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Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Product Adulteration


69 comments:

Anonymous said...

My question is does this mean otherwise qualified people aka "clinical faculty" or 3rd rate schmucks off the street? Or worse yet, people with lightweight degrees in higher education administration, public administration, business administration or other jobs training programs. Maybe, just maybe, we can get professors of practice from Teach for America!

Anonymous said...

There is a rumor going around that the administrator/moderator behind "University of Toledo Confessions" Facebook page is a faculty member. If so, be careful.

Anonymous said...

Who among us has met a Professor of Practice? What do these people have to say about their PoP experience?
Why does this administration continually think that a name change will make the difference? How have name changes improved the student experience at UT in CAS, LLSS, CVPA, CCIA, JHCOEHSHS, HS, SJ, JHCOE, NSM,...? FTEs continue to decrease.
What's in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet!

Anonymous said...

His idea is to convert current Lecturers (and future hires) to POP, same payscale, same 5/5 load, change to 3-5 year contracts, but the name change is intended to make them all feel better!

And in the future as T/TT leave or retire, majority will be replaced by POP resulting in decline in research status and graduate education at UT as POP contribute none of those duties.

Provost models POP after same type of positions at other schools, of course there they are hiring local distinguished professionals to teach a few courses, not paying them $42,000 a year to teach 8 to 10 courses.

It is all about cost savings and over time eliminate of tenure as we know it at UT, yet our fellow colleges are still hiring TT/T faculty so within ten years UT will become an undergraduate 3 and 4 year community college

Anonymous said...

The PoP idea is a pure scam so that Jacobs and company can falsely represent unqualified people they hire to parents and students as professors. UT will not even be up to community college standards when they implement this latest deception.

BOT do you have any integrity?

Anonymous said...

Bad news for STEM:
http://spectrum.ieee.org/at-work/education/the-stem-crisis-is-a-myth

Anonymous said...

One reason to do it is to apply the title "Professor" to people who otherwise would be identified as lecturers. It means that in the future UT can boast all of its classes, with the exception of those taught by grad students, are taught by "Professors." Imagine the marketing opportunity! Come to UT! it boasts the highest % of teaching "Professors" of any university in the universe!

Anonymous said...

AAUP has a report out on Professors of Practice:

http://www.aaup.org/report/professors-practice

Anonymous said...

Follow the money....

Anonymous said...

Verification request. UT passed another milestone on the road to Hell, I was told: We just hired a 40th vice president position.

Is this true? How many VPs does one administration need?

Anonymous said...

8:42pm: Thanks for the article. I've heard other similar reports, but this article makes much clearer the fraud being perpetrated by industry for its own selfish profit to drive down wages.

Anonymous said...

To be fair, they only replaced another incompetent with another unknown. A dung heap can only be piled so high before shearing occurs. This is called "the angle of repose" in geology (I am not a geologist, I swear). In higher education administration lingo the phenomenon is called the "angle of promotion." Anyway, 40 is about 40 to many.

Anonymous said...

but the previous VP Administration is now VP Corporate Relations (which is a new position)

New VP CFO also taking Administration

Anonymous said...

More breaking (broken) news from The Blade…

This is completely off topic but relates to The Blade, which in turn relates to quality local news coverage (or lack thereof) of UT, higher ed, etc.

There was a spectacular gala grand opening of Art Van Furniture at Spring Meadows Shopping Center on Friday.

This represents a major coup for the local economy and it was a real all around first class red carpet event, with many local celebrities and VIP’s in attendance, including Mayor Bell, Chrys Peterson, et al.

The store and the Art Van people in attendance were all awesome – there was valet parking, great catered food and open bar – high quality live music – most people were dressed to the nines and there were beautiful models in high fashion garb – the whole thing was really fabulous and fun and festive and positive – a mini business Academy Awards celebration for the local economy.

Now to the Blade coverage – the story and photos in today’s Sunday Blade are abysmal and make the whole affair look like it was nothing more than free popcorn day at a K-Mart in Monclova.

I can’t imagine how Jetta Fraser possibly managed to get such completely boring, non-representative and just plain bad photos – because everywhere you looked in the store on Friday night there were cool people looking good and having fun.

I could have spun around three times and randomly fired off a half dozen smart phone snapshots and come away with much better photos than Fraser's.

And the written piece by Jon Chavez is an equally boring misrepresentation and hack job that makes something that was really great and first class seem really third rate.

What the hell is up with that?

The Blade continues to amaze with their ever higher (lower) and previously unimagined levels of mediocrity, perversity and bias.

Are they intentionally looking to sabotage good news about good things and good people for our area and make us all look like a bunch of hayseed morons – or are they just absolutely incapable of delivering basic quality, factual news coverage no matter how hard they try?

Anybody have a take on this??

Anonymous said...

Do you know about swamp bubbles? It covers UT from a very different perspective than what you read in UTNews:
http://swampbubbles.com/post-category/university-toledo

Anonymous said...

I noticed the "Honors College" has a lecture series this year. Some interesting speakers are scheduled, including James Carville.

However, attendance is *not* free, with tickets at $10 for students and $25 for everyone else.

It's hard to imagine David Hoch's honors program shaking up students for the right to hear a well-known speaker.

