Gottfredson's homework is 4 weeks late, still doesn't address the issues.

6/17/2013: Today I got this email:

From: President Gottfredson
Subject: RE: Protect and Preserve Shared Governance at UO
Date: June 17, 2013 3:03:25 PM PDT
To: William Harbaugh  

Dear Colleague, 

Thank you for your email about the ongoing faculty contract negotiations. I agree that this first-ever collective bargaining agreement is critical as it will become part of the foundation upon which we will build the university's future. I believe both sides have taken great care and have been thoughtful and deliberate in their negotiations. We are all concerned that the university have outstanding compensation in order to recruit and retain the best faculty in the world. At this point, all proposals to be discussed are on the table and I'm optimistic that a sound, fiscally responsible and fair agreement will be reached soon. 

I appreciate your concern and want you to know that I am proud to be a part of this great university. 

Regards,
Michael Gottfredson
President

It's not like I was expecting a personal response to the email below, sent almost a month ago, but these platitudes are just insulting. "best faculty in the world" "proud to be part of this great university"? If I got this from a student I'd tell them they'd be better off just taking a zero.

From: Professor Bill Harbaugh [mailto:harbaugh@uoregon.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, May 22, 2013 8:38 AM
To: President Gottfredson
Subject: Protect and Preserve Shared Governance at UO

Dear President Gottfredson: 

I am very concerned about the lack of explicit protections for faculty governance in SB270 bill, and by your continuing refusal to consider inclusion of the UO Constitution in the faculty CBA. 

I think the bill should be amended to include these protections, and also to add 2 faculty members to the independent boards, with these members to be selected by the faculty senates. I also think you should aquiesce to the almost unanimous vote of the UO Senate and agree to put the Constitution in the faculty union CBA. Your arguments against this are very weak. 

I've been disappointed by your lack of communication with the faculty over the progress and content of this bill. I understand that it has been a difficult process to get this legislation as far as it has gone, and that transparency is not always helpful to legislation. 

But you have been on campus less than a year. Many faculty have been here 10,20,30 years. We have a large stake in the operation and success of the university. You need to talk to us about matters that are this important, and you need to do it before the last minute, when it's too late for us to have any effective input. 

Sincerely
Professor Bill Harbaugh 

Lavish stadium spending sparks protests, tear gas and rubber bullets

6/17/2013:

Protesters showed up by the thousands ... evolved into a broader movement by groups and individuals irate over a range of issues including ... lavish new stadium projects. 

In images shared widely on social media, the police here were seen beating unarmed protesters with batons and dispersing crowds by firing rubber bullets and tear gas into their midst.

Whoops, never mind, that's in Brazil. Here in Eugene everyone's cool with Phil Knight's plan to spend $5 million on new landscaping at Autzen. It's tax deductible of course, since nothing supports UO's academic mission like a prettier football stadium. Meaning the rest of us taxpayers will foot half the bill for this gift, just as we did for Knight Arena. Or the government can just cut back on spending for things like Pell grants.

Help UO students see Gottfredson's official calendar

6/7/2013: Dave Hubin's public records office is trying to charge our students $240 to see the most recent 5 months of their president's official calendar, claiming there's not enough public interest to justify a fee waiver. Please donate below to help them out:

Donate $5 to pay Pres Gottfredson's public records fees

Bar investigates Rudnick, Geller and Gary for alleged bill padding

6/17/2013: Still no summer bargaining schedule. I'm hoping it's because Gottfredson is busy hiring a new bargaining team. Meanwhile Barbara Altmann rips into Gordon Sayre's op-ed on her fact check site, here:

Sayre also is incorrect about the salary increase the University has proposed to the faculty union. The University has proposed increasing salaries for tenure-track and tenured faculty an average of 10.3% through June 2015 and for non-tenure-track faculty by 11.37%. 

The University and its president remain committed to increasing faculty compensation and to strengthening the UO’s standing as one of the nation’s premier public research universities.

Sure sounds like they've given up on the AAU. Wonder when they tell the faculty?

6/12/2013 update. I'm not the only person who's unhappy with what Rudnick and Gary charged the taxpayers. Oregon AG Ellen Rosenblum appealed the $550,000 in HLGR billings to the Oregon Court of Appeals back in July 2012 - apparently one of her first official acts - and it's still in court. More docs soon:

EOU, SOU, and OIT want more flesh.

6/16/2013: And are holding up SB 270 until they get it. The RG has the story from Jonathan Cooper of the AP. In totally unrelated news, the AP reports that bite marks are too unreliable to be used in court.

