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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.
This Blog is a free and independent information source. Contributions and comments are welcome. Contact: ASCBloggie@gmail.com WARNING AND DISCLAIMER !!!! This blog is entirely non-official!! People may express opinion here, exercising freedom of speech and association.
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." |
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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
16 comments:
Student Loan Debt Is Now the Second Largest National Household Debt After Home Mortgages:
http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2011/10/26/The-Huge-Student-Debt-Burden-Obama-Wants-to-Lift.aspx#page1
Student Loan Debt Has Climbed Over 500% Since 1999 – a 6-fold increase (compared to only a 3-fold increase in mortgage loans over a similar period during the housing boom and bust):
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/08/chart-of-the-day-student-loans-have-grown-511-since-1999/243821/
Obama Announces Student Loan Rescue Program –
More of your hard earned tax dollars at work propping up an unsustainable liberal education system and helping “re-distribute” wealth in the form of government-subsidized bribes to underwrite the Obama re-election campaign:
file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/owner/Desktop/Obama%20To%20Announce%20Student%20Loan%20Relief%20Plan%20_%20Fox%20News.htm
“The trouble with socialism is, sooner or later you run out of other people’s money.” – Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, citing the great Austrian economist Friedrich Hayek’s book, ‘The Road to Serfdom’.
And that’s exactly where we’re at now, folks. WE have run out of OPM (other people’s money).
Student loans are the No. 2 source of U. S. household debt after home mortgages according to the White House.
Obama calls for government backed relief and refinancing of student loan debt.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/10/26/obama-to-announce-plan-to-reduce-student-loan-payments/
Obama’s Notes to Self:
1) Ignore the impending national debt default and raise the U. S. debt ceiling;
2) Accept the first national credit rating downgrade in history and continue borrowing from the Chinese (or Sicilian Mafia if necessary);
3) Use trillions in taxpayer money we don’t have (remember to tell the Fed to keep the printing presses running) to buy-off youth, women, minorities, public sector and other core Democrat voting blocks by:
A) Trying short term unsustainable delay tactics and appeasement fixes of the government-caused home mortgage and student loan and unemployment and healthcare catastrophes;
B) Blaming everything on George Bush, the Tea Party and Sarah Palin.
4) Go to fancy fundraisers with Democrat Wall Street, Washington, Hollywood, Media and Academia millionaire and billionaire power elites.
5) Take lots of presidential vacations – play golf, basketball, etc. – pose for photo ops, etc.
6) Win re-election in 2012.
7) During second term, continue bankrupting the U.S.A. with unsustainable liberal policies – play basketball with friends.
8) Leave office in 2016 (unless Libs have managed to pass Constitutional Amendment allowing me to rule for life). Ride off into the sunset, write my memoirs and let coming generations suffer the consequences of my presidency.
9) Watch contentedly from my retirement mansion in Chicago as the U. S. finally sinks into total oblivion.
10) Find comfort in knowing I played a vital role working on the inside in realizing the culmination of Marxist dreams – the downfall of capitalism and America.
Reagan 8 years, Bush Sr 4 years, Clinton 8 years, Bush Jr 8 years, Obama for not even 3 years.
Republicans have had a clear majority in the House for the last year and have enough votes in the Senate to scuttle any legislation they don't like.
Yes somehow Obama is to blame for everything, including nothing being done, and somehow he managed to ruin everything in the year or so he was President and his party had cotrol of both houses.
These days he can't get a bill stating the sky is blue passed in Congress.
Makes comeplete sense.
The current American political morass is starting to resemble Ancient Rome's Gracchi period. Maybe the humanities do have something we could learn from.
Bloggie, I am very glad to see that you are a fan of "Honest Abe" Lincoln, who was known to be an animal lover--so much so, that he had a mole on his cheek.
I wonder if it worth pointing out to the poster that a 400% growth in student loan debt occurred before Obama took office? And that the 500% growth since 2001 mirrors the declines in state funding support to public colleges during the period, in both Democratic and Republican controlled state governments during that period, resulting in the need for students to turn to federal student loans, and not just since January 2009. Do the Republicans have any ideas for making higher education move affordable, the student debt crisis, and the federal deficit besides cutting taxes for the wealthy and blaming Obama? Just wondering......
I wonder how much bonus the mole gets? Is he now in charge of DL?
Nah, he is looking for the books in the Library that we used to have.
Toledo area poverty rate worst in U.S.
'Extremely poor' in region jumped 15.3% since 2000
http://www.toledoblade.com/Economy/2011/11/03/Toledo-area-poverty-rate-worst-in-U-S.html
Welcome to the 21st century world of Mad Max.
Thank you liberal politics, Obamanomics and hip-hop “culture.”
Keep up the great work, you gangstas!
Vote for Marcy Kaptur and Barack Obama!
Vote NO on Issue 2!
Recall Kasich!
Yipeee!!
Here's to the continuing power of AFSCME, CWA, and AAUP! *clink*
I hope, perhaps too optimistically, that Ohio voters have given ole' Jake something to think about.
Yeah. Already he is thinking about abolishing the Faculty Senate.
Why abolish the Senate? It is irrelevant and provides a facade for shared governance.
He abolished the Arts and Sciences Council. And the Senate still has the potential do say or do something that matters. It is a threat and doesn't worship Jake, at last not all of the Senate.
Now the fat is in the fire... The leader of the gang of 12 is now the Interim Dean of LLSS. If you thought things were bad before, you haven't seen anything yet.
Apocalypse now!
Bear witness, for She is but the Earthly manifestation of the Eternal Divine Feminine!
Lo! She smiteth the Infidel Tribes of Enlightenment Science and Intellectual Excellence and layeth waste unto the Sons of Sophia.
It is She who selecteth of the chaff of enslaved entitlement and discardeth of the wheat of self-reliant liberty – Ecce Mulier!
Woe unto Ye – O Academia – who have wandered aimlessly these Forty Years in the wilderness of Marxist Feminist Postmodern Political Correctness!
Behold! The Promised Land of the Tenured Radical!
The Land which floweth bountifully with the milk and honey of Affirmative Action and bringeth forth the plentiful fruits of Title IX reverse discrimination and the unsustainable incoherence of leftist redistributive entitlements and socio-political ideology!
Rejoice! For the End Time of the glorious Marxist Apocalypse is close upon us – when the Ivory Tower of Babel shall be brought low and when many shall be called out from The Wasteland, but few shall be chosen.
Then shall it come to pass that the Sons of Man, though they may labor mightily against totalitarian leftist groupthink and socialist economic theory – Bolshevik Red in tooth and claw – yet shall there be much gnashing of teeth and rending of garments among the Peoples of the West – and their God-forsaken lives shall be solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.
Unbeilevable drivel !
Indeed, the Singing Bush incarnate.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yNV-GXoeCM
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