile that’s 8800 miles. It’s about 125 miles one way from JTM (Eugene) to JTM (Bend) so that’s about 35 round trips in a 4 month period or 9 round trips a month.”

In the summer? Does UO-Bend even offer summer courses? Any OSU-Cascades meetings that Moseley actually attended? 9 per month? UO-Bend graduates 15 students a year. Moseley’s travel expenses alone are over $500 per graduate. Add in his salary and benefits and this one part of the administrative costs for Bend are already well over $10,000 per graduate. And Provost Bean claims this program is “in the black?”

From a UO administrator’s email:

Finally, there is a lot about the Bend campus that just does not “feel right”. For example, while no one really wants to put (too fine) a point on it, the fact that John Mosley is collecting a six figure salary while being retired in Bend (even if it is legit) does not look right and perceptions are important – particularly in economic hard times when you are asking faculty to give back.

Here is the 7/7/04 retirement contract signed by President Frohnmayer and Provost Moseley. It’s hard to read this without seeing it as an attempt to make an end run around the PERS rules so that Moseley can retire under the more generous pre-2005 contract – while still actually working for UO essentially full time and collecting full time pay.

Tagged Bend program loses $1 million, Expense account abuse, Golden parachute contracts, Provost Moseley
  • NOTE: Thumbs up/down on comments has been disabled due to misuse by PR Flack supporters. Sorry!

    • New Pres Karl Scholz “handles... (5)
      • Environmental Necessity { Even economists recognize they are pretty sh*tty at their basic job. They know a lot, of course, playing their modeling... }
      • honest Uncle Gangsta { Seriously, the EW article is all about secrecy, the obsessions about diversity, pseudo-psychiatric evaluation (implicit bias?). Not a word about... }
      • honest Uncle Gangsta { Effin' A! }
      • Powerball { "Scholz’s contract says he’ll make $725,000 in his first year." IIRC, Schill made $660,000 in his first year starting in... }
      • Anonymouse { Better than "the way you'd expect a lawyer to handle it". If you follow the link you'll see it's mostly... }
    • Smug Interim Provost tries to... (7)
      • honest Uncle Gangsta { Yeah, things are going great. Ask those forced to use shared services, Tykeson advising, or search for classrooms. And DEI... }
      • Slowly Boiled IT Duck { If you haven't looked at the newer campus climate survey documents, you should. The answer to FAQ #6 ("What about... }
      • uomatters { I try not to read emails from Woodruff-Borden anymore, but a colleague sent me this one and I posted it... }
      • TRPer { You've done it Harbaugh, you've made me nostalgic for Moseley. Now I must go spit out some vomit. }
      • thedude { Admins about low faculty pay. Let them eat DEI training and group belonging therapy. }
      • uomatters { I believe you, but a reputation for giving the university's money away to faculty is not going to go over... }
      • thedude { You know what help my sense of belonging and department retention. Raises that more than keep up with inflation. }
    • Small minded sports columnist mocks... (3)
      • CSN { That's a good point -- at my undergraduate institution no alcohol was sold at the football games and yet, somehow,... }
      • uomatters { Well, not serving alcohol would be a start - but then that helps pay the coaches salaries. }
      • CSN { I'm not sure what coaches and ADs are supposed to do about this situation. This feels like a thing where... }
    • UO Administration loses their "strategic... (9)
      • Slowly Boiled IT Duck { Trying to recall the specifics, but likely one incident--perhaps comment rather than joke--that would raise DEI eyebrows a bit (the... }
      • honest Uncle Gangsta { Boiled Duck -- have they really been cracking such jokes? Somehow, I doubt it. And I hope not. I'd rather... }
      • uomatters { Not heartening. }
      • Simplius Simplicissimus { I fed ChatGPT the Interim President's letter and asked for a funny comment. Here it is: Richie Hunter V2 (a.k.a.... }
      • Slowly Boiled IT Duck { Thanks for flagging that, honest UG. It's a shameful accolade, but I have some slight hope that this is a... }
      • honest Uncle Gangsta { For what it's worth, UO has been named one of the 10 worst campuses in the country for academic freedom... }
      • uomatters { No, no, please name names! }
      • Johnson Hall { Seeing a useless VP jump ship before the new President takes over is a good sign. I'm not naming names,... }
    • UO Board appoints competent outsider... (23)
      • Lame Duck { Wait, I thought Phil Knight was UO President? Is he stepping down? }
      • Thedude { The evil one gave us our biggest raises. }
      • moss defender { a competent person in charge of a dysfunctional sinking ship is just a slightly slower trip to the bottom of... }
      • uomatters { Not to say I'd feel the same way if it was, say, Larry Summers. }
      • uomatters { I was going to criticize this comment for not mentioning other dimensions of what's important in a Pres, but then... }
      • Old fart (she/her) { Excuse me while I hold a muted applause since this is the 5th white dude President UO had since I... }
      • Cheyney Ryan { I do speak for myself, that's why I use my real name in these posts. Old white men seem do... }
      • uomatters { I don't think we'd have had the Knight Campus without Patrick's willingness to work with Uncle Phil. He took a... }
    • Senate to Vote this Wed... (1)
      • Fishwrapper { I mean, that's the whole point, the raison d'etre behind this whole enterprise, right? What more appropriate way to celebrate... }
    • Despite SVB, former UO Board... (4)
      • moss defender { bigger mystery who has the civil war soldier head from campus cemetery....pretty sure that was in a Simpsons episode...the replacement... }
      • { You left out the lawsuits from when he was on the Medco board. }
      • uomatters { Here's hoping any connection is merely geographic. }
      • Townie { UO’s endowment is now managed by a Silicon Valley firm (Jasper Ridge). }
    • CAS Dean Chris Poulsen asks... (6)
      • Hart { So if you are a history/english double major (not a super unusual configuration), you're supposed to sit through a long... }
      • honest Uncle Bernie { Such a telling and inauspicious way to hold commencement, starting with the delay for the track stuff. There's just so... }
      • Unhappy Classified Camper { And, as a classified member of one of these ridiculous CAS Shared Services/ASU, I was told I was to not... }
      • oldtimer { All good comments. My general reaction is ‘what a brilliantly student-centered change from departmental major ceremonies to a three ring... }
    • Older »
  • Last Tweets

