Tag Archives: Faculty club

Faculty Club challenges coronavirus to Retsina-Ouzo cocktail duel

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Sporting events and exams may be cancelled, but isolated pockets of civilized life shall survive:

Dear Colleagues,

This week is the last week of the term for Faculty Club, which will meet this Wednesday and Thursday from 5:00 to 8:00, then resume meeting in week two of the Spring Term.   As always, all members of the faculty and their guests are welcome.

On Wednesday we mark the retirement, after forty years at the University of Oregon, of campus legend Jeff Hurwit.  An expert in ancient Greek art, he finishes his last UO class this week.  Kristin Seaman (Art History) will be giving the Six-o-Clock Toast and presenting a special gift, while our bartenders have been experimenting with the retsina and ouzo to concoct a new Greek-themed “signature cocktail!”

Thursday, if all the picture-hanging goes according to plan, we celebrate the unveiling of Olga Volchkova’s latest painting, “Saint Salmonberry,” which the artist has temporarily loaned to our club room.   Many of you already know Olga’s work, which is an imaginative and often whimsical take on the Russian icon tradition (her “Saint Cannabis” hung for a while in the same corner that “Saint Salmonberry” will occupy).  The artist will be on hand to chat about the new painting, the icon tradition, or whatever other subjects come up in the ebb and flow of conversation.

As always, we’ll hope to see you, and any guests you’d like to bring, on one or both nights this week.

Yours, James Harper

Chair of the Faculty Club Board

Faculty Club open Wed & Th

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Dear Colleagues,

The Faculty Club will be open this week during the usual hours, with gatherings on Wednesday and Thursday from 5:00 to 8:00.

Wednesday, we will feature the School of Architecture and Environment, the “placemakers” of the UO, with an inspiringly designed, solidly structured Six-o-Clock toast. If you’ve always thought that hanging out with designers would make you “cooler,” come join in!

And Thursday we celebrate the Sustainable Cities Initiative with a gathering of participating faculty and a Six-o-Clock toast from SCI co-director Marc Schlossberg. Come hear about this interdisciplinary academic-community partnership that has impacted municipalities from A(rizona) to Z(ambia).

Hope to see you, and any guests you’d like to bring, one or both nights.

Yours, James Harper
Chair of the Faculty Club Board

Faculty Club Agenda

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Dear Colleagues,

The rains have begun, and midterm grading is lurking around the corner… but let the Faculty Club be your refuge from all storms!

Here are some ways that the Faculty Club can help you:

· Build camaraderie for your department, program or group by organizing an evening at the Faculty Club. We can arrange a system in which you hand drink tickets out to your participants; alternately, you can do this on the cheap, with a “no-host” system. The Faculty Club will always contribute by hosting the hors-d’oeuvres.

· If you want to have a reception after a lecture or event, but don’t want to go to the bother and cost of setting it up yourself, contact us. If it’s a Wednesday or Thursday during the term, we’re already set up–and depending on the anticipated size of your group we can simply add this on to our usual gathering.

This week Wendy Pierpont is hosting a gathering of faculty and staff from the Jacqua Center on Thursday. And on Wednesday, consider dropping in to the Faculty Club prior to the Art Museum’s session (in a room next door) on “Political Cartoons and the First Amendment.” Please come out and join us either evening, or both!

Yours, James Harper
Chair of the Faculty Club Board

PS: And next week, look out for a private tour of the Ralph Steadman exhibition on Wednesday, and our special Halloween celebration (with prizes!) on Thursday.

Faculty Club survives, despite Kevin Reed’s best efforts

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Dear Colleagues,

The Faculty Club opens its doors for the fall term again this week.  We’ll be following the same format as before—a happy hour with complimentary hors-d’oeuvres and a reasonably-priced cash bar, open from 5:00 to 8:00 pm on Wednesdays and Thursdays.

Please come out and join us either day, or both days.  The crowd is cheerful and smart, and colleagues are bound to have great stories to share about their summer adventures.  And you never know who you’ll run in to: last year there were over 800 different faculty members who attended one or more sessions of the Faculty Club!

Yours, James Harper

Chair of the Faculty Club Board

+++++++++++++++++++++++

WHO: The UO Faculty Club is open to all UO faculty—tenure-track faculty, non-tenure-track faculty, library faculty, and OAs tenured in an academic department, as well as people retired from positions in these categories.  Eligible people may bring any guests they like.

WHAT: Cash Bar with beer, wine, liquor and non-alcoholic beverages; complimentary hors d’oeuvres.

