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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." |
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51 comments:
Toledo at UVa:
http://chronicle.com/article/UVa-May-Need-a-Narcissist-at/132291/
Is David “Why I am no longer a brain-dead liberal” Mamet just another cold-hearted conservative Jewish white male Nazi?
Briefly – here’s the real takeaway message from the previously posted (under “Blog for Sale”) recommended readings, as well as much of what I have been trying to get across in numerous postings on this blog over the past year or so (with much appreciation for the gracious generosity and enduring patience of Bloggie):
Simply put, if more and more big time leftist-liberal icons are turning their backs on Marxist Feminist Postmodern liberalism each day and actually becoming outspoken opponents of their own former ideologies, MAYBE the things all those conservative and libertarian “Nazis” have been saying all along (at The National Review, Fox News etc.) are not so insane and evil after all.
There will always be intransigent ideologues – fundamentalist Christians who could not be convinced of their own errors if Jesus and all the prophets, angels and saints descended from heaven to tell them so – and Marxist Feminist Postmodernist fundamentalists who could not be swayed even by the avenging ghosts of Marx, Lenin, Trotsky, Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Che Guevara, Malcolm X, Michele Foucault and Jacques Derrida.
For such hardcore, die-hard leftists there is little if anything in the way of reasoned rational argument, common sense or just plain fact that might cause them to even consider re-evaluating their most cherished dogmatic beliefs.
Not even a laundry list of former hardcore left wing heavy hitters who have become vehement anti-liberals – authors, artists, filmmakers, musicians, intellectuals, activists, academics, journalists, politicians etc. –– people who have come out of the very belly of the Marxist Feminist Postmodern Beast to tell us the truth – people like:
Countercultural icon, author and film-maker David “Why I am no longer a brain dead liberal” Mamet (see his shocking 2008 Village Voice confessional article of the same name here: http://www.villagevoice.com/2008-03-11/news/why-i-am-no-longer-a-brain-dead-liberal/
Former leading mainstream liberal media journalists like the following four current Fox News commentators:
Former longtime top CBS reporter Bernard Goldberg – “A Slobbering Love Affair: The True (And Pathetic) Story of the Torrid Romance Between Barack Obama and the Mainstream Media” and “Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News”.
Former Clinton ultra-insider and strategist Dick Morris - “Screwed!: How Foreign Countries Are Ripping America Off and Plundering Our Economy-and How Our Leaders Help Them Do It”.
Former longtime NPR commentator Juan Williams (fired by NPR for being too politically incorrect) author of “Muzzled: The Assault on Honest Debate” and “Enough: The Phony Leaders, Dead-End Movements, and Culture of Failure That Are Undermining Black America--and What We Can Do About It”.
Former longtime ABC 20/20 reporter John Stossel – “Give Me a Break : How I Exposed Hucksters, Cheats, and Scam Artists and Became the Scourge of the Liberal Media”.
Leading conservative intellectual, commentator and author David Horowitz – “Radical Son: A Generational Odyssey” – once a hardcore leftist anarchist 60’s radical leader, who commingled and conspired with the likes of Abbie Hoffmann, Jerry Rubin, Bill Ayers and Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), The Black Panthers and Weather(men) Underground.
Conservative author and radio talk show host Tammy Bruce – lesbian feminist and former National Organization for Women Leader – “The New Thought Police: Inside the Left's Assault on Free Speech and Free Minds”.
cont.
Mamet cont.
The list of prominent former liberals turned conservative goes on and on – as does the list of those who may still more or less self-identify as liberal, but have taken a strong public stand against core liberal dogmas – like:
Ed Klein – former New York Times Editor In Chief and author of the current NYT #1 bestseller “The Amateur: Barrack Obama In The White House,” Ed Klein.
Noam Chomsky in “Theory’s Empire: An Anthology of Dissent” and elsewhere (his critique of Foucault etc.)”
Sokal and Bricmont in “Fashionable Nonsense: Postmodern Intellectuals’ Abuse of Science” etc.
I might add that the personal journey of the above-mentioned former liberals has been not unlike my own – and that for me, becoming a harsh critic of liberalism and academia has been as difficult as I imagine it might be for a devout Catholic to become an outspoken critic of Church scandals and abuses.
But anyone on the left who considers themselves to be truly intelligent and open-minded needs to ponder the implications of all this upheaval on the left and consider it a matter of plain intellectual integrity to undertake some serious ideological soul searching, self-evaluation and reality checking.
