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A MUST READ FOR ALL ACADEMICS! Now on Amazon Kindle. Click on Professor Goat above to be directed to the book.
DON'T BE A SHEEP
UT's Officially Disapproved Information Source and HISTORICAL ARCHIVE. The only source of truth, where Paradox Manifests: Hundreds of thousands of visits. Yet No One Admits to Reading It. Welcome to the "Grey Area" where "Unethical Utterances," i.e., criticisms of administrators, are commonplace. Make U.U. here where genuine civility still reigns, a.k.a., freedom......................... UNIVERSITY OF TOLEDO'S EQUIVALENT TO RADIO FREE EUROPE
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NEW!!! Hard Eight by Professor Extreme
HARD EIGHT
Hard Eight: Auto-Ethnographic Essays on Academic Culture Featuring the End of the Arts & Sciences College, University of Toledo, 2010
Daily Koan
Should the newly discovered black hole be named in honor of UT BOT?
Swamp Bubble
Do you agree or disagree that University of Toledo suffers from administrative bloat?
How do you feel about the proposed UT Degree Guarantee program? (Reposted to allow more people to vote.)
How do you feel about the proposed UT Guarantee program?
How would you grade the overall performance of the Jacobs' administration on running the University of Toledo?
COMMENT OF THE WEEK
Bloggie applauds this perspicacious observer:
"The administration is in a panic mode to implement controversial and irreversible structural and curricular changes campus-wide by early February fiscal plan deadlines with only the vaguest notions of their impacts. The plan is, according to an interview with a top administrator published in the most recent Independent Collegian, to cast out many seeds and "see what grows." This experimental garden, as most senators articulated in many different ways, seems a costly recipe for disaster. Utter madness. Stay tuned."
Print Version of Dictionary of Academia Available on Amazon.com
The profound ruminations of the goaty Sage are now available in this 119 page satirical masterpiece. See: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1480292494/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_2?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B009RC0SJA&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1JV8N5BYAYY9WC9SJWD2
"Dictionary of Academia" Read it While it's Hot
A MUST READ FOR ALL ACADEMICS! Now on Amazon Kindle. Click on Professor Goat above to be directed to the book.
Comment of the Week
"This is that old tension between the corporate way of doing things and the academic way of doing things. In the corporate world, you sweep everything under the rug to make your b.s. as shiny, pleasing to the nose, and profitable as possible. In the academic world, you operate with a higher moral standard. Veritas and all that."
Comment of the Week of August 13
Re UT academic posers and hypocrites:
Have their checks calculated in units of postmodern theoretical currency and issued in photocopied legal tender notes signed by Walter Benjamin with a photo of Karl Marx and a seal stamped “In Derrida We Trust”.
Comment of the Era
Wow! Ain't that something.
-Anonymous
Comment of the Week
Mention goes to the the anonymous commentator of Feb 7, who, regarding UT President Llloyd Jacob's "Investing in Faculty" letter, stated: "If we could use the same criteria for 'investing in administrators' we could cut most of those positions."
Comments to HLC
Make sure you address your comments to HLC to the email address listed below in the "Higher Learning Commission Wants to Know" post. This may be the only chance you have to be heard. Bloggie hears that UT administration has discussed giving faculty "training" so that faculty members know how to "properly" talk to the HLC folks. How's that for stacking the deck? Does everyone get a little script to read? Make sure you practice before a mirror at being bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.
Comment of the Week!
Definitely, the Comment of the Week award goes to Anonymous 12:14 pm, Dec 3, under the "Higher Learning Commission Needs to Know" posting by Diogenes. Pithy and pointed!
--Love,
Bloggie
MESSAGE OF THE DAY:
DON'T BE A SHEEP
Independent Collegian Article on Dicey Administrative Spending
IC reporter Casey Cheap looks at bow ties, apartments and movie tickets purchased by UT administrators at university/public expense. See
TO CONTACT BLOGGIE . . .
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Letter and Petition from Foreign Languages Faculty Member
A couple weeks ago, at the beginning of summer break, we in the Department of Foreign Languages were informed that our secretary's position was being eliminated and that while she will not lose her job (she'll be transferred), that position is not to be filled. We apparently will be expected to do our own jobs plus what we can of the secretary's. That is clearly not acceptable, and so one of the steps we in FL are taking against it is an online petition now available for any who want to (including those who for whatever reason--not a registered Ohio voter, not a US citizen, etc.--cannot sign the petition against SB5), to read and sign.