WHERE: The Faculty Club meets in a designated room on the ground floor of the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art.  Enter at the museum’s main entrance and turn right; the club room is right off the lobby.

WHEN: Wednesdays & Thursdays 5:00-8:00 pm.  We will meet through the last week of classes in Fall Term (i.e. through December 5); activity will resume in the Winter and Spring terms.

FURTHER INFORMATION: Faculty Club Board Chair James Harper (Dept. of the History of Art and Architecture), [email protected]

Faculty Club: Queer Studies on Wed, Pres Schill & Prov Banavar on Th

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As noted in last week’s post about the Faculty Club, the Thursday session is sponsored by the Senate, and all Senators and all OA’s and classified staff interested in university service and shared governance are invited to come discuss this with the President and Provost. I am hoping for a good turnout. I believe a reminder email with a link to the survey for Senate and committee service will go out tomorrow.

This week’s email from Chairman Harper to the faculty:

Dear Colleagues,

The Faculty Club reopens for the Spring Term this week.

Wednesday, we have the “season opener” – the bell rings at five.  We’ll be featuring the multidisciplinary Queer Studies Minor, with a gathering of participating faculty, friends & allies.  Judith Raiskin (Department of Women’s and Gender Studies), director of the minor, will give the Six o’Clock Toast.

Thursday we kick off a series of Senate-sponsored “Talk to Your Dean” nights.  Over the next two weeks, deans will be on hand to hobnob with faculty over drinks & hors-d’oeuvres.   We’re starting right at the top, with President Michael Schill and Provost Jayanth Banavar.  Both will be there to discuss issues in an informal conversational setting.  The series will continue next week with deans from Arts & Sciences, Education and the Honors College on Wednesday, and deans from Business, Music & Dance and Journalism on Thursday.

Finally, if you’re an enthusiast of Latin American music, consider pairing your visit Thursday with a look at the JSMA’s “Visual Clave” exhibition, which features album cover art in a gallery right across from the Faculty Club room.  At 3:30 pm, exhibition curator Philip Scher (Anthropology & Folklore) will be holding a public conversation with writer/musician/artist/collector/DJ Pablo Yglesias, followed by live music.  Once it’s finished, samba on over to the Faculty Club, grab a mojito and chat up the luminaries!

I hope to see you one or both evenings.

Yours, James Harper

Chair of the Faculty Club Board

+++++++++++++++++++++++

WHO: The UO Faculty Club is open to all UO faculty—tenure-track faculty, non-tenure-track faculty, library faculty, and OAs tenured in an academic department, as well as people retired from positions in these categories.  Eligible people may bring any guests they like.

WHAT: Cash Bar with beer, wine, liquor and non-alcoholic beverages; complimentary hors d’oeuvres.

WHERE: The Faculty Club meets in a designated room on the ground floor of the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art.  Enter at the museum’s main entrance and turn right; the club room is right off the lobby.

WHEN: Wednesdays & Thursdays 5:00-8:00 pm.  We skip Week One of the term, but then meet from Week Two through the last week of classes.

FURTHER INFORMATION: Faculty Club Board Chair James Harper (Dept. of the History of Art and Architecture), [email protected]

GC Kevin Reed believes “toxic” Faculty Club “reeks of white male privilege”

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Update: Shocking photo reveals Faculty Club debauchery, here.

In other news I believe I have learned the real reason for GC Reed’s anger at me, that it has nothing to do with the Faculty Club, and that it will be public eventually.

Update: Thanks to a commenter for reminding me about the 2016 email from Pres Schill and Prof Harper establishing the UO Faculty Club, which I’ve appended to the bottom of this post.

4/3/2019: Over the past year or so I’ve received many angry emails from UO’s $352,612 a year VP & General Counsel Kevin Reed, above, accusing me of various things and threatening me with various forms of retaliation. I’m posting this latest because he cced others, and because it might be of more general interest:

From: Kevin Reed <[email protected]>

Subject: Re: University Service Opportunities

Date: April 3, 2019 at 9:10:31 AM PDT

To: Senate Executive Coordinator <[email protected]>, “William Harbaugh” <[email protected]>, Elizabeth Skowron <[email protected]>

Cc: [names and addresses of OA, SEIU, and ASUO student leaders redacted]

Bill [Senate Pres Harbaugh, me] and Elizabeth [Senate VP Skowron]

I write in my capacity as a proud Officer of Administration at the University of Oregon.  In that capacity, and as a person who is committed to improving the functioning of shared governance at UO,  I write to question your decision to hold “informational sessions” relating to opportunities to serve the Senate at the “Faculty Club.”