It begins with daring to do the once unthinkable – daring to actually read and think about some of the long-forbidden conservative texts and daring to listen for the first time with an open mind to some of the long-shunned, banned and despised conservative intellectual heretics and news and information sources.
END
If we could trade presidents with UVA we could become a first class university. And UVA could become what the Board of Visitors wishes it could be: a trade school. Poor Thomas Jefferson.
I wonder why the faculty and staff of UVa are so upset with the thought of a BOV wanting a new president whose description sounds just like UT's current president?
Where is the outrage from UT faculty and staff?
We at UT have no need to fear that Jacobs will lose his job by defending such 'obscure' fields as foreign languages and classics! No, we should much more fear that he DOESN'T lose his job before the ruin of UT is complete. He's aready eroded departments such as Foreign Languages, English, Geography/Planning, Poli Sci, Physics--and those are just the ones that come to me right now--by taking away essential administrative staff (aka secretaries).
I see in UT Update that there's another secretary in the president's office. Meanwhile my department office takes three months to process travel reimbursements. This institution's getting to be as top-heavy as Bluto from the old Popeye cartoons.
Here's an interesting link from Inside HigherEd. Substitute Toledo for Virginia and you have a great description of how our university works!
http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2012/06/22/essay-what-uva-board-visitors-might-have-written
Anon 6/20 7:56: Where's the outrage? Indeed! It's there. It just gets smashed and swept under the carpet again and again. It would be interesting--and revealing--to know what has been tried and how it's been received.
Foreign Languages had a petition last year with close to 400 signatures, including mine. Whatever happened with that?
"I wonder why the faculty and staff of UVa are so upset with the thought of a BOV wanting a new president whose description sounds just like UT's current president? Where is the outrage from UT faculty and staff?"
Because 1) most have forgotten what solidarity means, and history books fail to teach lessons that small people like Poles CAN teach big ones like us...Americans what solidarity means; and
2) administrators have started to divide faculty and staff with promises of high-paying administrative contracts to would-be scabs. And the UT-AAUP is just watching impotently...
"I see in UT Update that there's another secretary in the president's office. Meanwhile my department office takes three months to process travel reimbursements."
It means, Lloydie gets the paycheck while those two do the real work. While it may be true that behind every great man there is an even greater woman, in this case the man does not really have to be great. Don't let the MD in his title fool ya! It does not stand for greatness -- it stands for greed.
"It means, Lloydie gets the paycheck while those two do the real work"
Dude (or Girl): you forgot to mention that the three pieces are meant for Lloydie, Goldie, and a Cronie. They feed themselves while the two ladies work...we all know about equal work for equal pay???
The faculty and students at the University of Virginia win against the Board leadership and their corporate backers. They backed their President who knew how to lead and to build consensus.
At the University of Toledo, the faculty and the students continually lose while our President sides with his corporate board and fails to lead.
Interesting that the phrase that the board threw around in Virginia was Strategic Dynamisim. Kind of like "relevant university" and "synergies". Corporate speak for whatever you want it to mean.
Congratulations to UVA!!
I see our sports coordinator won some kind of award. When is The Overnourished One going to win an award? Surely he must be in the running given his strong record of accomplishment since 2006. The view is great from the fourth tier.
Go UVA!
UT needs the opposite: to let its overbloated administration go, but make sure you in BOT criticize Jacobs and his regime -- it will do good to his highness's bloated ego...
All this administration needs is a well-organized mutiny, and it will fall like a house of cards. It is only built on fear like dictatorships are.
Yes, congratulations to UVa! Why couldn't we do that? We certainly have plenty of people on campus who can articulate why Jacobs is a bad leader, but all this talk never yields direct action.
"We certainly have plenty of people on campus who can articulate why Jacobs is a bad leader, but all this talk never yields direct action."
Amigo (or Amiga)! Word has it that the President cannot be criticized in public. It's bad for his dictatorial image, and it certainly make the BOT and other lowly (yet highly paid) admins look like some servile subjects. There's gotta be a coup d'etat! This is where flash mobs come in, so we can send him a message, and he won't have time to call the National Guard even if his friend the Ohio governess would love to...
Flash mob! Actually a great idea. A five minute protest every day at the same time but at different locations! Yell. Scream. Hold Signs. Go back to work. It will draw attention.