AAU update. RG calls out Gottfredson and Hubin on public records fees and delays.

Update: Can Oregon's flagship university stay in the AAU? If so what do we need to do? That seems like a question of public interest. But not to President Gottfredson, whose public records office is trying to charge UO student journalists $94 for the records:

Public records fees charged by the UO continue to hamper the newspaper’s ability to get records that student reporters need, Stites said. For example, the UO said the Emerald would have to pay $94 for copies of correspondence between UO President Michael Gottfredson, Provost Jim Bean and the American Association of Universities, Stites said. 

“We haven’t been able to get it yet because we can’t scrape up the money because we’ve already used so much money on other public records,” he said.

At Gottfredson's previous university, UC-Irvine, these sorts of records would be available at no charge. The University of Nebraska, the last university to get kicked out of the AAU, can charge for the pro-rated cost of the pdf scanner and the electricity it uses, but nothing else. Under Gottfredson UO has *never* waived fees on the basis of public interest.

And for the Potemkin Village press release story of UO's public records office, check out Friday's report in "Around the 0".

6/16/2013: President Gottfredson seems hell-bent on raising journalists's suspicions about the legislation for an independent UO Board. Diane Dietz of the RG has the latest story, which emphasizes the continued stalling by Dave Hubin and Gottfredson on a Senate Transparency Committee recommendation to give student journalists fee waivers, so that they can get information about UO and keep the students informed:

Harry B. Miller should ask for a refund

6/16/2013: Those who have heard Bean babble on about online-ed and MOOCs will love this proposal for MOOAs. (Thanks to commenter for link.)

And by popular demand here's the budget for LCB: Instructional salary expenditures up 44% since 2008, administrative costs up 194%. And that's before the $320K + OPE beamer is back on the payroll, and all the new hiring that Dean Kees gets into below. Oh wait, Bean will probably get most of his money from the instructional account. Hilarious.

6/15/2013. I'm speechless. I like the banjo though, even if it's missing a string ;).

Harry B. "Ham" Miller	James C. "Beamer" Bean	C. "Kees" de Kluwyer

I'll get Bean's contract in July, but I'm guessing he will get $320K, and keep the JH parking spot for his beamer. President Gottfredson should be embarrassed. LCB Dean Kees de Kluyver is shameless. Ham Miller was a central Oregon lumberman, great history and photos of the family business here. Read the entire letter from de Kluwyer on how Bean will escape his teaching responsibilities, and other LCB news:

2.      Jim Bean returns to LCB. As you know, Jim Bean will return to LCB on July 1 as the Harry B. Miller Professor of Business. For this summer and the 2013-2014 academic year Jim will still have significant central administrative responsibilities related to (a) preparing  bylaws and staffing proposals for an independent UO board, (b) developing a systematic plan to enhance the presence at the UO of faculty in scientific and technical fields, especially those with research and teaching interests in transformational areas, (c) shaping UO capital campaign objectives, and (d) continuing the planning for the White Stag facility and development of campus interests in Portland.

Jim will also hold the title of Associate Dean for Interdisciplinary Programs in LCB. In this (part-time) role he will lead the development of a proposal for a Portland-based UO interdisciplinary graduate (Masters) degree program in Sports Product Management. The proposal calls for this cutting edge program to be offered by LCB, in conjunction with faculty from A&AA, SoJC and the Law School. In the development of this proposal, Jim will be working with Ellen Devlin (consultant), Roger Best (Emeritus faculty) and the Warsaw Center faculty and staff on the design of the program, with UO Portland staff on issues of space and administrative support, and with myself, the Deans of A&AA and Journalism, and the UO’s Senior Vice Provost on issues of implementation, staffing and funding.

Full email:

From: Kees de Kluyver <kees@uoregon.edu>

Subject: Thank You for Another Great Year!

Date: June 14, 2013 4:24:13 PM P

UO students create political tumblr

6/16/2013: Some pretty funny and nasty video clips about UO student politics, mostly incomprehensible to people who haven't watched a movie since, uh, Patton.

"Asked and answered" with Greg Rikhoff

6/16/2013 update: It's not an official opinion from the GC's office, but I have a feeling it's all that we're going to get. Obviously today's embarassing RG story on public records at UO is the only way to get President Gottfredson to move:

On SundayJun 16, 2013, at 11:53 AM, Gregory Rikhoff wrote: 

Professor Harbaugh,
I’ve had opportunity to talk with the Office of the General Counsel so please consider this your clarification. Public meetings and public records law will apply to a university just as it does now without interruption.  They will apply to the governing board as soon as the board is confirmed by the State Senate.

