Portland State faculty senate demands to see university budget

PSU story here:

The Faculty Senate also passed a resolution Monday demanding that the university provide faculty with a copy of the all-funds budget, which would include detailed line items. The motion passed 48 to 0 vote, with four abstentions, says Bob Liebman, presiding officer of the Senate.

Their union is bargaining with their administration, which seems to be pulling the same sorts of stunts Moffitt, Gottfredson and Rudnick – whoops, I mean “The University” – pulled on the UO faculty union:

PSU fires 40 managers?

4/13/2012: That’s the rumor, from an anonymous correspondent. They recently hired a rather controversial VPFA, Monica Rimai. And their website reports some serious budget problems. UO’s operations in Portland are also not doing well either – reportedly losing $3.5 million a year. Good thing we didn’t let Frohnmayer and Bean buy that $1 million dollar reindeer sign.

President gives faculty raises, keeps job.

12/20/2011. Last week it was Ed Ray at OSU. Now it’s Wim Weiwel at PSU. Next week I suppose we’ll learn that Pernsteiner did it too. From the Bill Graves Oregonian story:

Portland State University faculty will get as much as a 4.1 percent pay raise for each of the next two years under a tentative contract agreement reached with administrators Monday.

The agreement, which union members must still vote on, affects the 1,288 full-time teaching and research faculty who belong to the American Association of University Professors.

Wim Wiewel, PSU president, said he would like to see faculty – who are paid well below professors at comparable universities – get more. …

They are unionized. I haven’t heard a peep from the UO faculty union organizers as of late. The most recent post on their website is almost a month old. I thought they were going to seize the moment and start a card check in January. Anyone know what is going on?

PSU hires a new VP for Finance

5/25/2011: Jack Bogdanski is not impressed:

Her name is Monica Rimai, and she comes to Portlandia from the State University of New York, where she was the chief operating officer. She was at SUNY for just a year and a half; she was reportedly making $325,000 a year there, along with (for a while) a $60,000-a-year housing allowance, which apparently she gave up after a nasty flap arose about how much she and some other bigwigs were being paid.

Sounds like she and Pernsteiner should get along just fine.