    • RT @Tobin_Tweets: Bonds designed to insure Credit Suisse against disaster could outlive the bank https://t.co/LrjAkbXwdM via @markets, Mar 27
    • New Pres Karl Scholz “handles university administration the way you’d expect an economist to handle it.” https://t.co/t8MItI1L0l, Mar 24
    • Smug Interim Provost tries to distract her underpaid faculty colleagues by “fostering their sense of belonging” https://t.co/ATGypH0Ekk, Mar 23
    • Small minded sports columnist mocks State Rep Janelle Bynum for her courageous stand against drunken sports fans https://t.co/eEWTI5UfgJ, Mar 22
    • UO Law School runs afoul of ABA’s diversity quota https://t.co/yxqdfaft3A, Mar 21
  • Tags

    AAUP-AFT Union? Academic Freedom administrative bloat Athletics athletics subsidy Beangrams Coronavirus Dana Altman Dave Frohnmayer: UO President Diversity Faculty pay Faculty Union (United Academics of UO) free speech Jamie Moffitt Jim Bean: UO Provost Jim O'Fallon jock box Lariviere Firing Lorraine Davis March 8-9 rape allegations Melinda Grier Michael Gottfredson NCAA NCAA violations new partnership plan off topic OUS Board and Chancellor Pernsteiner PERS Public Records Public Safety Randy Geller General Counsel Research money Richard Lariviere: UO President Rob Mullens Scott Coltrane Senate Sharon Rudnick Tim Gleason Track and Field Championships Uncategorized UO Foundation UO Presidential Archives UO restructuring plan UO Trustees
  • Recent Posts

    • New Pres Karl Scholz “handles university administration the way you’d expect an economist to handle it.” 03/24/2023
    • Smug Interim Provost tries to distract her underpaid faculty colleagues by “fostering their sense of belonging” 03/22/2023
    • Small minded sports columnist mocks State Rep Janelle Bynum for her courageous stand against drunken sports fans 03/22/2023
    • UO Law School runs afoul of ABA’s diversity quota 03/21/2023
    • Northwestern Journalism students write post-mortem for Pres Michael Schill’s years at UO 03/20/2023
    • Provost and Trustees kick back in glee as faculty fight it out over who gets the smallest merit pay cut. 03/17/2023
    • UO Administration loses their “strategic thought partner”, will replace her with ChatGPT 03/16/2023
    • Senate to Vote this Wed on fixing graduation 03/14/2023
    • UO Board appoints competent outsider as new President – John Karl Scholz from UW-Madison 03/13/2023
    • Despite SVB, former UO Board Chair Chuck Lillis still holds record for largest US bank failure 03/12/2023
    • CAS Dean Chris Poulsen asks you not to forward his commencement email to your students 03/08/2023
    • UO Board meets to name new President 03/08/2023
    • Admin now using Concur to keep tabs on your teaching 12/05/2022
    • Public Records Lawsuit Against University Foundation goes to Supreme Court 12/04/2022
    • Provost Woodruff-Borden et al. deliver ultimatum to exploitative Elsevier 11/18/2022
    • President Phillips to deliver State of UO address from a secure off-campus location 11/17/2022
    • Pres Phillips expects that yet more committee busy-work will improve campus culture? 11/16/2022
    • VP for enrollment emails faculty with great UO enrollment numbers 11/15/2022
    • Another big-time college football program collapses, to the indifference of students, alumni, and locals. 11/11/2022
    • Pres Phillips plans to hold graduation at football stadium, ban “rogue” department ceremonies 11/09/2022
  • Blogroll

    • UO Matters Doesn't Matter – proof that it's a big internet 0
    • The Oregon Daily Emerald 0
    • UAUO faculty union website 0
    • UO Senate website: SPQUO 0
    • Dave Hubin's public records log 0
  • Polls

    How do you feel about your remote classes this quarter?

    View Results

    Loading ... Loading ...
    • Polls Archive
  • Spam Blocked

    1,283,364 spam blocked by Akismet
  • About UO Matters

    UO Matters is a news and opinion blog about the University of Oregon. It is published by Bill Harbaugh, and registered with the Oregon Secretary of State as an "Institutionalized News Media Organization" (sic).
UO Matters | Powered by Mantra & WordPress.
Twitter RSS Facebook