I know not everyone on the blog will be interested in this; I'm not asking anyone who doesn't want to, to sign or even read the petition. I do think that there are many who would be interested and would want to sign it--if they knew about it.
It's scary to post this under my own name; I'm as afraid as anyone of repercussions. But this is simply too important to keep quiet on, and we have to do something! FL is not the first department that this has happened to, and it's almost certain not to be the last if we don't speak up in a way that the administration will hear us and in a way that makes clear that other people are seeing that it's going on.
Here's the link to the online petition:For those who can make it, there will also be an informational meeting--including lunch and petition-signing--next Friday, May 27 in FH 2420, 12:00 - 2:00 p.m.
I know not everyone on the blog will be interested in this; I'm not asking anyone who doesn't want to, to sign or even read the petition. I do think that there are many who would be interested and would want to sign it--if they knew about it.
It's scary to post this under my own name; I'm as afraid as anyone of repercussions. But this is simply too important to keep quiet on, and we have to do something! FL is not the first department that this has happened to, and it's almost certain not to be the last if we don't speak up in a way that the administration will hear us and in a way that makes clear that other people are seeing that it's going on.
Here's the link to the online petition:For those who can make it, there will also be an informational meeting--including lunch and petition-signing--next Friday, May 27 in FH 2420, 12:00 - 2:00 p.m.
Katherine Best
Wave of the Future or Merely Sometime Later This Week?
The Chronicle of Higher Education ran a deeply fascinating article called, "When to Dissolve a Faculty Senate." Apparently this is any time that it becomes "adversarial" to administration.
The online comments to the article are priceless.
Nemeth on Mammon in IC
David Nemeth's most recent tour-de-force
Professor Nemeth has another fabulous and timely article in the new and increasingly wonderful Independent Collegian. See http://www.independentcollegian.com/forum/the-kraken-attacks-1.2340091
Nemeth Does it Again
See the forum article in The Independent Collegian at:
Nemeth's New Article in Collegian
The Independent Collegian has run another of Professor Nemeth's fine and provocative articles in its latest edition. This one discusses the double-talk by mouthpieces for the current UT administration concerning the effects of and reasons behind so-called strategic reorganization. Make sure you get the latest version of Newspeak 5.1 if you want to decode what UT administrators are really saying.
UT Ranks 13th Nationally on Administrative Bloat
See Appendix B of the Administrative Bloat report posted on 8/28 for evidence, but UT now has a higher proportion of administrators to students than all but 12 public universities in America. President Jacobs has finally put University of Toledo in the top tier. With Strategic Organization he may be aiming for number one.
This Blog is a free and independent information source. Contributions and comments are welcome. Contact: ASCBloggie@gmail.com WARNING AND DISCLAIMER !!!! This blog is entirely non-official!! People may express opinion here, exercising freedom of speech and association.
Recent Letters from The Blade
Jacobs' arrogance is astonishing
Recently, President Lloyd Jacobs of the University of Toledo stated that bonuses were justified because his administrators "took all the risks."
As a professor at UT, I am outraged that President Jacobs claims that administrators take all of the risks. What risks do they take that the other faculty and staffs on campus do not?
Administrators are protected by state and federal employment laws and by their contracts.
When ex-President Vik Kapoor was terminated, he remained a professor with a salary near what he was paid as president.
As president emeritus, Dan Johnson retained a salary greater than his pay as president.
In the recent layoffs, exceptionally few administrators were terminated. It seems to me that low-level personnel at UT have far more risks because the greater proportion of the layoffs have come from their ranks. And they did not have continuing salaries.
President Jacobs' answer to questions on two occasions regarding relinquishing part of his bonus was to the effect that he earned his bonuses and what he did with them was his business.
Administrators do not risk their personal money in their duties: they use taxpayer money and funds collected through donations and grants to the university.
Administrators take home salaries in the hundreds of thousands of dollars and then add bonuses for longevity and whatever else the president decides is fitting for their contracts.
However, the lower-level personnel have much lower salaries and no such bonuses. Where is the risk?
