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Thursday, August 4, 2016

The Administratively Centered University?

The bureaucratic juggernaut that ate the world.  See:

https://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/2016/08/03/the-supposed-crisis-of-student-debt-is-actually-the-predictable-consequence-of-government-subsidies/

27 comments:

Anonymous said...


"Bilas to speak at Rocket Roundball Social," The Blade, Aug. 2

I certainly hope that a heavy-hitter UT donor is picking up the tab for Jay Bilas' soiree in Savage Arena and that it's not being paid for with student activities fees that has partially subsidize UT's athletic operations for years.

Anonymous said...


"ProMedica announces partnership with Cleveland Clinic," The Blade, Aug. 11, 2016

What happens to the College of Medicine and Life Sciences when the Cleveland Clinic, which operates the Learner College of Medicine, buys ProMedica?

UT can kiss those ProMedica bucks good-bye.

This is just another example of inadequate community expectation for regional health-care systems and the continued significant out referral and out migration of clinical care that tremendously inconveniences families, weakens existing health-care providers in the Toledo area, and reinforces the triangle of referral patterns of Toledo patients to Cleveland, Columbus, and Ann Arbor.

Let hope that Sharon Gaber and Chris Cooper are not the latest in a long line of MCO and UT administrators who end up losing their reputations to ProMedica.

Anonymous said...

UT ousts fund-raising executive; reassigns 1,” The Blade, Aug. 12, 2016

How disappointing it is to see the Sharon Gaber enter her second year as UT president with her administration in such a state of flux.

The latest casualties are the vice president for advancement and the vice president for research who will be replaced by a person who currently serves as VP for governmental affairs and who previously held the top research post and did a commendable job.

Given the reasons for the dismissal of the vice president for advancement outlined in today’s Blade article, how in the hell did this guy hired in the first place?

Let’s hear a nice round of applause for the search committee that included him in its list of final candidates that was forwarded to President Gaber for her consideration.

And what does one make of the lengthy, cult-of-personality article that the UT alumni magazine ran on McCrimmon early this year? Well done.

Do administrators who make six-figure salaries really have to sign standard statements agreeing to “be dependable” by arriving at work on time and working his schedule and providing “a fair day’s work in return for a fair day’s pay?”

The never-ending leadership churn and third-floor University Hall palace intrigue are getting tiresome and embarrassing. They disrupt the flow and growth of productive work relationships that are so crucial to UT’s efforts to improve the quality of its educational offering and its national reputation.

A revolving door of vice presidents and deans leads to stagnation and a lack of progress. New initiatives stall, institutional memory is lost, and institutional morale is sapped. For the last decade, UT has seen so much infighting and bickering, and so many people with different strategies, one after another, come in and undo the work of their predecessors.

The turmoil in marketing and communication is particularly worrisome, given that unit’s responsibility in communicating UT’s message and cultivating UT’s—here comes my favorite weasel word— “brand,” whatever the hell it is.

President Gaber has a limited amount of time to get her agenda for the future in place, to get things done, and to tap UT’s potential to move to a more prominent level nationally. She can start by solidifying her own senior leadership team as soon as possible. The clock is ticking.

Anonymous said...

4:09 PM

Who said The Cleveland Clinic is buying ProMedica? This is a limited collaboration that will certainly benefit ProMedica and all the people of Northwestern Ohio.

The negativity around here is over the top.

Speaking of which. 6:58 AM, Gaber removed, what sounds like, a non-productive employee. Would you rather she keep him on and continue to pay him over a quarter a million dollars a year? UT's has made progress in the year since she has been here. She deserves the benefit of the doubt. She can't fix a decade of decline in a single year.

Anonymous said...

President Gaber came to UT and discovered a thick layer of overpaid and unnecessary VPs with lengthy, bloated contracts which have made her a prisoner of previous greedy administrations (Jacobs and Nagi)and an incompetent BOT that approved those contracts. She can't solidify her own senior leadership team until she can get rid of the leftovers.