Re direct action: Step 1) Hand out leaflets to new students and their parents as they arrive for orientation: "How UT President Lloyd Jacobs is Making Your Degree Less Valuable." Step 2) Have a two-day teach-in this September about problems in higher education and how UT exemplifies them. Step 3) Picket BoT meetings, and loudly. Use open access laws to make meetings UNCOMFORTABLE for the board. This is basic stuff, people.
stop talking, start acting.
publish widely the payoffs and bonuses.
threaten enrollment.
dictatorships last as long as you let them - you the faculty.
stop being pleased with your own esoteric baloney which is irrelevant to your real problem - the dictator, the chacellor, the paid-off deans, and the BOT
calculate and disseminate the spread in salary between full professors and deans/chancellor/dictator.
let parents know what they are paying for.
strike from classes for one week. get into the chronicle.
show no confidence in senate and union.
give up on trying to wait them out.
Leaflets, flashmobs, teach-in, pickets, openmeetings, you name it! -- it sounds like there is energy and momentum. Can UT-AAUP galvanize support for a peaceful but loud opposition to the excesses and abuses of the Jacobs regime???
Some other universities did this at the start of the Fall semester (Oakland University, 1997), and it had its effect. Remember the "Edict" (first two weeks of classes) from UT Student Affairs?
UT-AAUP, are you reading?
Re "Thanks Ben" - Previous post June 22, 2012 9:09 PM
Stooges and Nurse Ratched
And now the wily and opportunistic stooge Zelig is in charge of academic program development?
Are you kidding me?
Why not just appoint Larry, Moe, Curly and Bozo the Postmodern Clown to run the Cuckoo's Nest and get it over with?
"Paging Dr. Howard, Dr. Fine and Dr. Howard! Please see Nurse Ratched in the Provost's Office at once! This is NOT a drill!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53KcqITIPlA
Faculty Senate meeting:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=l00C74Ziy8U&NR=1
"It's bad for his dictatorial image, and it certainly make the BOT and other lowly (yet highly paid) admins look like some servile subjects."
It's almost like feudalism or the caste-system. It keeps the admin caste in place, faculty/staff become the untouchables. Students are in the middle of this battlefield. The whole student-centeredness is hocum. Students need to know whether they are here to be challenged or get their butts kissed by this screwed-up administration.
Don't forget: it is faculty who will recommend you for grad schools and jobs... They will know your strengths not the administrators for whom you are just pawns to support their uncontrolled hubris.
I would like to see AAUP, CWA, and AFSCME use their professional labor-organizing expertise to coordinate action for change on campus. Invite students, staff (union or not), and faculty to planning meetings. Come up with a catchy name (Take Back UT?). The spirit is there, but we need some guidance from leaders who know how to make direct action work.
How about "teach ins" on higher education, costs of higher education, online education, the role of STEM and Liberal Arts in higher education. Good old fashioned teaching and learning on the issues that face us. I know I could learn a thing or two from this approach. Maybe we could educate the BoT and the administration.
"Take Back UT?"
Yes, and take back and restore your Library before it ultimately becomes Pryor's playground. The credibility of your teaching depends on a library (and its faculty and staff) that is independent of administratorial hubris and exploitation. End the cycle that allowed Pryor and Gaboury to cause damage to the institution -- albeit with rewards from the Jacobs regime.
Word has it that Pryor is advising the administration (if not already promoting that agenda himself) to ignore their tenure-track contracts, which are just as valid as ours as teaching faculty in the AAUP! He thinks librarians are not worthy of faculty status. Just look at their publications on record! Instead, he is dividing our librarian colleagues left and right, forcing them to suit his hubris, not our teaching needs and curriculum. Let this stooge go!
Library faculty should know that they have a great deal of support across campus. Your tenure is important to everyone.
Now the library faculty know how the entrenched Japanese defenders felt while losing battle for Guadalcanal in 1942-3. First the Marines (Gaboury) blitzed them into confusion and fear and then the Army (Pryor) came in to mop them up.
Here's an interesting link about the hospital. Perhaps the destruction of our library is to distract us from the dangers lurking in the hallways of the hospital?
http://www.toledotalk.com/cgi-bin/tt.pl/article/120750/ConsumerReports_Rates_Toledo_Hospitals
where has bloggie gone? who is leading this conversation?
why is everyone so timid, esp. tenured folks. do you really believe your life is as threatened as those of others who revolted? why so timid? when does outrage get channeled, vs. blog-blather?
"Now the library faculty know how the entrenched Japanese defenders felt while losing battle for Guadalcanal in 1942-3. First the Marines (Gaboury) blitzed them into confusion and fear and then the Army (Pryor) came in to mop them up."
Well, it looks like the library could have used a few kamikazes:-)))
"Perhaps the destruction of our library is to distract us from the dangers lurking in the hallways of the hospital?"
Good point! Politicians use such tactics to get media attention away from troubles on other fronts. There is an anti-intelligence parity here: when the library crumbles, minds die, and when hospitals suffer, bodies parish. Perhaps our super-surgeon Jacobs-Gold duo can't figure this out but insist on holding on their well-paying positions as long as they can.
They were the ones to have disected (they'll say reorganized) the university with the help of zealous administrators getting big kickbacks and bonuses. I'd hate to be in the UT OR these days since they cannot even patch bodies back like they can't fix the mess they created. Time to get these arrogant clowns and their cronies out of UT!!!
UTMC rated lowest among hospitals in Ohio:
Sounds like Scott Scarborough is about to get promoted to Provost.
Translation of the letter below. "Ignore the bad news. We do. Let's focus on only listening to the things we want to hear." Surround yourself with "Yes Men and Women" and everyone is happy. Just hope that reality doesn't get in the way.
Has the Blade touched this story?
Dear Colleagues,
We imagine many of you have heard about the recent issue of Consumer Reports that rated the safety of approximately 18 percent of hospitals across the nation according to data published by a variety of state and federal agencies in 2010.
UTMC didn’t score well and we find that truly disappointing.
Our disappointment stems mainly from the incredible advancements UTMC has made in the several years since this data was compiled – data that does not get included in the Consumer Reports story. Further, we have been unable to precisely define the data set included and the methodology used in this report.
It has been no secret that during the past several years we have been working hard to change the culture of the institution to focus our efforts on what is best for the patient over what might have been convenient or tradition for caregivers. And during these years, you have all stepped up to meet that challenge.
In July of 2011, U.S. News and World Report recognized UTMC as the best hospital in the region. Last November the Joint Commission gave UTMC a glowing accreditation report and called the visit “one of the best they’d ever experienced.” Just last month we learned that Press Ganey awarded UTMC the 2012 National Success Story of the Year Award – precisely because of the dramatic journey toward improving the way we treat patients. Further, we believe that we will once more be recognized for our excellence when U.S. News and World Report announces their 2012 rankings in the coming weeks.
All of these are your accomplishments, and we are very proud of the progress we’ve made. We have accomplished a great deal, but we have a great deal more to do.
Even venerated institutions with comparable scores to UTMC like the Cleveland Clinic, Mass General in Boston, and Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York will review the Consumer Reports data and undoubtedly engage in the same internal evaluations we began two years ago. Hopefully, we will better understand the significance of the findings of this methodology, and learn from this system.
Each new patient who enters our doors is a new opportunity to prove what many third parties have confirmed – that we continue to set the bar for health care in northwest Ohio.
Sincerely,
Dr. Jeffrey Gold
Chancellor and Executive Vice President for Health Affairs
Dr. Scott Scarborough
Senior Vice President and Executive Director, UTMC
Dr. Lloyd Jacobs
President
"Sounds like Scott Scarborough is about to get promoted to Provost."
Another symptom of UT's failing business model (maybe this is what scared Dr. Rice away):
Fail with the library, you become Vice-Provost; fail with the hospital, you become Provost. Fail with the university, you may become the next Ohio governor. May we call you Governor Jacobs then?
Toledo Blade, are you taking notes or have you just taken an oath of silence?
While it is sad that UT/MUO is rated so low, it's hardly a surprise. I for one am glad it's coming to light--though Jacobs' lackeys Gold and Scarborough have scuttled to cover it over. (What hospital would they go to--or send their family members to?) And today's Blade had a laudatory article on the new stroke center. Heal you from the stroke but send you home with more problems ... not exactly a stroke of genius ...
Within the past couple years, a good friend of mine had what should have been a routine hysterectomy at UT/MUO. It got infected, and she needed a wound vac and home care for a month or two after that. (Sure, you can pick up an infection at any hospital--they're notorious for that. But 107th out of 107 is more than your run-of-the-mill infection.) And of course they took her (or her insurance's) money for all that. A higher degree of healing? More like a higher degree of STEALING!!!
