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A MUST READ FOR ALL ACADEMICS! Now on Amazon Kindle. Click on Professor Goat above to be directed to the book.
DON'T BE A SHEEP
UT's Officially Disapproved Information Source and HISTORICAL ARCHIVE. The only source of truth, where Paradox Manifests: Hundreds of thousands of visits. Yet No One Admits to Reading It. Welcome to the "Grey Area" where "Unethical Utterances," i.e., criticisms of administrators, are commonplace. Make U.U. here where genuine civility still reigns, a.k.a., freedom......................... UNIVERSITY OF TOLEDO'S EQUIVALENT TO RADIO FREE EUROPE
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NEW!!! Hard Eight by Professor Extreme
HARD EIGHT
Hard Eight: Auto-Ethnographic Essays on Academic Culture Featuring the End of the Arts & Sciences College, University of Toledo, 2010
Daily Koan
Should the newly discovered black hole be named in honor of UT BOT?
Swamp Bubble
Do you agree or disagree that University of Toledo suffers from administrative bloat?
How do you feel about the proposed UT Degree Guarantee program? (Reposted to allow more people to vote.)
How do you feel about the proposed UT Guarantee program?
How would you grade the overall performance of the Jacobs' administration on running the University of Toledo?
COMMENT OF THE WEEK
Bloggie applauds this perspicacious observer:
"The administration is in a panic mode to implement controversial and irreversible structural and curricular changes campus-wide by early February fiscal plan deadlines with only the vaguest notions of their impacts. The plan is, according to an interview with a top administrator published in the most recent Independent Collegian, to cast out many seeds and "see what grows." This experimental garden, as most senators articulated in many different ways, seems a costly recipe for disaster. Utter madness. Stay tuned."
Print Version of Dictionary of Academia Available on Amazon.com
The profound ruminations of the goaty Sage are now available in this 119 page satirical masterpiece. See: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1480292494/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_2?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B009RC0SJA&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1JV8N5BYAYY9WC9SJWD2
"Dictionary of Academia" Read it While it's Hot
A MUST READ FOR ALL ACADEMICS! Now on Amazon Kindle. Click on Professor Goat above to be directed to the book.
Comment of the Week
"This is that old tension between the corporate way of doing things and the academic way of doing things. In the corporate world, you sweep everything under the rug to make your b.s. as shiny, pleasing to the nose, and profitable as possible. In the academic world, you operate with a higher moral standard. Veritas and all that."
Comment of the Week of August 13
Re UT academic posers and hypocrites:
Have their checks calculated in units of postmodern theoretical currency and issued in photocopied legal tender notes signed by Walter Benjamin with a photo of Karl Marx and a seal stamped “In Derrida We Trust”.
Comment of the Era
Wow! Ain't that something.
-Anonymous
Comment of the Week
Mention goes to the the anonymous commentator of Feb 7, who, regarding UT President Llloyd Jacob's "Investing in Faculty" letter, stated: "If we could use the same criteria for 'investing in administrators' we could cut most of those positions."
Comments to HLC
Make sure you address your comments to HLC to the email address listed below in the "Higher Learning Commission Wants to Know" post. This may be the only chance you have to be heard. Bloggie hears that UT administration has discussed giving faculty "training" so that faculty members know how to "properly" talk to the HLC folks. How's that for stacking the deck? Does everyone get a little script to read? Make sure you practice before a mirror at being bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.
Comment of the Week!
Definitely, the Comment of the Week award goes to Anonymous 12:14 pm, Dec 3, under the "Higher Learning Commission Needs to Know" posting by Diogenes. Pithy and pointed!
--Love,
Bloggie
MESSAGE OF THE DAY:
DON'T BE A SHEEP
Independent Collegian Article on Dicey Administrative Spending
IC reporter Casey Cheap looks at bow ties, apartments and movie tickets purchased by UT administrators at university/public expense. See
TO CONTACT BLOGGIE . . .
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Letter and Petition from Foreign Languages Faculty Member
A couple weeks ago, at the beginning of summer break, we in the Department of Foreign Languages were informed that our secretary's position was being eliminated and that while she will not lose her job (she'll be transferred), that position is not to be filled. We apparently will be expected to do our own jobs plus what we can of the secretary's. That is clearly not acceptable, and so one of the steps we in FL are taking against it is an online petition now available for any who want to (including those who for whatever reason--not a registered Ohio voter, not a US citizen, etc.--cannot sign the petition against SB5), to read and sign.