Anonymous said...

In re the admissions fees on "Honors College" lectures, everybody needs to have revenue centers. But really though, does anything better describe the current hapless state of the University of Toledo than this play from the game against Missouri: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKc6UorjqUI

Anonymous said...

I believe that there will also be a venue where people who don't pay, watch an off-site feed. Sort of replicates the whole MOOC thing, doesn't it. Rich folk buy the in-person experience, poor folk can sit in the overflow room and watch a screen.

Anonymous said...

http://www.kent.edu/news/newsdetail.cfm?newsitem=0D3CB515-9E8D-EF55-E8F768EA14E9FA2D

Kent's enrollment is skyrocketing, they're in Tier 1 of the US News rankings, and their provost is a historian, not some marginally competent bean counter.

am envious.

Anonymous said...

Is it time for someone to establish a "rate-my-adminstrator" website?

Anonymous said...

A. FYI - two Medical College physicians have moved their practices to the main campus and are now seeing all faculty/staff who go to the clinic. If faculty/staff visit the clinic for something minor it is still a free benefit, unless you have one of the two physicians as your primary physician. If that's the case, you will be charged for an office visit.

B. Dental school. Some states don't even have 1 dental school. Ohio already has 2. Dental schools are really expensive start-ups and they don't make money even after the start-up costs are absorbed. For these reasons, more dental schools are being discontinued than started nationwide.

C. The strategic brilliance of Jacobs and Co is that they exist in a vacuum. Enrollment? even though they run around in panic mode and enact petty cost cutting edicts, the other side of their mouth claims the enrollment drop was anticipated and part of their grand plan. Projects that crash and burn? The costs of the failures are absorbed by the academic side and Jacobs avoids the bad PR of firing an admin failure by simply moving the ring-leaders over into other admin positions (how many current admins owe their current positions to their having proposed some goofy program, only to see it fail? Instead of being fired or sent back to their previous job, they are moved sideways or even up into some other post.).

D. How many times has distance learning been renamed? Anyone keeping track? Currently it's "Learning Ventures," but by my count that is at least its third or fourth name in three years.

Anonymous said...

Speaking of goofy administrators, has anyone seen the Dept. of Justice letter regarding investigations where Cam Cruickshank previously worked? Here's the link:
https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.insidehighered.com%2Fsites%2Fdefault%2Fserver_files%2Ffiles%2FDoJ%2520letter.pdf

Anonymous said...

Dear Anon September 13 @ 11:17 AM,

Try eight:
Division of Distance Learning > Division of Distance and eLearning > eLearning and Academic Support > Learning Ventures > College of Innovative Learning > UT Online > Learning Ventures > UTXNet World Campus

Anonymous said...

AAUP Bulletin #137 contains some specifics on what Jacobs, BOT and Co. envision as UT's future (by way of contract negotiations).

"BOT ...proposed that the five-year professional assessment could be used to determine a tenured faculty member's continuing employment"



"full academic year ...teaching in the fall semester plus in the summer term; or teaching in the spring and summer terms, in addition to the traditional schedule."



"changing the title of "Lecturer" to the title of "Professor of Practice"

Anonymous said...

To 4:01pm:

This link works better for the Dept. of Justice letter.
http://www.insidehighered.com/sites/default/server_files/files/DoJ%20letter.pdf

Anonymous said...

Re Anon 11:17 and the UT Administrator Musical Chairs Shuffle

Many of us have had at least some direct formal and/or informal dealings with various bumbling UT administrators from the Ben plus 12 crowd etc. and know from personal experience most of them are third rate pseudo-academic hacks from powder puff pseudo-disciplines, who are hard pressed to competently "administrate" even their own personal affairs, offices or a single academic course, let alone an entire academic program, division or college.

If one of them ever manages to actually show up in the right place at the right time with the right PowerPoint presentation and matching pair of socks, someone needs to alert the Vatican to verify the occurrence of a minor miracle.




Anonymous said...

Last Friday my CWA colleagues began receiving layoff notices. Those who were "lucky" enough to bump into other departments must deal with border-line hostile work environments. Others are in fear. How ironic that this Thursday's Annual Presidential Address is titled "The American Dream"...who's "dream" is he referring to? So far it has been nothing but a NIGHTMARE for my colleagues.

Anonymous said...

Who is going to "The American nightmare and the cloudy University"?

Anonymous said...

How many CWA people are being laid off and for what reason?

Anonymous said...

The post about Kent State being a Tier I school is a non story. In the past, the only MAC schools in Tier I were Miami and Buffalo. If you go to the USN&WR link provided by the Kent story, it shows Kent rated at #201 among national universities along with Montana, Montana St, South Dakota St, UNC-Charlotte and UM-Kansas City. That is the lowest rated group. Other MAC schools: #75 Miami, #109 Buffalo, #135 Ohio, #177 Northern Illinois, #181 BG,WMU,Ball St, #190 Central Michigan. UT is not ranked.

Anonymous said...

If you dig around in the FAQ for the US News rankings, you find that the top three-fourths of each ranking category are numerically ranked and constitute Tier One. The bottom one-fourth are designated "Rank Not Published" and constitute Tier Two. UT is in Tier Two: It was ranked, but its ranking was too low to be published.