While it is sad that UT/MUO is rated so low, it's hardly a surprise. I for one am glad it's coming to light--though Jacobs' lackeys Gold and Scarborough have scuttled to cover it over. (What hospital would they go to--or send their family members to?) And today's Blade had a laudatory article on the new stroke center. Heal you from the stroke but send you home with more problems ... not exactly a stroke of genius ...
Within the past couple years, a good friend of mine had what should have been a routine hysterectomy at UT/MUO. It got infected, and she needed a wound vac and home care for a month or two after that. (Sure, you can pick up an infection at any hospital--they're notorious for that. But 107th out of 107 is more than your run-of-the-mill infection.) And of course they took her (or her insurance's) money for all that. A higher degree of healing? More like a higher degree of STEALING!!!
The response to the poor safety score came off like, "Yes, UTMC might have been a cesspool in 2010, but we got better!" Not encouraging for those of us who have been using it for a while. I encourage you all to investigate the government's hospital ratings at www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov. UTMC doesn't come out too well there, either.
So the vice president of "Austen BioInnovation Institute" in Akron is going to be the next provost. PLEASE, let's all show up at the open meeting next Thursday (2 pm, SU 2584) and find out what on earth she has done in her life that qualifies her for this responsibility.
It is indeed sad that UTMC ranks 107th out of 107. But I am glad that this is coming to light--at long last--even as Jacobs' black-suited lackeys scuttle to find a way to spin it so things don't look so bad. They need their new Stroke Center (which if it works would be a wonderful thing)--maybe there'll be a stroke of genius for them there?
A couple years ago, a good friend of mine had what should have been a routine hysterectomy--which got infedcted and necessitated several weeks with a wound vac and other home health care. (Sure, hospitals are notorious for infections, but 107th out of 107 is pretty clear.) And of course no refunds for a job not-so-well done. They took her money (or her insurance company's). UTMC: A higher degree of healing? Sounds to me more like a higher degree of stealing! (By the way, a couple months ago she had a cholesystectomy at another hospital--no complications.)
And ... don't expect the Blade to do much, if anything, with this news. It seems Jake et al can do no wrong as far as one of America's (not-so-?)great newspapers is concerned.
http://www.abiakron.org/leadership
Who is she? Is she going to determine whether research by Humanities/Social Science/Art/other non-medical/non-science/non-engineering faculty is profitable to merit tenure and promotion -- they are creating a caste system for faculty...
The Jacobs regime will dictate the criteria, and she will be the best Yes-man for the job.
Yes! We should all show up. Who is bringing the welcome basket?
Maybe she is a replacement for Gold. Her credentials seem to point to a HSC provost. If we can get rid of Gold that would be an improvement. (what wouldn't?) I know, we can blame the hospital problems on Gold. Jacobs needs a scapegoat.
I for one would be happy to sacrifice Jeff Gold!
As Gold goes, so goes the future of Detroit Metro Airport.
This Janine Janosky from the operation in Akron was Vice Provost for Research at CMU before her current gig, so she does have some experience in the academic world. Nonetheless, people who care about UT should go to both meetings next week and invest ourselves in this process.
Gold, Scarborough, Jacobs, and the PR flak who wrote that letter deserve a gold medal for bullshit density combined with "Hey, look at the squirrel" brazenness.
"As Gold goes, so goes the future of Detroit Metro Airport."
Why? Does he want to be the Chancellor of Detroit Metro Airport (why not just Toledo Express Airport where he can land between his flights from New York)? or Mayor of Detroit? Wayne County Executive? or event the Governor of Michigan?
Imagine all these titles under his current signature...
"Maybe she is a replacement for Gold. Her credentials seem to point to a HSC provost. If we can get rid of Gold that would be an improvement."
Amen to that!
Let's be clear that it will take a critical mass of faculty to rise up against the Jacobs Administration and after almost 20 years as a faculty member here at UT I have yet to see any such critical mass or strong AAUP led activity to make me believe it will happen. My view is that many UT faculty are simply passive or satisfied with their place here to want to "rock the bottom'. And even with tenure their remains plenty of risk to faculty and their departments for those who speak out against this regime, and plenty of examples of such retaliations in recent years to make many reluctant to step up.
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