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UO Matters

Is college worth it?

For a lower bound, let’s ignore the substantial non-pecuniary and external benefits, and just look at pay. The NYT reports: What can a college professor or staff or OA do about the later problem? Volunteer to help with UO’s rapidly expanding SAIL program.

Wanted: A Gentleman with Elbows

According to today’s WSJ story, Richard Lariviere is busy. But you know the UO Trustees want him, or someone like him, to lead UO. And I’m guessing that plenty of the 6700 faculty, staff, alumni and boosters who signed the petition to protest the 2011 firing of Lariviere are telling UO’s new Trustees that a timid paper pusher like Gottfredson is not what they want:

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But first we’ve got to get rid of the interminably passive-aggressive Mike Gottfredson:

5/19/2014 update: Why Mike Gottfredson will be resigning as UO President 

Why didn’t OUS ask the UO faculty and Senate for feedback on Gottfredson’s performance?

This seems like the sort of information that the UO Trustees will want to have on hand, when they take control July 1. Gottfredson’s self evaluation is due June 1. The UO board’s academic committee meets this Th, 12:30PM in Hedco. From Gottfredon’s contract with OUS: At many universities these reviews are public as…

University president says no to new athletic facilities

Breaking news here. A university spokesman rejected the proposed sports facility, saying the top priority is state investment on campus: “Such investment is critical to creating the best possible experience for our students and for creating the kind of infrastructure needed to advance discoveries.” “At this time, there is not sufficient public support…

Senate on May 28 to cover freedom, sexual violence, student conduct, athletics,

5/27/2014 Academic Freedom update: Gottfredson is scheduled to address the Senate on Academic Freedom. He doesn’t want to enshrine the freedom of non-faculty UO employees and students to criticize UO policies – an objection he raised at the last minute, after many months of negotiation with the Senate committee. But…

Video of students, faculty speaking about UO’s sexual violence problem at the 5/21 Senate meeting.

5/22/2014: There are so many powerful, honest statements in this video. Link here and below. I don’t know where to start. If you comment, please post the time in the video. The UO Trustees are meeting June 12-13 and the signup for making public comments is here. I expect that several of the speakers in this video will also speak there, providing a direct refutation, to the people who can fire him, of Gottfredson’s 5/14 attack on his faculty, staff, and student critics:

“… some have speculated that we are not acting in the best interest of the university and that student safety has been compromised. Or that we turn a blind eye toward misconduct, or that we would tolerate, for one moment, sexual violence and intimidation on our campus. These assumptions are patently false, and such speculations are very, very inappropriate.”

5/21/2014: Open forum lasts 2 & 1/2 hours. Gottfredson’s story gets no support from students, faculty, administrators:

Sports writers start to catch on to Altman’s sleazy recruiting

Pat Forde in Yahoo Sports. He starts with a fawning quote from Lorraine Davis, President Gottfredson’s special assistant and probably the person in charge of vetting the Brandon Austin transfer: This is what Oregon interim athletic director Lorraine Davis said when Altman was hired in 2010: “In addition to the hiring…

Gottfredson hiding costs of rape investigation and cover up.

Gottfredson’s General Counsel’s office hides Rudnick and Frohnmayer’s HLGR bills under “Misc services and supplies”. That $462K does not include the most recent invoices. What’s that $65K under “other professional services”? Hmm, good question. From what I can tell that was in March, as was about $60K of “Misc”. Aprils…

Mike Gottfredson acknowledges union role in new benefits

Word from inside JH is that the funds will come from cutting “bowl game junket benefits” for Lorraine Davis, Robin Holmes, Tim Gleason, and of course Randy Geller: Dear Colleagues, I am very pleased to announce our plan to enact new and expanded benefits for unrepresented faculty members and officers of administration, effective…