So the nine of twelve MAC schools listed in the September 19th comment can all be said to outrank UT.

The point is that seven years of continual attempts by El Gordo and his goons to be higher-education visionaries or whatever haven't gotten us anywhere.

Anonymous said...

"BOT do you have any integrity?"

Friend, is that a question? Board of Turds -- known for smell, not integrity. After all POP goes the weasel as it shits all over UT.

Anonymous said...

"Division of Distance Learning > Division of Distance and eLearning > eLearning and Academic Support > Learning Ventures > College of Innovative Learning > UT Online > Learning Ventures > UTXNet World Campus"

COIL: did someone forget the interim meaning for COIL: College of Incompetent Leadership????

Anonymous said...

"BOT ...proposed that the five-year professional assessment could be used to determine a tenured faculty member's continuing employment"

This is their latest brainfart since their guts have long plugged up and nobody wants to donate health gut tissue, so now they are farting through their cloudy (empty) heads.

Somebody, call the Ohio health department to investigate this incessant brainfart stench!

Anonymous said...

Imagine having Ted Cruz for UT Administrator or the new professor of practice. Now he could lecture for a whole day, which is what El Gordo & Bd of Turds wants from teaching faculty. Scotto's Book Club would be reading Dr. Seuss!

Anonymous said...

IMPOSTORS IN THE TEMPLE: THE DECLINE OF THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY (1992) BY MARTIN ANDERSON

20 years after the publication of this scathing indictment of higher education, Martin Anderson’s critique rings truer than ever.

http://www.amazon.com/Impostors-Temple-Decline-American-University/dp/0671709151/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1380208813&sr=1-1&keywords=impostors+in+the+temple

From Kirkus Review

“After 35 years in academia, Anderson (economist, former Reagan and Bush administration senior domestic economic policy advisor and Senior Fellow/Hoover Institution Stanford University) gives a cri de coeur about what's gone so dreadfully wrong with the American university: Academic intellectuals, he says, have ``betrayed their profession'' and, within the halls of academe, ``integrity is dead.''

Strong charges, but Anderson does nothing if not back them up with facts, figures, and plenty of common-sense observation.

Part of the problem is simply in quality-control: Between 1960 and 1975, the number of those attending college ``almost tripled, an increase of some 8 million students,'' and in the rapid hiring of faculty to teach these hoards of new students, ``there has been a slow but significant decline in the average quality of academic intellectuals.''

[Editor’s Note: These 1960-1975 figures seem so very quaint by comparison to subsequent and recent statistics – regarding numbers of mediocre under-qualified students and professors and politicized pseudo-academic programs (Women’s Studies. Education Colleges, Postmodern Theory, Africana Studies etc. etc.), federal funding of politicized education agendas for “disadvantaged” and “under-represented victim identity groups (Title IX, Affirmative Action), the leftist politicized professoriate, campus political correctness and indoctrination, MASSIVE student loan debt, HUGE deterioration of education standards, quality, outcomes and the quality of college professors and general academic intellectual integrity etc. from that time to the present – which have all gone completely off the charts.]

“ADD TO THIS WHAT ANDERSON CALLS ``HUBRIS'' (THE “UNCHECKED INTELLECTUAL ARROGANCE'' THAT LEADS ACADEMICS TO BELIEVE THEMSELVES ABOVE THE RULES THAT GOVERN OTHER PEOPLE); AND ADD TO THAT THE TRANSFORMATION OF UNIVERSITIES FROM WHAT WERE ``RATHER SMALL, QUIET, DIGNIFIED INSTITUTIONS OF RAREFIED SCHOLARLY PURSUITS AND THE TEACHING OF A SELECT FEW'' INTO HUGE AND ``SOPHISTICATED MEGABUSINESS MACHINES'' -- AND THE STAGE IS SET FOR DETERIORATION AND TROUBLE.”

“LIKE BOUND APPRENTICES OF MEDIEVAL TIMES, GRADUATE STUDENTS ``TEACH'' (ANDERSON CALLS IT ``CHILDREN TEACHING CHILDREN'') SO THAT PROFESSORS CAN PRODUCE STILL MORE RESEARCH FOR THEIR OWN INSTITUTIONAL GAIN--MOST OF IT ``INCONSEQUENTIAL AND TRIFLING''--WHILE REAL EDUCATION LAGS.”

“ACADEMICS, SAYS ANDERSON, ``BEGIN BY LYING TO OTHERS, AND END UP LYING TO THEMSELVES.''

“EMPTY RESEARCH, PADDED BUDGETS, POOR TEACHING, TENURE-PROTECTED FACULTY WHO CLAIM ACADEMIC IMPARTIALITY BUT IN FACT JUDGE POLITICALLY, CORPORATE-STYLE IMAGE MANAGEMENT-- ALL OF THIS, OVERSEEN BY BOARDS OF TRUSTEES WHO KNOW LITTLE ABOUT EDUCATION, MAKES FOR ``A RECIPE FOR DISASTER, A WITCH'S BREW OF INCOMPETENCE, TIMIDITY, AND NEGLECT.''

The above criticisms appeared in Anderson’s book, which was published in 1992.

(continued)

Anonymous said...