It seems to me that these bonuses are convoluted: The lower-level personnel are taking the greater risks with no bonuses while the administrators with very rewarding jobs with little risk receive large bonuses.
Am I missing something here?
WALTER W. OLSON,
Mechanical, Industrial, and Manufacturing
Engineering,
University of Toledo
It's the same old, same old at UT
I could hardly believe the arrogance of Dr. Lloyd Jacobs, president of the University of Toledo, when a reporter asked if he would be willing to forgo his bonus in light of the layoffs, raise in tuition, etc.
His comment was that he worked for it. Is that to say that the ones being laid off did not work for their pay?
All I can say is, business as usual at UT. Some things never change.
SANDY FLICK
Rose Acres Drive
UT also has checks, balances
In response to letter titled "Professors must focus on teaching," I would like to point out that the University of Toledo operates on the basis of shared governance.
This means that faculty members participate in the administration of the university.
A focus on teaching requires faculty to address administrative issues such as policies, procedures, and yes, finances, because these all affect classroom outcomes. A university with solid and equitable finances benefits everyone, including and especially the students. Just as the U.S. government is constituted to have checks and balances, so is our university government.
The UT-AAUP is one of those checks against UT administrators who most recently have displayed more concern for their own profit rather than a concern for the common good.
LINDA M. ROUILLARD,
Associate Professor
of French,
University of Toledo
Quote of the Year (so far)
The following is excerpted from the recent UT AAUP newsletter concerning the official university response to news of the bonus scandal:
. . . . Either Jacobs is misleading the media or he has misled the Board of Trustees. President Jacobs objected to "the general tone" of the UT-AAUP Newsletter. Many persons on this campus object to the "general tone" of the Jacobs Administration. During his tenure as President, he has introduced an administrative culture of fear and intimidation. . . . A point of logic must be raised here, with all respect to UT AAUP, the conclusions that President Jacobs has (1) misled the media and (2) the Board of Trustees are not mutually exclusive. Both would seem likely given his considerable talent at spinning "visions." |
How to Contribute
The Blog is now under new management, a consortium of ASC faculty who pooled their longevity bonuses to purchase it from its original owners. Your comments are still welcome but look for some changes. Contact: ASCBloggie@gmail.com. Your contributions might include new posts, images, comments to existing articles/posts, concerns about process and substance at UT's College of Arts & Sciences. This blog is entirely non-official, for which you can be thankful, unless you enjoy reading self-serving bureaucratic propaganda, and is intended as a discussion and commentary forum for UT A&S faculty and community.
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A blog is a blog is a blog. Information, comments and opinions found here don't represent official views, instead they represent truthful and sincere ones. If you want the official line on things go elsewhere. This is a discussion and comment page. You may even read things here that you disagree with, and then, maybe not.
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Blog Archive
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2010
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February
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- No MORE!
- Provost Powerpoint Plan
- Beam Me Up Scotty
- Truth and Beauty Hold Sway as VP Scarborough Addre...
- Furloughs One More Time
- Goats of Cash
- Professor Heberle's Letter to BOT
- The Letter
- Furloughs--Again
- For and of the Birds
- Research Active Description
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Links
9 comments:
If we budget to avoid them, we lay more people off permanently.
Oh, anonymous 10:09, you are referring, then, to that shell game the administrators call a budget? In which they spend millions and vapory projects, while they cheat the College of Arts and Sciences of its earned revenues? Yeah, right.
I used to live near some people who had peacocks. They (the peacocks) would scream all the time...but it signified nothing. These noisy birds seemed very impressed with themselves, but were more of a nuisance than anything else. I see the parallel.
Rosemary should get a parrot.
Actually I'm a PSA employee who has a family to feed who doesn't want to lose her job. Given the choice between no job and a day off, I'm unclear why there's a debate. Unless you're guaranteed not to be fired I guess.
Hi PSA -- Given the choice you lay out, of course anyone would prefer the time off. The debate is that shouldn't be the choice. There are many alternatives. BGSUs furlough plan only includes the highest paid personnel. UTs plan should not treat President and Provosts and Deans the same as those who can least afford the pay cut.
PSA:
Please remember this... none of us control the budget.
We are not the ones who gave the huge bonuses that Olson and AAUP were up in arms about. We are not the ones who gave the upper administration salary raises approaching 20%. We are not the ones who borrowed the money through bonds to increase the amount that the university has to pay for those debts. We are not the ones who gave millions of dollars to "UTIE" or the "new Alternative Energy School."
Yet we will be the ones asked to pay for these malfeasances.
You may lose your job with or without a furlough. But the furlough is a way for the administration to sound "fair" by asking all of us to pay a little.
It is not a solution but a problem: if one or two days will not cure their excesses, will 10 or 20 days be enough? Will a 100 new layoffs be enough? Who really knows when the adminstration controls the numbers?
The real solution is to stop their endless spending.
Horns and Fins,
I don't disagree and I don't have sympathy for administrators. Except they will ultimately make the decisions. And if faculty refuse to participate, then it will be PSA folks like me out of a job.
I'm not making a comment on whether it is fair or not fair. My point is that faculty have the ability to make these stands on principle because your job is not and won't be at stake. Perhaps faculty jobs are at stake over the long term as I know tenured positions are not being replaced as faculty leave, however my concerns are very much in the short term. My principles are my children having food to eat and a home to sleep in.
I would love to be able to fight the big battles with UT leaders, but my family is more important to me than those battles. You guys are able to fight those battles because of your status as faculty. But even though you're fighting on the side of the angels, if you don't take furloughs, I'm more likely to be out of a job than if you do.
And I'm sorry, but compared to my family's financial security, I'm not able to care about UT politics. Thanks for listening.
Unfortunately UT politics have real world effects. The BOT and upper administration of this university are doing all they can to make the College of Arts and Sciences into a mass market feed lot style of institution. They will pack in warm bodies, slap a degree on the warm bodies, grab a whole lot of government and private money in the process that will then go to support favorite projects like the medical venture, and this they will do with as few people as possible on the College end. They will get rid of departments, professors, classes (going to distance learning formats and pre-packaged "modules") and PSA people too.
When administration is done with this college the result will make Owens C.C. look like Harvard in comparison.
PSA:
It is difficult to believe you are really a concerned professional worker at UT and not another hired UT marketing stooge pretending to fear on this blog in order to divide PSA professionals from AAUP professionals. Members of our hard-working and unappreciated UT non-administrative professional workforce (those represented by PSA, CWA, UTPPA and AAUP) have a common cause to promote at this time if they are to survive this administration’s inhumane restructuring plan with any sense of empowerment and dignity.
That common cause is to throw off the yokes of our carpetbagger taskmasters who under the diabolical strategic planning of The Jacobs Kleptocracy now deliberately attempt to bring our once-proud and unified University of Toledo workforce to its knees.
Their reason is to enhance revenue. They could care less about the human condition. Here is what we in the Arts & Sciences College can do as a cooperative and aggrieved workforce at this time. In anticipation of impending accreditation visits we can use the Chronicle of Higher Education’s “Great Colleges to Work For” survey to our advantage and empowerment. Read about it here:
http://chroniclegreatcolleges.com/
If you are one of the “randomly” selected members of the UT workforce invited to respond to the survey, please take the time to elaborate on the climate of fear and foreboding that now prevails among PSA, CWA and AAUP workers at the University of Toledo.
You might specifically comment about how the low morale of PSA, CWA and AAUP members derives directly and indirectly from the aggressive implementation of Jacobs’ “Directions” strategic planning. Perhaps articulate clearly in your responses to the survey how our Board of Trustees and the Jacobs administrative team have deliberately distorted the intended purpose of our state public university of higher education while padding their own pockets.
Or, mention the injustice of the notorious “furlough” plan as an example of a sick, slick maneuver that positions the Administration to control instead of empower the productive efforts of the UT workforce. For example, our work force is immobilized by paperwork at the moment. Those administrators who impose this paperwork are the ones will get the raises and rewards.
Maybe mention how the low morale of UT workers contributes to low morale of students, who cannot but be negatively impacted by the current malaise of unethical behavior of administrative leadership at UT.
Finally, relate how UT pursues new student markets aggressively by developing new programs and devaluing the quality of its degrees more in the hope of revenue enhancement than from any deeper conviction about how the contribution of these programs might promote a future workforce of Ohio-educated Americans imbued with a passion for academic excellence and civic responsibility.
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