Anonymous said...

Excuse me for being impertinent, but I thought an important goal of the latest ProMedica-UT clinical affiliation agreement was to make Toledo a stronger magnet for medical talent and research funding, to recruit top medical specialists and sub-specialists to join the College of Medicine and Life Sciences faculty who would be based at ProMedica Toledo Hospital, who could provide cutting-edge medical procedures and treatments so that northwest Ohioans would not have to travel long distances for care, and who would help elevate Toledo from something of a medical-care backwater to a medical-care destination.

The ProMedica cancer-care affiliation agreement with the behemoth known as the Cleveland Clinic, whose ever-expanding tentacles are woven deep through northern Ohio and other parts of the country, does nothing to advance that goal.

Cleveland Clinic has spent the last 20 years snapping up doctor practices and buying other hospitals, hoping for economies of scale and greater market clout. It purchased a minority share of Akron General Hospital for $100 million in 2014, and then recently completed the takeover, gaining a solid foothold in the Akron health-care market in the process.

Despite the contentious relationship ProMedica and the Medical College of Ohio had over many years, ProMedica and UT surely are logical partners for the creation of a full-service academic health system.

So it is fair to ask where ProMedica sees its future. With UT? Or with the Cleveland Clinic, which also operates a medical school?

A continued shakeout among health-care institutions in northwest Ohio is probably inevitable, and it’s just a matter of time before Cleveland Clinic expands its footprint in northwest Ohio.

ProMedica has just put out the welcome mat.

Anonymous said...

ProMedica deal is with College of Medicine and not UTMC, it is intended to help UTMC train medical professionals and ProMedica with a source of trained medical professionals who would eventually work for them. Deal is not intended to help UTMC hospital or address its issues.

Anonymous said...

For the love of...

It is an agreement to coordinate patient care and to ease access and reduce the paperwork and time needed to see a CC oncologist.

Not all slopes are slippery. Not all agreements are secret conspiracies.

Far from being an evil empire, ProMedica is an exemplary corporate citizen. I for one am proud that *MY* university is partnering with them.

Anonymous said...

Promedica is "exemplary" of a third tier healthcare system. There is a lot of risk with this partnership, conjoining two struggling and less than mediocre systems/institutions (UT and Promedica). Hopefully it becomes a success, but let's not pretend that either group is high-quality.

Anonymous said...

prayers and best wishes for the forum founder and regular poster who is having major health issues

Sam I. Amnot said...

Speedy recovery! Lots of butt still left to kick around here.

Anonymous said...


Anonymous 10:09 raises an excellent point and indirectly a pertinent question.

Left out in all of the stories that have appeared in the Blade is what is going to happen to UT’s other historically excellent clinical education partners?

To meet the requirements of the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, the college’s accrediting agency, the college must show that it has sufficient curriculum, clinical partners and other resources for classroom and clinical training.

The College of Medicine and Life Sciences maintains highly valued academic affiliations that span more than 20 hospitals and health¬-care systems and more than 200 physician practices. It’s rare for a medical school to have just one clinical partner.

These include multiple, valued relationships in northwest Ohio and southeastern Michigan such as Mercy Health Partners in Ohio; St. Joseph Mercy Health System in southeastern Michigan; Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit; Riverside Methodist Hospital in Columbus; northwest Ohio hospitals, clinics and physician offices that participate in the College of Medicine’s Area Health Education Center (AHEC) program; the Veterans Administration and many others.

Will those affiliation agreements continue?

Again, what proof—other than gobs of money—is there that ProMedica Toledo Hospital, on its own, can provide the academic environment needed to build a top-tier medical school?

That is also a compelling reason why a strong UT medical school, with its own state-of-the-art clinical facilities, is the best model, not a medical school that operates a specialty hospital or a multi-specialty outpatient clinic.

The Gaber administration needs to move very cautiously in considering a radical repurposing of the UT Medical Center.

Anonymous said...