Imposters 2

The scathing National Committee on Excellence in Education report “A Nation at Risk” came out in 1983:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Nation_at_Risk

University of Chicago Philosopher and Classicist Alan Bloom’s “The Closing of the American Mind: How Higher Education Has Failed Democracy and Impoverished the Souls of Today’s Students” came out in 1988.

Roger Kimball’s “Tenured Radicals: How Politics Has Corrupted Our Higher Education” came out in 1990.

“Higher Superstition: The Academic Left and Its Quarrels with Science” came out in 1997.

Physicists Sokal and Bricmont’s “Fashionable Nonsense: Postmodern Intellectuals’ Abuse of Science” came out in 1998.

Education Secretary William Bennett’s scathing white paper “A Nation Still at Risk” came out in 1998: http://www.hoover.org/publications/policy-review/article/6310

Beer and Circus: How Big-Time College Sports Is Crippling Undergraduate Education by University of Indiana English Professor Murray Sperber came out in 2001.

David Horowitz’s “One-Party Classroom: How Radical Professors at America's Top Colleges Indoctrinate Students and Undermine Our Democracy” came out in 2009.

The Victim’s Revolution: The Rise of Identity Studies and the Closing of the Liberal Mind by Bruce Bawer came out in 2012.

There are countless other examples.

But now, after several decades of dire warning, reality has finally come to campus – and everyone seems shocked.

Another analysis of some of the issues critiqued by Anderson can be found here:

Intellectuals and Society (2012) by Thomas Sowell:

http://www.amazon.com/Intellectuals-Society-Expanded-Thomas-Sowell/dp/0465025226/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1366301655&sr=1-1&keywords=intellectuals+and+society

“[Intellectuals and Society] offers a withering and clear-eyed critique about (but not for) intellectuals that explores their impact on public opinion, policy, and society at large.

“IT HAS NOT BEEN BY SHAPING THE OPINIONS OR DIRECTING THE ACTIONS OF THE HOLDERS OF POWER THAT MODERN INTELLECTUALS HAVE MOST INFLUENCED THE COURSE OF EVENTS, BUT BY SHAPING PUBLIC OPINION IN WAYS THAT AFFECT THE ACTIONS OF POWER HOLDERS IN DEMOCRATIC SOCIETIES, WHETHER OR NOT THOSE POWER HOLDERS ACCEPT THE GENERAL VISION OR THE PARTICULAR POLICIES FAVORED BY INTELLECTUALS” -- (Ed. – i.e. brainwashing college students and women and minority voters – above and below emphasis in all caps mine).

“In "Intellectuals and Society" Thomas Sowell not only examines the track record of intellectuals in the things they have advocated but also analyzes the incentives and constraints under which their views and visions have emerged. Ultimately, he shows how often intellectuals have been proved not only wrong, but grossly and disastrously wrong in their prescriptions for the ills of society.”

More quotes from Imposters in the Temple:

"It has been quite a while since anyone has spoken of the world of American higher education as a place of integrity. For good reason. Within that world, integrity is dead, having succumbed to the death of a thousand cuts. Each cut small and, by itself, not fatal...
…But collectively, they cannot be explained away; instead they stand as an indictment of the institution of higher education itself. The death of integrity in the heart of higher education is the root cause of the educational troubles which afflict us today."

(continued)

Anonymous said...

Imposters 3

Martin Anderson continues…

". . .TODAY MANY OF THESE ACADEMIC INTELLECTUALS HAVE BETRAYED THEIR PROFESSION. THEY HAVE SCORN FOR THEIR STUDENTS AND THEY DISDAIN TEACHING. THEY REPRESENT THEIR RESEARCH AND WRITING AS IMPORTANT AND RELEVANT WHEN MUCH OF IT IS NOT. SOME HAVE A PASSION FOR RADICAL POLITICS THAT TRANSCENDS ALL ELSE, AND A FEW EVEN HAVE LITTLE REGARD FOR THE TRUTH."

"THEY ARE THE CORRUPT PRIESTS OF AMERICA'S COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES AND, WHILE SMALL IN NUMBER, THEIR INFLUENCE IS LARGE AND PERVASIVE. THEY ARE THE GREAT PRETENDERS OF ACADEME. THEY PRETEND TO TEACH, THEY PRETEND TO DO ORIGINAL, IMPORTANT WORK. THEY DO NEITHER. THEY ARE IMPOSTERS IN THE TEMPLE. AND FROM THESE IMPOSTERS MOST OF THE EDUCATIONAL ILLS OF AMERICA FLOW."

Anderson continues –

"All of the academic maneuvering and posturing over the curriculum conceals one of the academic culture's most brazen coups: A STARTLING TRANSVALUATION THAT HAS NOT ONLY MADE MEDIOCRITY A WAY OF LIFE BUT SOMETHING OF AN OFFICIAL IDEOLOGY."

"But the temptation was too much for academics to resist. The key was use of the words "diversity" and "pluralism," with their impeccable democratic credentials. Academics quickly found they exercised an almost mesmerizing effect on policymakers.

But the rape of the language did not stop there. If curricular gibberish was now 'diversity,' then the traditional standards must be elitism, and anyone who advocated even a modicum of rationality on the curriculum must not only be anti-democratic, but potentially even fascistic."

And so, ladies and gentlemen, here we are today. And we cannot claim nobody ever warned us.

END

Anonymous said...

THE SECRET HIDDEN TRUTH ABOUT MARXIST-FEMINIST POSTMODERN ACADEMICS REVEALED AT LAST?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCEAqSXb5-4

Anonymous said...

Fail. You forgot to say socialist. Nobody knows what a Marxist is anymore. You also neglected to add administrative buzzwords like synergy, paradigm, metrics, rubric, game-changer, assessment and learners. Please improve on that for next time.

Anonymous said...

It is amazing given the one poster's view (rant) and continued posts and lengthy diatribe against high education, that so many students from UT graduate and succeed in life and how so many of them express appreciation for their college education and acknowledge the encouragement and support of faculty during their time here, including those from the liberal arts and humanities! I hear such positives from so many such current students and recent graduates, almost as if that poster exists in some form of alternate universe?

Anonymous said...

So many students graduate because of faculty and staff, in spite of all the problems created by President Jacobs. He has reorganized this place every year (because his prior reorganization didn't succeed). We face budget shortfalls yearly because of his need to prop up the hospital. Potential collaborators of UT run away (remember Promedica). He claims UT has no money to hire faculty but he hires administrators, consultants, coaches like they're going out of style! So if the students graduate happy, it's because faculty and staff overcome administrative roadblocks.

Anonymous said...

Mostly I feel as if the BOT, the administration, and the politicians in the state house view our university, the students, the faculty and the staff kind of like a prostitute that they take turns with.

Anonymous said...

It would be unkind, non-collegial, and certainly not in the Spirit of Free Speech to disallow this Mad Hatter his soap box here. When his posts appear, just scroll past them to more nutritious fare. Pretend this is Bloggie's Golden Corral Buffet.Just skip the mashed potato and move on to the brain food.

Anonymous said...

Why College Costs Too Much

Given that many of the pressing issues confronting UT specifically and academia in general are fundamentally economic, here is another very important book – “Going Broke by Degree: Why College Costs Too Much” (2004) by Ohio University Distinguished Professor of Economics Emeritus, American Enterprise Institute Scholar and Director of The Center for College Affordability and Productivity, Richard Vedder – which (and whom) we have referenced before, but failed to note in our most recent posts.

http://www.amazon.com/Going-Broke-Degree-College-Costs/dp/0844741973/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1380398429&sr=1-1&keywords=going+broke+by+degree+why+college+costs+too+much

The Center for College Affordability and Productivity

http://centerforcollegeaffordability.org/archives/author/rvedder

Anonymous said...

Anon 2:43

College students quickly learn to play all the games on campus, including the fine art of sucking up to their profs - good, bad and ugly.

You honestly take the fact that some of your students may have said some nice things to you as constituting some sort of definitive data about the actual quality and value of their education?

You honestly expect them to tell you to your face that they really think you and your classes sucked?

Standard delusions for someone living in the cloistered alternative universe of academia.

You need to get candid off-the record opinions if you want some reasonably reliable field data.

I have talked to countless students - like some really bright female grad students - who confessed things like the fact they think their feminist professors are full of baloney - and that some of the most racist and anti-male and anti-female sexist sentiments and behaviors they have ever seen or heard have come from their supposedly "tolerant" professors of both sexes and various ethnicities.

But of course these very bright students are also smart enough to know they are not truly free to openly disagree with the PC dogma or to express their dissent(without paying the price of incurring the professor's ire).

Sadly, UT has produced, harbored and exported (to the "real" world and to other college campuses) some major league pseudo-academic PC reverse racists and Femi-Nazis.


Anonymous said...

We hold these truths…

Contrary to the false and inaccurate accusations of our detractors, we are absolutely NOT opposed to real, quality education, higher or otherwise, nor are we opposed to UT per se, nor are we interested in meaningless buzzwords or meaningless semantic hairsplitting.

We oppose racism, sexism, bigotry etc. – but believe the opportunistic and manipulative Marxist-Feminist Postmodern victim identity politics grievance industry, both on- and off-campus, in effect promotes these social maladies, while claiming to oppose them – and that those who ultimately suffer most from this grand political and ideological deception are women, minorities, gays, the young, the aged, the infirm, the poor, the disabled etc..

We regard true, quality, efficient, effective, accessible and affordable higher education to be EXTREMELY important to the greater public good.

We accordingly oppose mediocrity, redundancy, incompetence, greed, hubris, mismanagement and political bias in higher education as exemplified by the Marxist-Feminist Postmodern pseudo-academic charlatan professors and administrators and various politicized pseudo-programs and departments – we oppose bloated, inefficient education bureaucracies and education funding methods, intransigent faculty unions and other unions, the overall egregious mismanagement of academic human and capital resources and the squandering of trillions of taxpayer education dollars – all of which have together produced dismal academic, economic and social well-being outcomes and served to cripple real quality higher education and the American economy and social fabric.

We nonetheless believe there continue to be many outstanding dedicated people, programs and departments in higher education and at UT – EVEN in the arts, humanities, social sciences etc.