I know not everyone on the blog will be interested in this; I'm not asking anyone who doesn't want to, to sign or even read the petition. I do think that there are many who would be interested and would want to sign it--if they knew about it.
It's scary to post this under my own name; I'm as afraid as anyone of repercussions. But this is simply too important to keep quiet on, and we have to do something! FL is not the first department that this has happened to, and it's almost certain not to be the last if we don't speak up in a way that the administration will hear us and in a way that makes clear that other people are seeing that it's going on.
Here's the link to the online petition:For those who can make it, there will also be an informational meeting--including lunch and petition-signing--next Friday, May 27 in FH 2420, 12:00 - 2:00 p.m.
I know not everyone on the blog will be interested in this; I'm not asking anyone who doesn't want to, to sign or even read the petition. I do think that there are many who would be interested and would want to sign it--if they knew about it.
It's scary to post this under my own name; I'm as afraid as anyone of repercussions. But this is simply too important to keep quiet on, and we have to do something! FL is not the first department that this has happened to, and it's almost certain not to be the last if we don't speak up in a way that the administration will hear us and in a way that makes clear that other people are seeing that it's going on.
Here's the link to the online petition:For those who can make it, there will also be an informational meeting--including lunch and petition-signing--next Friday, May 27 in FH 2420, 12:00 - 2:00 p.m.
Katherine Best
Wave of the Future or Merely Sometime Later This Week?
The Chronicle of Higher Education ran a deeply fascinating article called, "When to Dissolve a Faculty Senate." Apparently this is any time that it becomes "adversarial" to administration.
The online comments to the article are priceless.
Nemeth on Mammon in IC
David Nemeth's most recent tour-de-force
Professor Nemeth has another fabulous and timely article in the new and increasingly wonderful Independent Collegian. See http://www.independentcollegian.com/forum/the-kraken-attacks-1.2340091
Nemeth Does it Again
See the forum article in The Independent Collegian at:
Nemeth's New Article in Collegian
The Independent Collegian has run another of Professor Nemeth's fine and provocative articles in its latest edition. This one discusses the double-talk by mouthpieces for the current UT administration concerning the effects of and reasons behind so-called strategic reorganization. Make sure you get the latest version of Newspeak 5.1 if you want to decode what UT administrators are really saying.
UT Ranks 13th Nationally on Administrative Bloat
See Appendix B of the Administrative Bloat report posted on 8/28 for evidence, but UT now has a higher proportion of administrators to students than all but 12 public universities in America. President Jacobs has finally put University of Toledo in the top tier. With Strategic Organization he may be aiming for number one.
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Recent Letters from The Blade
Jacobs' arrogance is astonishing
Recently, President Lloyd Jacobs of the University of Toledo stated that bonuses were justified because his administrators "took all the risks."
As a professor at UT, I am outraged that President Jacobs claims that administrators take all of the risks. What risks do they take that the other faculty and staffs on campus do not?
Administrators are protected by state and federal employment laws and by their contracts.
When ex-President Vik Kapoor was terminated, he remained a professor with a salary near what he was paid as president.
As president emeritus, Dan Johnson retained a salary greater than his pay as president.
In the recent layoffs, exceptionally few administrators were terminated. It seems to me that low-level personnel at UT have far more risks because the greater proportion of the layoffs have come from their ranks. And they did not have continuing salaries.
President Jacobs' answer to questions on two occasions regarding relinquishing part of his bonus was to the effect that he earned his bonuses and what he did with them was his business.
Administrators do not risk their personal money in their duties: they use taxpayer money and funds collected through donations and grants to the university.
Administrators take home salaries in the hundreds of thousands of dollars and then add bonuses for longevity and whatever else the president decides is fitting for their contracts.
However, the lower-level personnel have much lower salaries and no such bonuses. Where is the risk?
It seems to me that these bonuses are convoluted: The lower-level personnel are taking the greater risks with no bonuses while the administrators with very rewarding jobs with little risk receive large bonuses.
Am I missing something here?