The Faculty Club is not open to OA’s, classified staff, GE’s or students.  It is not an environment where any of those crucial constituencies are likely, in my view, to feel welcome or to show up. Neither to I believe it to be a place where members of UO’s marginalized communities feel in the slightest bit welcome. Indeed, the Faculty Club has earned a reputation on campus as being an exclusionary group, dominated by white men.  Exactly the sort of “good ole boys club” I think the Senate would want to distance itself from.  Curiously, however, Senate leadership has chosen to treat it as its clubhouse.

Indeed, a respondent to a recent campus survey on faculty hiring had this to say about the Faculty Club:

“The faculty club – an extension of UO senate and Bill’s blog is a place where gossip takes place in an exclusive zone.  Sidebar conversations empower those who show up to a space that is less than welcoming to anyone outside a core group of faculty. It reeks of white male privilege – even the name Faculty Club is destructive and screams of exclusion and privilege. Why does the UO community not actively resist these toxic activities?”

As an OA who truly thinks UO deserves better, I could not have said it better.  I add, however, that the message this sends is especially toxic in the context of the current budget situation, in which the president has called for significant cuts to programs.  On his blog, the Senate President has been posting conversations that suggest that there is bloat that should be targeted for cuts in the ranks of student workers, classified staff and officers of administration who are dedicated to making this university a safe and highly effective organization.

I believe the University and the Senate deserve better.

Kevin S. Reed

219 Johnson Hall | Eugene, OR 97403-1226

(541) 346-3082 | [email protected]

My response:

Hi Kevin,

Thanks for raising these issues. The email from the Senate should have noted that everyone interested in university service, faculty or not, would be welcome to these events. We’ll fix this in the reminder email, which will come out later this week.

I announce at the end of every Senate meeting that *all* Senators are invited to come to the faculty club afterwards.

I encourage the OA’s, student, and staff leaders to contact me and Elizabeth if they have any concerns or suggestions about this.

Bill Harbaugh
UO Econ Prof & Senate Pres
http://senate.uoregon.edu

Kevin’s response:

The fact that you believe that response to be adequate speaks volumes.

Kevin S. Reed
Vice President and General Counsel
University of Oregon

Email sent 11/1/2016 from President Schill and Professor Harper, establishing UO’s new Faculty Club:

Colleagues,

We are pleased to let you know that at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, November 9, we will open the new University of Oregon Faculty Club in a new designated space in the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art. This idea has been in the works for a number of years, and is meant to provide a place where statutory faculty and their guests can gather in a welcoming and collegial space.

The UO Faculty Club will feature full no-host bar service and complimentary snacks. It will be open from 5 to 8 p.m. on Wednesdays and Thursdays through December 1 and resume operations January 11 at the beginning of the winter term. This effort is a pilot project to determine if the club can support regular service. If it is successful, then we will look at extending operations on a permanent basis.

A faculty club like this is something that faculty members have long requested at the UO. The minor renovations needed to accommodate this pilot effort are in line with the long-term needs of the museum, which will also use the room for other events and occasions.

Ultimately, we believe this could be a great way for faculty at the UO to get to know each other outside of the departments and colleges where most spend their time. While this is a social club, we hope that it is also a catalyst for relationship building and collaboration among faculty across the UO campus.

Regards,

Michael H. Schill
President and Professor of Law

James Harper
Chair of Faculty Club Board

DETAILS

WHO: The UO Faculty Club is open to all UO statutory faculty—tenure-track faculty, career non-tenure-track faculty, and OAs tenured in an academic department—and their guests.

WHEN: 5 – 8 p.m. on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Pilot project dates will be November 9, 10, 16, 17, 30 and December 1. Operation will resume January 11 after the holidays.

AMENITIES: The UO Faculty Club will feature full no-host bar service and complimentary snacks.

CHILDCARE: Enjoy socializing in the faculty club while your child (ages 3+) participates in a drop in art workshop in the museum’s art studio, directly across from the faculty club. Cost is $10 for the first child, $5 for the second sibling. RSVP […]

INFORMATION: Faculty Club Board Chair James Harper (associate professor, History of Art and Architecture), [email protected].

Faculty Club to host President Schill, tonight at 5PM

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Dear Colleagues,

The Faculty Club will be meeting this week, during the usual hours (Wednesdays and Thursdays 5:00-8:00 pm).  We’ll close during Exam Week and Spring Break, and then open again in Week One of the Spring Term.