We believe these fine professors and other people in higher education do support and should support substantive reforms, as we do – substantive reforms aimed at dismantling the corrupt and toxic influences of the Marxist-Feminist Postmodern academic, political and ideological matrix.

We believe at least some recent efforts by the UT senior administration at least appear to be steps in the right direction.

Anonymous said...

Has anyone seen the picture of the proposed parking lot across the street from university hall in Scarborough's office? I'd like to see a public records request for it and a picture of it posted on this blog. Will decimate Old Orchard property values, but Scarborough lives in Ottawa Hills so it doesn't matter to him.

Anonymous said...

What's with this need of administrators to park so close to everything? You people run a hospital. Try to set an example of healthy living. Walking 15 minutes a day would help you look less like a pear with a toupee.

Anonymous said...

The parking lot is intended for visitors and guests especially for the campus tours now running out of Libby Hall. Although I think there are better options let's at least state the truth as why the lot is needed. And as to one parking lot along Bancroft on property already owned by UT decimating Old Orchard property values, great real as with a large green space buffer and fences there is no impact except for a few homes. If UT was smart they would build it close to Bancroft and leave playing fields next to homes. Besides nothing is going to happen until the City rebuilds Bancroft as a crosswalk will be needed. Frankly the residents of Old Orchard, need to get over themselves before UT builds a ten story residence on that property.

Anonymous said...

"College students quickly learn to play all the games on campus, including the fine art of sucking up to their profs - good, bad and ugly."

I am also talking about students who never took a class with me or alumni who have nothing to gain at this point of sucking up.

"You honestly take the fact that some of your students may have said some nice things to you as constituting some sort of definitive data about the actual quality and value of their education?"

That their UT experience was positive and they have successful careers after attending UT - so yes they express appreciation and value of their UT degree. And none of them describe their college education in any way similar to what you continue to claim is the current situation in higher education, yes cost and affordability are major issues but this liberal brainwashing you claim simply does not exist nor is there any data to support it.

Anonymous said...

what I do hear from current student and alumni are complaints about tuition, fees, parking, more fees, Rocket Solutions, more fees, parking again, food, housing, meals, more fees.....

Anonymous said...

"Has anyone seen the picture of the proposed parking lot across the street from university hall in Scarborough's office? I'd like to see a public records request for it and a picture of it posted on this blog."

I have heard of attempts to use the empty lot for parking, but now this time, it will be operated by Huntingturd Bank... (my speculation but not too far off from what you see in the Student Union: A Huntingturd Center!

The point here is that hospitals do not care about your health -- they want to manage your disease you get from the food they serve (and of course from lack of exercise), and if you are healthy, they are working on your disease....

So what's in your wallet? Not a Huntingturd Credit Card?

Maybe they need a Papa Jacobs SuperCholesterol Pizza Shop, too.

Anonymous said...

"Mostly I feel as if the BOT, the administration, and the politicians in the state house view our university, the students, the faculty and the staff kind of like a prostitute that they take turns with."

Reality check: once you rape a person you will treat the victim as your whore [no one gender implied here]. Once you rape an institution (and get away), of course the university becomes that.

I just wonder in what order they proceed:
1. UT Admin, BOT, politician?
2. Politician, BOT, UT Admin?
3. BOT, UT Admin, politician?

One enjoys while the other two hold the victim down. Then they do it to each other -- hence, they are inbreeding!

Anonymous said...

And how about the following email that was sent to staff regarding STRS contributions?Check your paystubs, everyone!

Dear Staff,
You are receiving this email because you are an employee who’s STRS contribution was not correctly calculated at the new 11% rate when it was supposed to take effect on July 1, 2013. As a result, you will be seeing an additional STRS amount withheld from this pay and next pay to cover the additional 1% that was not withheld during the months of July and August. In order to minimize the impact, the additional withholding is being spread over the two pays that are being paid out during the month of October.

You can calculate the extra withholding by going to your myUt webpage and by pulling up your pay stubs from pays 14, 15, 16, and 17. Find the deduction – STRS ARP and multiply the associated Applicable Gross by 1% for each pay period, add all 4 together, and then divide by 2, and that will give you the additional amount that is going to be withheld from your pay.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me directly. Thank you for your understanding, and apologies for any inconvenience this might cause you.


Lance Brissette
Sr. Payroll Financial Analyst
Payroll Department
University of Toledo
P: (419) 530-8788
F: (419) 530-8787
Lance.Brissette@utoledo.edu
Scott Park Campus, 2nd Floor
2165 Nebraska Ave
Toledo, Ohio 43607

Anonymous said...

"but this liberal brainwashing you claim simply does not exist nor is there any data to support it"

"Liberal brainwashing" reads like an oxymoron to begin with. Whoever charges liberals with brainwashing is him/herself brainwashed through religious establishments or through the effects of the right wing....True, brainwashing happens in communist systems, but they are neither liberal or liberated themselves. In the US, it's the conservatives who must exert force to brainwash the uneducated. Why do you think they need to suppress public education but establish good schools for the rich? So they can maintain a class society where the liberals (and intellectually liberated) are the clear threat.

Just think of the Michigan State professor William Penn removed from teaching responsibilities as his student(s) ratted on him because he dared to speak his mind, and that was so inexcusable to the far-right. The spineless board of turds gave in and moved against the professor...