WALTER W. OLSON,
Mechanical, Industrial, and Manufacturing
Engineering,
University of Toledo
It's the same old, same old at UT
I could hardly believe the arrogance of Dr. Lloyd Jacobs, president of the University of Toledo, when a reporter asked if he would be willing to forgo his bonus in light of the layoffs, raise in tuition, etc.
His comment was that he worked for it. Is that to say that the ones being laid off did not work for their pay?
All I can say is, business as usual at UT. Some things never change.
SANDY FLICK
Rose Acres Drive
UT also has checks, balances
In response to letter titled "Professors must focus on teaching," I would like to point out that the University of Toledo operates on the basis of shared governance.
This means that faculty members participate in the administration of the university.
A focus on teaching requires faculty to address administrative issues such as policies, procedures, and yes, finances, because these all affect classroom outcomes. A university with solid and equitable finances benefits everyone, including and especially the students. Just as the U.S. government is constituted to have checks and balances, so is our university government.
The UT-AAUP is one of those checks against UT administrators who most recently have displayed more concern for their own profit rather than a concern for the common good.
LINDA M. ROUILLARD,
Associate Professor
of French,
University of Toledo
Quote of the Year (so far)
The following is excerpted from the recent UT AAUP newsletter concerning the official university response to news of the bonus scandal:
. . . . Either Jacobs is misleading the media or he has misled the Board of Trustees. President Jacobs objected to "the general tone" of the UT-AAUP Newsletter. Many persons on this campus object to the "general tone" of the Jacobs Administration. During his tenure as President, he has introduced an administrative culture of fear and intimidation. . . . A point of logic must be raised here, with all respect to UT AAUP, the conclusions that President Jacobs has (1) misled the media and (2) the Board of Trustees are not mutually exclusive. Both would seem likely given his considerable talent at spinning "visions." |
How to Contribute
The Blog is now under new management, a consortium of ASC faculty who pooled their longevity bonuses to purchase it from its original owners. Your comments are still welcome but look for some changes. Contact: ASCBloggie@gmail.com. Your contributions might include new posts, images, comments to existing articles/posts, concerns about process and substance at UT's College of Arts & Sciences. This blog is entirely non-official, for which you can be thankful, unless you enjoy reading self-serving bureaucratic propaganda, and is intended as a discussion and commentary forum for UT A&S faculty and community.
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A blog is a blog is a blog. Information, comments and opinions found here don't represent official views, instead they represent truthful and sincere ones. If you want the official line on things go elsewhere. This is a discussion and comment page. You may even read things here that you disagree with, and then, maybe not.
ASCBloggie
9 comments:
When do we start calling each other "Genosse" and "Genossin"?
I prefer Kampfgenosse, please.
When University Presidents and their staffs lie, all things are possible at a university.
The University of Toledo is facing budget shortfalls, some of which are known and some of which are not. Because of the lack of transparency of this administration and the refusal of the Chief Finance Officer to put numbers on the problems, the exact amount of the shortfalls is unknown. After talking with three members of the Finance and Strategy Committee, it is reputed that Professor Olson asked at the meeting, "Can we conclude that this university has a potential $15,000,000 shortfall and we are not going to do anything about it until November?" Apparently, he was given an affirmative answer by the Chief Finance Officer.
In at least one area of the shortfall, the public has been lied to by the Senior Administration of the University through their public information offices. At least part of the shortfall is due to enrollments not meeting the budget assumptions. Apparently, the budget was based on 4100 new incoming students. The actual number was less than 3800. Yet this administration allowed a statement to be made on behalf of the university that they expected fewer enrollments due to tightening of the College of Nursing entry requirements. If this statement were true, then why did the Senior Administrators allow a budget to be built on an assumption of 4100 new students? I can only conclude that our Senior Administration did not plan (the budget document is a planning tool) for the shortfall of students that occurred. Nor did they inform the Board of Trustees about this expectation when they presented the budget to the Board. Furthermore, it does not appear that the Board of Trustees, who are fiducially liable for the university, went and questioned our Senior Administration about these inconsistencies.
In court, once a witness lies, all of that witness's statements are subject to question. What else is this Administration lying about?