Hope this helps,
Greg Rikhoff

They could still weasel out by saying that the law applies, but doesn't require open meetings until the board actually starts governing in 2014. And looking at UO's current practices, that would hardly be a surprise.

I've still only got a partial answer on President Gottfredson's "Budget Advisory Group" asked on 5/21/2013. Neither Rikhoff, Moffitt, or Shelton will give the BAG charge or agenda. However the faculty union did learn a little - see page 4 of this doc, which they were able to extract from Moffitt during bargaining. Basically the BAG deals with the small change that's leftover from Shelton's budget allocation model. If UO even has a process for setting long-run budget priorities they aren't letting the faculty get within a mile of it.

6/11/2013: Samantha Matsumoto has a story in the ODE on Greg Rikhoff's appointment as Chief of Staff, here.

Deb Carver is retiring as Dean of Libraries

6/15/2013: Effective 3/31/2014, national search for a replacement to begin over the summer, thanks to several readers for passing along the email.

Steve Duin on unpaid internships

6/15/2013: In the Oregonian, here:

... And Brad Avakian, Oregon's labor commissioner, assures me he is anxious to prosecute an equally egregious case here. 

"If an intern comes to us and says, 'I think I'm doing free work for my employer,' we will investigate the case," Avakian said Friday. "If they are there for the benefit of the employer, and not their educational experience, we will order the employer to pay them what they're owed. 

"I don't have to go to a court ... (or) the attorney general's office. All the authority is invested in my position."

Start with the football players: unpaid internships with brain damage.

Dev Sinha to replace O'Fallon as NCAA Faculty Athletics Representative?

6/14/2013: President Gottfredson has to decide who will replace retired UO law professor Jim O'Fallon very soon. O'Fallon has been the FAR for 23 years - since back when he actually was faculty - without ever going through a performance review. This is a clear violation of OUS rules, and in addition the 2004 UO Task Force Report on Athletics - signed by Dave Frohnmayer and then AD Bill Moos - specifically called for a review of O'Fallon.

Bullet point #2:

This never happened. O'Fallon's contract is here. His current deal is set to expire in two weeks: 

The FAR job is a pretty sweet one for a professor who likes sports and junkets to the UO games - paid for out of the academic budget of course. Rumor down at the faculty club horse barn is that the jockeying to replace O'Fallon has begun in earnest. Prominent among likely contenders would be former Intercollegiate Athletics Committee chair Dev Sinha, who recently demonstrated his loyalty to the Ducks with this impassioned 32 page powerpoint to the UO Senate, opposing the motion to get the athletic department to follow Task Force recommendation #1 on contributions to the academic side (posted with permission):

You can catch Dev's lengthy speech to the Senate, cut short by President Kyr out of mercy to the Senate and Prof Sinha, here:

Unfortunately for professor Sinha the motion to end the subsidies and start the contributions passed 19 to 4, so it seems unlikely the Senate would be happy with his appointment. 

Other likely contenders include UO law professor Rob Illig, in his second year on the IAC, and biology professor and former IAC Chair and UO representative to the Coalition on Intercollegiate Athletics Nathan Tublitz. Or President Gottfredson could appoint longtime Duck booster Lorraine Davis, an AD designee to the IAC who never shows her face, and whose current contracts are also set to expire in a few weeks:

Is UO doing enough to catch and punish cheating students?

6/13/2013: It's finals week and I've heard a lot of frustrations from faculty and students about the increased level of cheating at UO and the perceived lack of enforcement by the Office of Student Conduct. A student journalist has made a public records request for data on expulsions. If anyone has stories feel free to post them here, leaving out any identifying student information, of course.

UO deserves better from president

6/13/2013: An Op-Ed in the RG by prof of English and former senate president Gordon Sayre:

... We may never know why Lariviere was fired, but it seems obvious where Gottfredson’s priorities lie: He wants a UO board stacked with wealthy donors such as Nike co-founder Phil Knight or his allies. The unstated promise is that these boosters will give millions to the UO that they were unwilling to give before they could be appointed to the board. 

Yet for nearly a decade Knight himself has given money only for UO athletics, not for our academic mission. In light of that history, what should the UO, and Eugene, really expect from an independent UO board? President Gottfredson needs to deal openly with UO faculty, staff and students and clarify his plans and priorities for budgets, tuition, salaries and academic excellence.