I may just assume that some of them may have been home schooled and not exposed to the discussions in such courses as Government. Of course, the right-wing has raped the country! They should have pursued college education via home schooling instead of imposing their narrow worldview on a liberated Civil Society...I forgot: right-wing brain slaves hate that concept, too!

Links to the story: http://www.freep.com/article/20130905/NEWS06/309050139/MSU-Republican-professor

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/09/05/professor-censured-gop-rant/2771991/

This has a link to the video -- I do not sense any bullying -- the professor demonstrated raw but free speech like Kid Rock does by wearing the confederate flag. What message does that send to a growing segment of US population that may have been victims of the Confederate South???

So, some are right to express their thoughts through hate symbols like swastika and confederate flag and uphold the 2nd amendment rights, but it is not okay for the opposite side to enjoy EQUALLY inalienable right to vote, to assemble, to speak, or live healthy lives (a right to life value to me...)? Or should we shut down the federal government yet again over which rights are more important to the xenophobic-paranoid-fascist right-wing in the US? Boehner, Mitch, Candy: what do you think in those little twisted heads of yours???

Anonymous said...

Re parking lot

Wasn't that idea of a parking lot across from U Hall considered and then nixed a long time ago by former UT Prez Dan Johnson?

If it is up for reconsideration again, more parking lots - especially one that would replace a lovely pristine field across from U Hall - are definitely a bad idea.

There is already plenty of privileged parking space available at either end of U Hall.

And should not our advances in green technology and increasing numbers of online classes all be pushing us in the opposite direction - towards fewer commuter vehicles and less need for parking space?

Plant a couple of trees and add a couple of park benches to that field, but keep Old Orchard green!

Anonymous said...

The Keepers of the Sacred Flame

With the federal government shut down and western civilization crumbling down upon us, we can all at least take comfort in knowing our elite university intellectuals and administrators are all working feverishly to push back the pervasive looming cultural darkness with their important cutting edge academic work.

The following photo shows Distinguished Pee-Wee Herman Professor of Pee-Wee Hermeneutics and Dean of the College of Whatever Studies, Dr. Jeffrey Neely, PhD, delivering the keynote address before the Gratuitous Spending in Academia (GSA) International Conference on Marxist-Feminist Postmodern Umbrella Drink Theory at The Bellagio Hotel and Casino Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada:

WHATEVER STUDIES CONFERENCE PHOTO 1

Whoops! Wrong photo…

Well, let’s just go straight to the video then, shall we?

WHATEVER STUDIES CONFERENCE VIDEO

Oh, dear! That’s not right either!

Maybe we have a PowerPoint presentation around here somewhere… Hmmm…

HAT TRICK

Ahem… In any case, folks, please remember that whatever happens in academia stays in academia.

So, moving right along…

The following clip shows a typical group of redundant, high-salary, taxpayer subsidized deans and vice provosts, hardly working their sophisticated, synergistic administrative alchemy at an undisclosed university:

“Yuz guys took care of that thing, right?”

In all fairness though, it should be noted that academia isn’t the only place where things don’t always go as planned…

C’MON MAN!

We can all manage just fine without armies of useless high salary bureaucrats and administrators and legions of profligate Kafkaesque PC departments and programs in academia or in the federal government – but without NFL Football… well, life would hardly be worth living at all. Steve Sabol – R. I. P.


Anonymous said...

Oooops!

Looks like those edited hyperlinks didn’t translate and post properly to the ASC Blog.

Must have been an administrative error…

Anyway, below are the unedited hyperlinks for the above post, presented for your approval.

Enjoy!


WHATEVER STUDIES PHOTO 1

https://www.google.com/search?q=neely+gsa+photo&client=firefox-a&hs=nPV&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=W45MUrXSK-m0yAHJjIH4Dw&ved=0CCsQsAQ&biw=819&bih=457&dpr=1.25#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=uIW68AN8ywzLBM%3A%3BubX1992dAJaQSM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fgranitegrok.com%252Fwp-content%252Fuploads%252F2012%252F04%252FNeely-Hot-Tub.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fgranitegrok.com%252Fblog%252F2012%252F04%252Fmore-gsa-hackarama%3B360%3B269


WHATEVER STUDIES CONFERENCE VIDEO

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FVnQzGQJTE


HAT TRICK

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7mmrF-4rUE


“Yuz guys took care of that thing, right?”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sM6llIgvv0E


C’MON MAN!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhCks3bvTdA


Anonymous said...

Anon 7:53 etc.

RE LIBERAL ACADEMICS, HIGHER ED INDOCTRINATION, BRAINWASHING, BULLIES ETC.

We (JdS/Zorox) have been over all of this ad infinitum on the ASC blog for several years now – citing a plethora of references – where have you been?

It’s all there if you read back through old posts.

Or you can just scroll up to the Impostors in the Temple post above – posted September 26 – read that post – then read the book – then read the books listed there.

You may also want to check out “Bullies: How the Left’s Culture of Fear and Intimidation Silences Americans” (2013) by Ben Shapiro – and “The Death of Right and Wrong: Exposing the Left’s Assault on Our Culture and Values” by Tammy Bruce.