The Senate-sponsored “Talk to Your Dean Night” series continues this week with a double-header and a presidential appearance.  Yes, that’s right.  Wednesday we’ll have Dean Juan-Carlos Molleda of the School of Journalism as well as Dean Christoph Lindner from the College of Design.  Both deans will be available to chat informally about whatever’s on your mind.  Rumors that the two will settle, in an arm-wrestling match, the age-old question of which school is more “awesome,” are likely false.   Lindner will, however, be offering the Six-o-Clock Toast.

Thursday Michael Schill will be on hand, taking the “Talk to Your Dean Night” series to a presidential level.  With his decidedly non-Caesarian tendencies, our president has little reason to “beware the Ides of March.”  We will, however, be marking the anniversary of Caesar’s death with a Six-o-Clock Toast from Mary Jaeger, Professor of Classics and avowed partisan of the Julio-Claudian dynasty.

Hope to see you either night, or both nights.

Yours, James Harper
Chair of the Faculty Club Board

Faculty Club to host CoE Dean Randy Kamphaus, this Wed 5PM

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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 mind.  The Six-o-Clock toast should be quite “educational.”

Thursday is Mad Libs Night at the Faculty Club — the Six-o-Clock toast is missing some key nouns, verbs, adverbs, and exclamations.  We will discreetly approach attendees, solicit words from them, and then read the resulting text at six.   Mad Libs will, of course, never be as funny as it was when we were ten, but I know we can count on the academic set to nominate some piquant words!

Hope to see you either night, or both nights.

Yours, James Harper
Chair of the Faculty Club Board

Today at 3PM: Senate on Honors College restart, romantic relationships, multicultural

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DRAFT

Location: EMU 145 & 146 (Crater Lake Rooms)
3:00 – 5:00 P.M.

3:00 P.M.   Call to Order

  • Introductory Remarks; Senate President Chris Sinclair
  • Update from Johnson Hall

3:20 P.M. Approval of Minutes, February 14, 2018 & Consent Calendar

3:25 P.M.   Business

  • Clark Honors College; Karen Ford, Divisional Dean for CAS Humanities
  • Discussion: Romantic Relationships; Sonja Boos
  • Motion Intro: Learning Outcomes; Chris Sinclair
  • Multicultual Requirement; Lee Rumbarger, Alison Gash, Avinnash Tiwari and Michael Hames-Garcia

4:50 P.M.   Open Discussion
4:50 P.M.   Reports
4:50 P.M.   Notice(s) of Motion

  • Department Honors

4:50 P.M.   Other Business
5:00 P.M.   Adjourn

And, after adjourning:

Faculty club provides opportunity to buttonhole Banavar, Blonigen, Scher

Last week’s Faculty club sessions with Sarah Nutter (Bus Dean) and Andrew Marcus (CAS Dean) were as close to capacity as I’ve seen the faculty club, although Hal Sadofsky (CAS-Science) blew it off to go skiing – which in my metrics counts as an excused absence.

This Wed we have Jayanth Banavar (Provost), followed Th by Bruce Blonigen (CAS), and Phil Scher (CAS):

Dear Colleagues,

The Faculty Club will be meeting this week, during the usual hours (Wednesdays and Thursdays 5:00-8:00 pm).

On Wednesday the tone will be more literary than ever, as the English Department will be gathering at the corner tables.  Also this week the UO Senate-sponsored “Talk to Your Dean Night” series continues, with key university leaders making themselves available to discuss any and all topics over drinks & hors-d’oeuvres.  Jayanth Banavar (Provost) will be holding forth on Wednesday, and Bruce Blonigen (Dean of Faculty for CAS) will be hosting on Thursday—come chat them up and see what “makes them tick.”

Hope to see you either night, or both nights!

Yours, James Harper
Chair of the Faculty Club Board

+++++++++++++++++++++++

WHO: The UO Faculty Club is open to all UO statutory faculty—tenure-track faculty, career non-tenure-track faculty, and OAs tenured in an academic department, as well as people retired from positions in these categories.  Eligible people may bring anyone they like as guests.

WHAT: Complimentary hors d’oeuvres and coffee; cash bar with beer, wine, liquor and non-alcoholic beverages.

WHERE: The Faculty Club meets in a designated room on the ground floor of the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art.  Enter at the museum’s main entrance and turn right; the club room is right off the lobby.

WHEN: Wednesdays 5:00-8:00 pm; Thursdays 5:00-8:00 pm, from through the end of the Winter Term.

CAS Deans Marcus, Sadofsky & Blonigen invite you to the Faculty Club

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Also LCB Dean Sarah Nutter will be there on Wed night.