If you want to get a glimpse of how Phil Knight, the biggest supporter of an independent UO board, might treat ours, watch this video of this talk at Joe Paterno's memorial, "Who are the Real Trustees?":

This Oregonian story reports that Knight has appointed Duck athletics booster Pat Kilkenny as trustee of several Nike stock trusts. Not exactly a good sign for the academic side for anyone who has followed Kilkenny's successful efforts to use academic money to subsidize sports.

If you want an honest discussion of the pros and cons of independent boards, read this letter from OSU's president, Ed Ray, or watch this video:

Applied garbology

6/12/2013: Need a very used couch? Eugene's HS students have a great idea, straight out of the pages of my favorite archaeology book.

And while I'm off topic, check out Around the O for the most dissonant headline I've ever read:

Computer professor scores trifecta with committee posts

But actually, these seem to be the committees that now run the world.

PERS follies get recursive

6/12/2013: From Hannah Hoffmann in the SJ:

Public sector retirements this year are up 54 percent over last year, according to statistics kept by the Public Employees Retirement System. Workers say the proposed cuts in the legislature are driving their early exits. 

PERS spokesman David Crosley said 2,305 public sector employees retired last year between January and June. This year, 3,539 people have retired between January and June.

Fortunately Salem has announced they will not raise the cost of dulling the pain.

6/8/2013: From Harry Esteve and Christian Gaston in the Oregonian:

Revenue: Lawmakers would approve $275 million in additional spending by reducing medical care tax breaks given to the elderly; increasing cigarette or beer taxes; lowering personal income tax deductions; and raising corporate tax rates.

PERS: In addition to the $460 million savings approved last month in Senate Bill 822, the state would save $440 million by further reducing cost-of-living increases for retirees and by changing the payout formula for workers who are no longer in the PERS system.

Penny Daugherty to resign as AAEO Director?

6/12/2013. That's the rumor, but instead she'll probably get another raise. I wonder if she's going to get UO's Affirmative Action Plan prepared on time this year? She's failed to do that almost every year since she was hired, which puts UO out of compliance with federal law. Sometimes she just blows it off entirely. Last year she was late again, though you wouldn't catch that from President Gottfredson's signature on it, unless you happened to know he wasn't hired until August 1, 2012:

Who didn't see this coming?

6/10/2013: Architect of Kitzhaber's education plan plans to leave. Nigel Jaquiss has the scoop in WWeek. Some search firm sure took us on this guy - I wonder if they also handled the Medgar Evers presidential search?

Students propose higher tuition, faculty raises

6/10/2013, at the University of Washington:

Students on the advisory committee, along with student-government leaders, said if lawmakers won't give more state dollars to higher education, students would support a 3 percent tuition increase for in-state undergraduates -- or about $322 -- in 2013-14, and another 3 percent increase the next year. Total tuition and fees are currently about $12,400.   

A tuition increase of 3 percent could pay for a 2 percent raise for faculty and staff in the next school year and a second 2 percent the following year.   

Administrators affirmed the importance of the faculty salary issue. "Our No. 1 concern is compensation. After four years, we really are at the risk of losing some talented people," said UW budget director Paul Jenny.  

UW administrators admit that low pay is a problem for retention. Here at UO, VPAA Doug Blandy regularly denies that faculty are leaving UO over low pay, despite the fact that a full professor at UW is paid about 12% more than at UO. UO pay actually fell last year for assistant and associate professors. More data here.

Pernsteiner evicted from Treetops mansion, accuses Lane County Clerk of "specious challenge to my citizenship"

6/8/2013: Sorry, long story. Lane County Clerk Cheryl Betschart, who is in charge of elections and investigating illegal voting, recently sent former OUS Chancellor George Pernsteiner a form asking if he really should be voting in Lane County. He sent back this response:

Yup, that's our former Chancellor, accusing the Lane County Clerk of making a "specious challenge to my citizenship and residency".

Specious? Really? Pernsteiner has been living at the Treetops Mansion at 2237 Spring Boulevard since 2004, courtesy of Oregon college student's tuition money. At 6,389 square feet it's the second largest house in Lane County. Maintenance is $150K or so a year. Our students also spring for Pernsteiner's maid service.

Except Pernsteiner doesn't really live there. He just pretends he does. If he doesn't, the house goes back to the heirs of Campbell Church, a rather remarkable man who made his fortune in the Alaskan gold rush: