Posts tagged as “UO Trustees”

1/7/2015 update: Rumor has it that graduating law student Sam Dotters-Katz tried to keep his position on the board for another year, but a long talk with Randy Geller convinced him it was better to go quietly. UO student government then submitted several names to Governor Kitzhaber, and nominee Helena Schlegel was confirmed by the Oregon Senate just before the December board meeting. Alexandra Wallachy has an interview with her in the Emerald, here:

How have you learned to improve transparency and student outreach?

I would like to see more communication between students, faculty and administration when it comes to our governing body, as I feel that often students are not informed, and thus not aware when important decisions are being made at Board of Trusteees meetings.

Personally, I would like to initiate some of these conversations. Initially, I want to ensure students are aware of the Winter Board of trustees meeting, so they can provide a student perspective and/or opinion on the matters being discussed.

4/28/2014: Dotters-Katz to be replaced as student representative to UO Board of Trustees

Highlight of the day’s meetings: Page down for the live-blog of the Presidential Factors Committee meeting. They are setting up a reasonably open evaluation process for UO presidents starting next month, and setting pay for a new President.

Ginevra Ralph is chair, she runs a tight meeting. She was very cognizant of the need for transparency and the problems with paying a president more than our comparators when staff, OA, and faculty salaries are below comparators.

VPFA Jamie Moffitt really didn’t want to talk about that data. I assume she’s just being modest, since she’s making out pretty well. So here it is, from UO’s own IR website and other easily obtained public sources:

And a snapshot from last year, showing salaries for faculty and some specific central admins at UO versus comparator data:

 The reports from the Wednesday’s committee meetings are here, and from Thursday’s meeting are here.

12/12/2014: The 8AM full board meeting is not off to a good start, given the quotes from Board Chair Chuck Lillis in today’s RG story about UO’s new Sports Product program. They make the University of Oregon Board of Trustees look ridiculous. And a board in their position cannot afford to look any more ridiculous:

… Lillis, however, wasn’t prepared to let the subject of efficiency drop. His friend, retired UO business professor Roger Best, worked at General Electric when Lillis was an executive there, he said.

“He was a world class business school professor,” Lillis said. “In the ’80s he routinely turned down $10,000-a-day as a consultant. He was the executive of a big British firm when he lived in Eugene and he commuted on the Concorde. He has started two businesses and sold them both — and is a very large donor to the university,” Lillis said.

That certainly is an interesting definition of a world class business school professor.

If the university is not going to trust someone like that, Lillis said, who will it trust. “We have this, like, superstar. …

… Barbara Altmann, vice provost for academic affairs, said the various committees gauge the soundness and coherence of proposed programs and ensure that the proposers have a stable line up of courses to guarantee quality for students who pay a lot, especially for business graduate degrees.

8:00 am (other times approx.) RECONVENE PUBLIC MEETING, FORD ALUMNI CENTER, GIUSTINA BALLROOM

Usual live-blog disclaimer: This is my opinion of what people said, meant, or should have said, nothing is a quote unless in quotes.

Notice  |  Agenda  |  Minutes

8.    Overview of Research Funding  
Vice President for Research and Innovation Brad Shelton will give an overview of the University
of Oregon’s funded research programs.

I missed most of it seems pretty similar to last year’s. Shelton is interim VPR, appointed after Espy left for a university that she thought had a better football team. Whoops.

Shelton doesn’t have the research background that would be normal for this job (short vita, no NSF grants) and he’s rather amazingly overpaid. He gives a reasonably informative talk though, and given his control over our limited research funding, no one on the faculty can afford to look cross-wise at him, unless you’ve got a pipeline to that sports product money.

Shelton ends his talk with a note of approval for the changes that Espy made in UO’s research office, and a word of thanks to Mussolini for getting those trains to run on time.

Short version: It was good.

The board listened to the faculty and the students today. More than that, it felt like they heard us. They even responded. They took the administration’s policy-grab motion off the table, until the Senate has had a chance to fix it and restore some semblance of shared governance. Yesterday’s committee meetings were also very positive. It felt like we’ve got the board that we’d hoped we would get, when we supported the legislation to get UO out of OUS.

Here’s hoping Scott Coltrane and Frances Bronet heard us too, because UO is not going to make progress until someone performs a few Johnson Hall defenestrations.

The Board meeting resumes Friday at 8AM with the first item being a presentation from Interim VP for Research Brad Shelton. I expect to live-blog it too.

12/11/2014 Live-blog. Usual disclaimer: my opinion of what people said, meant, or should have said, unless in quotes:

Highlights: Sorry, nope, read it all. Very interesting meeting. I think it’s clear we’ve got a very dedicated and engaged board, and they are quickly learning how UO works and what it needs. From my perspective this meeting showed that an increasing number of trustees now understand that the faculty and students…

Highlights so far today (9/10/2014). Usual disclaimer: Nothing is a quote unless in quotes. Academics and Student Affairs: Packed house for this meeting – including TV. Frank Stahl tells me the mission statement vote is off the agenda. They’re going to use it to try and distract the faculty for…