To make it even easier for you – here are some video clips:

"DECEPTION WAS MY JOB" – 1985 INTERVIEWS AND LECTURES OF YURI BEZMENOV; EX-KGB PSY-OPS OPERATIVE AND DEFECTOR - WHO DESCRIBES THE SOVIET KGB PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE AND SYSTEMATIC CULTURAL SUBVERSION TACTICS THAT HAVE RESULTED IN OUR PRESENT LEFTIST MARXIST FEMINIST POSTMODERN ACADEMY AND CULTURE:

Scroll down to the video of Bezmenov pasted on this web page and click the “play” button:

http://theconservativetreehouse.com/2013/02/28/former-kgb-agent-yuri-bezmenov-explains-our-four-stages-the-new-normal-2/

More from Bezmenov:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_doqvkC-jYk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gnpCqsXE8g

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-6cvuyCKbw

Sadly, many so-called conservative Republicans have also been co-opted into the systematic subversion process:

http://www.uhuh.com/education/noamer.htm#1ControlEd

The Soviets eventually lost the political Cold War game of chicken to President Ronald “Mr. Gorbachov, tear down that [Berlin] wall!” Reagan – and to Pope John Paul II (the hero of the Gdansk Polish Ship Yard workers revolt).

The Soviets brought about the collapse of their own former Soviet Union in 1991.

Like the over-zealous Soviet nuclear submarine captain in The Hunt for Red October, the Soviets killed themselves with their own ideological torpedo…

…but not before injecting the West with what from all appearances may be a lethal dose of the same insidious Marxist-Feminist Postmodern propaganda brain virus of physical, mental, intellectual, cultural, ethical, economic, political and military demoralization, degeneracy, decay and decline that led to their own demise – deploying among other weapons against us our own liberal western intellectuals, media and universities as the stealth Syringe of Leftist Indoctrination.

The true winners of the Cold War may turn out to be the Chinese.

“You arrogant ass! You’ve killed us!”

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xhr108_you-ve-killed-us_shortfilms#.Ue7AyKyG48s

Anonymous said...

Perhaps bloggie might note that the bombastic pomo obsessed poster corrected the links in his own posts before anyone noticed they didn't work, or cared they didn't work, or even clicked on them and noticed they didn't work. Or to put it another way, he's talking to himself - not talking, actually, since his posts aren't to introduce topics for discussions. They are simply his telling us all how dopey and duped we all are and how much better off we would be if we listened and took notes from his lectures. His arrogance and deafness to any opinions other than his own are exactly the same failures as the admins everyone lambasts.

Anonymous said...

Anon 12:45

You and your ilk keep trying to make it all about ad hominem attacks intended to kill the messenger because you can't intelligently engage the message.

Listen to Bezmenov's lectures above your post - and then you can go back to talking to yourself in your sleep.

Bloggie said...

Now we have "ilk?"

Anonymous said...

Got ilk??

That does it, Bloggie.

No more soup for you!

Smiley emoticon here: 

THE END OF THE CAMPUS MARXIST-FEMINIST POSTMODERN PSEUDO-ACADEMIC SOUP NAZIS

The way things have been for far too long on the PC American college campus:

RACIST! No soup for you!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WRxEY8o3kc


SEXIST! No soup for you!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNwbjcuQUv8


The way things will be in the new post-PC campus paradigm: No more soup for the PC Soup Nazis

Now WE know all the “secret ingredients” to your toxic soup recipes, PC Soup Nazis.

Marxism… Feminism… Postmodernism… Political Correctness… Racism… Sexism… Discrimination… Victim Studies… Identity Politics…

Yeah, that’s right.

We finally see through the bullshit of all your divisive, pseudo-academic PC soup recipes.

You’re through, PC Soup Nazis… Pack it up.

No more soup for YOU!

NEXT!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ow_ZaUwK8zM


Anonymous said...

isn't it time for a new thread? This one has been in effect for as long as the last strategic plan.

Anonymous said...

"If it is up for reconsideration again, more parking lots - especially one that would replace a lovely pristine field across from U Hall - are definitely a bad idea."

Bad idea or good: they will build a parking structure for SuperGordy, SuperPOPs, board of turds members, and America's new aristocrats ready to rape American democracy. This way, they do not need to be seen in public since the underground passageway will protect them from public scrutiny and visibility.

They have kicked academia and higher education out of Libbey, Scott, and Tucker (to be renamed Jacobs, Gold, and Scarborough) Halls: they will be there to entertain these fat cats. Imagine the new luxury condos with state-funded room service, and they will be connected to the underground hallway to the parking lot.

Anonymous said...

Can anyone report on what happened at the UT-AAUP meetings? were they to provide info on contract negotiations?

Anonymous said...

Members of the bargaining unit, FTT/FTTT and Lecturers
should contact Linda Rouillard at linda.marie.rouillard@gmail.com to receive UT-AAUP informational mailings (if you have not already received an email regarding the newsletter).

Anonymous said...

Hey, AAUP bargainers: those of us who are not in your unit may not benefit directly from your contract, but we would love to see you put El Gordo in his place. A weaker Jacobs makes a stronger University of Toledo. If you're going to have rallies, marches, or informational pickets, please pass the word along so we can join you.