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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
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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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Blog Archive
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2010
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April
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- Highly Relevant Review of "The Relevant University"
- The morning line
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- New Provost
- ASU Model continued
- The Relevant University?
- ASU Model
- Report From ASU Faculty
- Trojan Footfalls
- While I was gone
- Submission/Query from Reader on Dotty UT Relevance...
- UNIVERSITY CITY!
- Owens students to interview presidential candidates
- Genius
- Busting the Jacobs Bubble: Comment Contest
- Reorganization
- Problem? What Problem
- "Sustainability" = Pablum for Airheads
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16 comments:
Notice they're reaching the end of the poppy field, where they succumbed to the opiate effect of that huge number of flowers--but they do eventually make it to the Emerald City, where everyone gets his/her wish after trials. So I take this as an optimistic view that once we make it through Jacobsville, we have a chance at saving A & S and UT.
Great leaders have great dreams.
Attila the Hun had great dreams. His leadership did nothing to improve the human condition across the Valley of the Danube.
That's the same. Good analogy. Entirely equivalent.
Great and even the not so great leaders have great ambitions: like dogs marking their territory.
Ambitions are not the same as dreams!
"Jacobs Dons Lyotard for Annual Speech; Poor Fit"
I for one applauded President Jacobs today for boldly endorsing and embracing “postmodernism” as the sure cure in the name of relevancy for what ails this university.
Professors of STEMM were audibly gnashing their teeth in the wake of his introduction of the “p-word” and as he continued on to quote extensively from Jean-Francois Lyotard’s The Postmodern Condition (1979).
Inspired with the postmodern spirit of presenting the un-presentable the president reached into his high hat and pulled out the green rabbit of “Sustainability.” He proceeded then to publicly beat it to death by inflicting the term on his audience no less than fifty-three times.
Some knowledgeable philosophers of knowledge in the audience might have quibbled out loud that Lyotard’s book mainly revealed incredulity toward metanarratives as being postmodern, and that “Sustainability” is a good example of a metanarrative.
We can now look forward to Provost Haggett’s follow-up speech, wherein she will attempt to sell the magic of the alchemy of President Jacobs’ “postmodern Sustainability” in the context introducing her transformative plan for the College of Arts and Sciences.
I, for one, am disappointed by the president's speech. It seemed to me to be a weak speech that failed to inspire, failed to loft ideas that could carry us into the future and reiterated the failures of the past. Relevant? This speech was certainly wasn’t.
What ideas does the speech propose as beacons for the future?
Sustainability? I have heard this term for more than twenty years now and no one, no scientist, no economist and not ethicist has be able to define what this term really means. Are we sustainable for one year, 10 years, a century, or perhaps forever? How do you measure it? Can you point out a single instance of sustainability in the complete history of the world form the big bang, if it ever happened? These are not rhetorical questions. The answers are not self evident.
Even the famous Bruntland definition of 1987 is flawed: “Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It contains within it two key concepts: the concept of 'needs', in particular the essential needs of the world's poor, to which overriding priority should be given; and the idea of limitations imposed by the state of technology and social organization on the environment's ability to meet present and future needs." Priorities given to the poor will not result in a sustainable world as more resources, more energy and more pollution will necessarily result to improve their conditions.
The remaining four “boundaries” are similarly flawed. Engagement, Thematic Reorganization, “Leadership in Health Care” and “understanding of knowledge” are problematic. The current organization is thematic by fields of the colleges and departments. The speech confuses thematic with anti-thematic. Engagement with the community: are we to replace the constituted governments and missions of the City of Toledo and Lucas County? Leadership in Health Care: is this the Medical University of Toledo? Is that what is the penultimate future for this diverse university? And last, the understanding of knowledge is a field of Philosophy known as Epistemology which has been debated in Philosophy for more than a couple millennium: how does he expect the University of Toledo to overturn the past millennia of investigation?
This was a poor speech, not well thought out and not well delivered. But did we really expect more?
"The Postmodern Condition was written as a report on the influence of technology on the notion of knowledge in exact sciences, commissioned by the Québec government. Lyotard later admitted that he had a 'less than limited' knowledge of the science he was to write about, and to compensate for this knowledge, he 'made stories up' and referred to a number of books that he hadn't actually read. In retrospect, he called it 'a parody' and 'simply the worst of all my books'.[3]" from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Postmodern_Condition
So much for our President's eruditism.
Across Danube = Across Dorr Street
Good analogy. Entirely equivalent.
I wasn't able to go to the speech and haven't been able to find it on the UT site (or anywhere) so that I could have a look. Can anyone help me find it? Thanks!
Did you look on the president's page? Or on the announcements page? or in the UT Update that was sent to the campus with links?
Anonymous 11:50 –
Just go to the UT Home Page and search "annual address." Click open "Second Annual Address." It will reveal instead President Jacobs "Fourth Annual Address" from Wednesday.
Why the misdirection? We can only speculate that the UT Psychological Defense Unit is intent on hiding this astonishing clunker from the public gaze.
Sure! Here you are the text of Jacobs ramblings:
http://www.utoledo.edu/offices/president/docs/annual_address10.pdf
Also you can find a nice editorial written by students at The Independent Collegian:
http://www.independentcollegian.com/forum/rethink-the-theme-1.2225123
I came to realize these students are WAY smarter than senior administrators and guess what: students get a loan, senior administrators get a bonus. Life sucks!
It's obviously time for a "sustainability" pool. Those in attendance at these presentations can bet on the number of times he uses the term and win the "sustainability" pot. Thus they can actually profit from attending.
At a not-to-be-mentioned university decades ago, I won one of these pots keyed to the number of times the prof used his favorite, "for instance." Got enough out of it for several evenings of pizza and beer, enough to sustain me through almost all of finals week.
Thanks, A 1:08 and A 1:30, for your suggestions! I will go there.
LJ needs to consider some transformational change to decaf.
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