10:09, ProMedica Toledo Hospital is a top 100 hospital. No, it isn't a Cleveland Clinic, or Henry Ford, but it is certainly one of the top hospitals in the region. It is not a mediocre hospital system.

UT and ProMedica are two of our regions largest economic engines. Working together they can benefit each other, our students, and the entire region.

Why does the some of the faculty choose to be so damn critical of *ANYTHING* the University does. This blog is to the UT community as Fox News is the country as a whole.

Never mind, I know your reply. I'm shill for the Administration. Oh why do I bother to read this blog? The same reason I read I watch (a little) of Fox News. I want to know what the other side is "thinking".

UT has done a good job of purging Jacobs and Company. We won that battle. It is time to move on. Embrace our new leadership. We should all pull together toward the common goals of meeting the education, health, and economic well being of our students and neighbors.

I am worried that the negativity expressed on this blog and elsewhere will become a self-fulfilling prophecy.


Anonymous said...

Toledo Hospital is #14 in Ohio, not exactly stellar.

http://health.usnews.com/best-hospitals/area/oh

Anonymous said...

#14 out of 215 or in top 7%

Anonymous said...

Welcome to the internet, 9:07. Message and comment board negativity comes with the territory. Listen, most people here want what is best for the University (and healthcare in Toledo), but you or any one else is not doing favors by pretending that Promedica or UT is anything more (or less) than they really are. It is absolutely ridiculous, to state that Promedica is a "top 100 hospital." Add a couple of zeros to that number and only then you might not sound out of your mind.

Propagating the delusion that Promedica and/or UT are exemplary leaders in their respective industries actually holds us back from self-improving. It will maintain old failed policies and a mindset of complacency that is toxic. Be realistic, honest, and humble, and thirsty for change.

Anonymous said...

147 hospitals in Ohio. Do the math.

Anonymous said...

That's #14 out of 215 hospitals in Ohio. Top 6 or 7%, and better than 201 others in the state. Thanks for the link.

Anonymous said...

Anon: 1:00 PM

ProMedica Toledo Hospital Named One of Healthgrades 2016 America’s 100 Best Hospitals.

https://www.promedica.org/news/promedica-toledo-hospital-named-one-of-healthgrades-2016-america-s-100-best-hospitals

So, no I don't sound like I'm out of my mind.

Anonymous said...


Would someone please do their job and post the minutes of the March 26, April 12 and April 26 meetings of the Faculty Senate? It's only been five months.

Anonymous said...

Unfortunately they cannot be posted until approved by Faculty Senate who just met last week for first time since April 26th, so yes they should now be posted but no mechanism to do so from April until now (is like this every year)

Anonymous said...


“UT’s ranking falls to lowest level in 15 years,” The Blade, Sept. 13, 2016

It is simply amazing that the 2006 merger with Medical University of Ohio has had absolutely no impact on UT’s mediocre academic reputation.

Anonymous said...

If you admit students with the lowest ACT scores of any state university in Ohio, you will get those results.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous 5:47. "The highest U.S. News & World Report has ranked UT in the last 15 years was in 2006, when it came in at No. 201." Gee, by coincidence that is the same year Jacobs Inc. arrived on the main campus and announced that UT was "broken" but that he could "fix it." I'm afraid we will pay for his business model shenanigans and mismanagement for many more years to come.

Anonymous said...

I'd like to see a subset of the rankings,public universities with open enrollment.

As long as we have open enrollment our 6 year graduation rates and our retention rate will be lower than more selective schools. This is not a knock against open enrollment, just a realistic assessment.

Anonymous said...

Other Ohio Universities (Akron, Cleveland St, Youngstown) have moved away from open enrollment, We still accept students with a 15 ACT, which is the bottom 16% of all test takers. Students with scores like this belong in a community college to better prepare themselves and have a better chance of graduation, at least with a two year degree.

Anonymous said...

plus we lack a large endowment and tradition of giving to UT, another measure on these types of rankings that hurts us