Bloggie, I commend your use of a historical parallel to illustrate our situation. It continues nicely after Chamberlain-esque attempts at appeasement, which of course did not work as Chamberlain had hoped. And while my first reaction to this was a slight historical correction--the Berlin Wall did not go up until after the fall of Fascism--it was erected under a totalitarian, oppressive regime, and so it does indeed fit.
To Anonymous 6:52 AM. You write:
"Yet this administration allowed a statement to be made on behalf of the university that they expected fewer enrollments due to tightening of the College of Nursing entry requirements."
If this statement is deliberately false, then it is an example of egregious spin created by this university's highly paid public relations (marketing) staff.
Accepting that they are "just doing their jobs" and have hungry mouths to feed at home like everyone else in the campus community, they should not be congratulated or offered bonuses for indulging in such disingenuous, deceptive and manipulative tactics. These are not "best practices" but dirty tricks and shame our administration and Board of Trustees when they are exposed.
So thanks for posting your assessment of these current events and the corruptions our marketing staff indulges from time to time, if not yet on a daily basis.
Someone should seek out the Spin Room and nail the door shut before the Chronicle of Higher Education begins to take its inevitable hard look at our institution, its leadership, and more symptoms of the ethical malaise that seems promoted -- indeed rewarded -- here.
http://www.toledoblade.com/article/20101010/OPINION04/101009491
I don't think anyone thinks that change is necessarily bad. I just say the following:
First, UT has continuously changed without the radical dilettantism of overzealous boards. UT is not the same as it was 100 years ago.
Second, under Jacobs and the radical dillettantism of the current board, UT resembles a patient who has been over-operated on, over-poked, over-proded, over x-rayed, over-medicated, such that is becoming a zombie university. Will someone please get these folks finger out of our collective behind for at least one day?
Third, we seem to be going in a circle.
Fourth, the only thing that seems to change is the number of administrators and their salaries that continue to skyrocket!
Fifth, change must occur together with students, faculty, and staff, not imposed with an iron fist from above. Their collective institutional history and input are important. True, this means slower and more careful change, not a bad thing.
Mr. Fall's argument here that “UT must embrace change” because “change is predestined” is naïve or disingenuous. Either way it insults the Blade’s critical thinkers (if any).
This appearance today of Mr. Fall’s opinion, so full of boilerplate corporate jargon, is disturbing because it offers a justification for a decision that won't be made by the Board members until tomorrow. So much for suspense.
The charge that UT is “stagnant” is an undocumented and unproved accusation that has been repeatedly asserted by President Jacobs (and now for the first time by the chairman of the Board of Trustees). Dr. Jacobs arrived on our academic campus intent on acting in dramatic, progressive moves toward implementing drastic change -- all based on this false assumption.
What a tragi-comedy! Suddenly the new chairman of the BOT breaks silence on behalf of the Board to claim that the "risky" four-year Jacobs-directed proposal process has all along had the imprimatur of the BOT!
Note how this Blade essay conveniently takes President Jacobs “off the hook” for his heavy-handed agency in paving the way to the present decision.
President Jacobs’ tactical retreat from the battlefront to his tent at this time is not responsible leadership and it is not motivated by modesty.
Where were C. William Fall and each and every member of the UT Board of Trustees when concerned members of the campus community repeatedly requested to engage in direct communication with them during the four years it took to develop this restructuring plan? They were hiding behind the President. Now, at this crucial time, the President is hiding behind the Board. What absurd machinations!
Who might fathom to articulate the depth of the deviations and deceits on the part of this administration and the BOT that has led to their final act of solemn dispatch of our Arts & Sciences College? Where is Shakespeare when you need him?
Anon 5:06--thank you for posting this link.
As Fall notes, "The world is constantly evolving"--and so is UT. Change may be inevitable, but it is not "predestined." And "evolving" is a gradual, natural process. What Fall, Jacobs et al. are promoting is cataclysmic, UT being "destined" to wind up in an unrecognizable, mutant UT.
By the way, I find Mr. Fall's essay very poorly written. I don't know if he's simply using words he doesn't really know in the hope of sounding intelligent, or twisting them to suit his purpose, hoping we won't notice. And this from the head of the Board of Trustees--the group who is to determine our A&S future? In any case, it doesn't bode well.
The BOT just voted unanimously to accept President Jacobs' restructuring plan. However, I assure you that we are kicking their butts in some parallel universe. Fight on in this one.
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