What a great idea:

To:                         CAS Faculty

From:                    Andrew Marcus

Re:                         CAS nights at the Faculty Club: Thursday, February 22 & Thursday, March 1

The CAS Deans will be joining the Faculty Club on two upcoming nights for conversation and socializing:

Thursday, February 22nd from 5:00 – 6:30 pm: Andrew Marcus and Hal Sadofsky

Thursday, March 1st from 5:00 – 6:30 pm: Bruce Blonigen

The Faculty Club operates weekly in the Marché space at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art. I hope you will be able to drop by and visit with us.

This CAS night at the Faculty Club is a joint effort between the University Senate and the CAS Dean’s Office. Chris Sinclair and Bill Harbaugh (Senate President and Vice President) are looking for ways to encourage more faculty to run or volunteer for positions on the Senate or any of the Senate’s 30+ committees. Bruce and I are always interested in talking with you about college matters, and we also want our faculty to seek out ways to provide service to the university. Our hope is that this forum will allow you to do both in a relaxed and informal setting.

The University Senate is scheduling similar events this term for as many of the colleges and schools as possible as it prepares for elections and the selection of committees that will occur during Spring Term. In addition, the Senate has arranged for Provost Jayanth Banavar to be the featured guest at a Faculty Club drop-in event on Wednesday, February 28th and for President Mike Schill to appear on Thursday, March 15th. You are certainly invited to attend on those nights as well.

We hope to see you on an upcoming Thursday.

Sincerely,

W. Andrew Marcus, Tykeson Dean for Arts and Sciences, cas.uoregon.edu

UO Faculty Club still has 100 free tickets for Donald Trump event

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The chair of the UO Faculty Club’s Refreshments and Entertainments Committee has asked me to post this message:

Dear UO Faculty Club Members:

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump will be speaking at the Lane County Fairgrounds on Friday. His campaign organization has sent the Faculty Club 100 free tickets for this important event. I think it’s a shame that no one has yet taken me up on these free tickets, despite my repeated emails.

Good faculty turnout might give us some much needed goodwill should Mr. Trump be elected and then appoint Dr. Ben Carson as Secretary of Education, as is the conditional expectation.

UO Board of Trustees Chair Chuck Lillis gave $5,000 to Carson after Carson went on Meet the Press to argue that the Department of Education should encourage students to report professors with extreme political biases for investigation. The video is on youtube here.

I know some of you are not entirely enthusiastic about Trump or Carson, or for that matter Lillis, but zero faculty turnout is just going to give them another story to use about how tenured deadwood extremist liberal professors won’t listen to mainstream political views. This is not going to help UO’s brand.

And yes, I did ask, and I’ve been promised that Trump’s pitch for those Florida time-share condos will be brief. So please email the club’s Refreshments and Entertainments staff at [email protected] if you are interested in attending.

Thanks.

AAU, Bean, Espy rumors

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The latest rumors, from the faculty club hookah room:

UO is now on an unofficial AAU watch list for underperformance – not enough federal grants or grad students. Johnson Hall is going to try and hang our expulsion on the faculty, or the union, or the weather, but we all know where Frohnmayer and Bean spent our research money – athletics and a pack of stupid pet projects.

The faculty are no longer wondering about Bean’s wisdom in hiring a VP for Research from Nebraska, the most recent university to be dropped by the AAU. Instead people are openly calling this the last mistake Gottfredson should ever let Bean make. After some high profile science departures and botched searches, Bean has a classic Dilbert response: he’s hired an “executive coach” to teach Espy (whom we pay $295,000) how to do her job.

I’d make a public records request for that contract, but what’s the point? Everyone knows the score, we just don’t understand why Gottfredson is leaving these two in the game. Tublitz’s Senate motion on Interim Provost Bean is Jan 16th. Should be a fun debate – and yes Jim, the video will be on youtube. 12/11/12.

And a commenter points us to this RFP that UO put out 2 weeks ago, for a consulting firm to do what Espy and her new hires are supposed to do. In FY 2011 the VPR’s Office Admin budget had $437,430 for admin salaries. For FY 2013, Espy’s got $1,111,007 to spend. Full report here. The consultants are on top of that. As a commenter notes:

Look at Acct code 20000 – Service and Supplies. That’s Espy’s black hole of consulting:
2011 $2,164,191
2012 $4,546,478
2013 $5,154,632

Speaking of administrative bloat, does anyone know what happened with that multi-million dollar Huron consulting contract? Is it worth me getting attacked by Dave Hubin and Jamie Moffitt for making too many public records requests? If so, you know what it takes for me to dull that pain.