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A MUST READ FOR ALL ACADEMICS! Now on Amazon Kindle. Click on Professor Goat above to be directed to the book.
DON'T BE A SHEEP
UT's Officially Disapproved Information Source and HISTORICAL ARCHIVE. The only source of truth, where Paradox Manifests: Hundreds of thousands of visits. Yet No One Admits to Reading It. Welcome to the "Grey Area" where "Unethical Utterances," i.e., criticisms of administrators, are commonplace. Make U.U. here where genuine civility still reigns, a.k.a., freedom......................... UNIVERSITY OF TOLEDO'S EQUIVALENT TO RADIO FREE EUROPE
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NEW!!! Hard Eight by Professor Extreme
HARD EIGHT
Hard Eight: Auto-Ethnographic Essays on Academic Culture Featuring the End of the Arts & Sciences College, University of Toledo, 2010
Daily Koan
Should the newly discovered black hole be named in honor of UT BOT?
Swamp Bubble
Do you agree or disagree that University of Toledo suffers from administrative bloat?
How do you feel about the proposed UT Degree Guarantee program? (Reposted to allow more people to vote.)
How do you feel about the proposed UT Guarantee program?
How would you grade the overall performance of the Jacobs' administration on running the University of Toledo?
COMMENT OF THE WEEK
Bloggie applauds this perspicacious observer:
"The administration is in a panic mode to implement controversial and irreversible structural and curricular changes campus-wide by early February fiscal plan deadlines with only the vaguest notions of their impacts. The plan is, according to an interview with a top administrator published in the most recent Independent Collegian, to cast out many seeds and "see what grows." This experimental garden, as most senators articulated in many different ways, seems a costly recipe for disaster. Utter madness. Stay tuned."
Print Version of Dictionary of Academia Available on Amazon.com
The profound ruminations of the goaty Sage are now available in this 119 page satirical masterpiece. See: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1480292494/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_2?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B009RC0SJA&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1JV8N5BYAYY9WC9SJWD2
"Dictionary of Academia" Read it While it's Hot
A MUST READ FOR ALL ACADEMICS! Now on Amazon Kindle. Click on Professor Goat above to be directed to the book.
Comment of the Week
"This is that old tension between the corporate way of doing things and the academic way of doing things. In the corporate world, you sweep everything under the rug to make your b.s. as shiny, pleasing to the nose, and profitable as possible. In the academic world, you operate with a higher moral standard. Veritas and all that."
Comment of the Week of August 13
Re UT academic posers and hypocrites:
Have their checks calculated in units of postmodern theoretical currency and issued in photocopied legal tender notes signed by Walter Benjamin with a photo of Karl Marx and a seal stamped “In Derrida We Trust”.
Comment of the Era
Wow! Ain't that something.
-Anonymous
Comment of the Week
Mention goes to the the anonymous commentator of Feb 7, who, regarding UT President Llloyd Jacob's "Investing in Faculty" letter, stated: "If we could use the same criteria for 'investing in administrators' we could cut most of those positions."
Comments to HLC
Make sure you address your comments to HLC to the email address listed below in the "Higher Learning Commission Wants to Know" post. This may be the only chance you have to be heard. Bloggie hears that UT administration has discussed giving faculty "training" so that faculty members know how to "properly" talk to the HLC folks. How's that for stacking the deck? Does everyone get a little script to read? Make sure you practice before a mirror at being bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.
Comment of the Week!
Definitely, the Comment of the Week award goes to Anonymous 12:14 pm, Dec 3, under the "Higher Learning Commission Needs to Know" posting by Diogenes. Pithy and pointed!
--Love,
Bloggie
MESSAGE OF THE DAY:
DON'T BE A SHEEP
Independent Collegian Article on Dicey Administrative Spending
IC reporter Casey Cheap looks at bow ties, apartments and movie tickets purchased by UT administrators at university/public expense. See
TO CONTACT BLOGGIE . . .
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Letter and Petition from Foreign Languages Faculty Member
A couple weeks ago, at the beginning of summer break, we in the Department of Foreign Languages were informed that our secretary's position was being eliminated and that while she will not lose her job (she'll be transferred), that position is not to be filled. We apparently will be expected to do our own jobs plus what we can of the secretary's. That is clearly not acceptable, and so one of the steps we in FL are taking against it is an online petition now available for any who want to (including those who for whatever reason--not a registered Ohio voter, not a US citizen, etc.--cannot sign the petition against SB5), to read and sign.
I know not everyone on the blog will be interested in this; I'm not asking anyone who doesn't want to, to sign or even read the petition. I do think that there are many who would be interested and would want to sign it--if they knew about it.
It's scary to post this under my own name; I'm as afraid as anyone of repercussions. But this is simply too important to keep quiet on, and we have to do something! FL is not the first department that this has happened to, and it's almost certain not to be the last if we don't speak up in a way that the administration will hear us and in a way that makes clear that other people are seeing that it's going on.
Here's the link to the online petition:For those who can make it, there will also be an informational meeting--including lunch and petition-signing--next Friday, May 27 in FH 2420, 12:00 - 2:00 p.m.
I know not everyone on the blog will be interested in this; I'm not asking anyone who doesn't want to, to sign or even read the petition. I do think that there are many who would be interested and would want to sign it--if they knew about it.
It's scary to post this under my own name; I'm as afraid as anyone of repercussions. But this is simply too important to keep quiet on, and we have to do something! FL is not the first department that this has happened to, and it's almost certain not to be the last if we don't speak up in a way that the administration will hear us and in a way that makes clear that other people are seeing that it's going on.
Here's the link to the online petition:For those who can make it, there will also be an informational meeting--including lunch and petition-signing--next Friday, May 27 in FH 2420, 12:00 - 2:00 p.m.
Katherine Best
Wave of the Future or Merely Sometime Later This Week?
The Chronicle of Higher Education ran a deeply fascinating article called, "When to Dissolve a Faculty Senate." Apparently this is any time that it becomes "adversarial" to administration.
The online comments to the article are priceless.
Nemeth on Mammon in IC
David Nemeth's most recent tour-de-force
Professor Nemeth has another fabulous and timely article in the new and increasingly wonderful Independent Collegian. See http://www.independentcollegian.com/forum/the-kraken-attacks-1.2340091
Nemeth Does it Again
See the forum article in The Independent Collegian at:
Nemeth's New Article in Collegian
The Independent Collegian has run another of Professor Nemeth's fine and provocative articles in its latest edition. This one discusses the double-talk by mouthpieces for the current UT administration concerning the effects of and reasons behind so-called strategic reorganization. Make sure you get the latest version of Newspeak 5.1 if you want to decode what UT administrators are really saying.
UT Ranks 13th Nationally on Administrative Bloat
See Appendix B of the Administrative Bloat report posted on 8/28 for evidence, but UT now has a higher proportion of administrators to students than all but 12 public universities in America. President Jacobs has finally put University of Toledo in the top tier. With Strategic Organization he may be aiming for number one.
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Recent Letters from The Blade
Jacobs' arrogance is astonishing
Recently, President Lloyd Jacobs of the University of Toledo stated that bonuses were justified because his administrators "took all the risks."
As a professor at UT, I am outraged that President Jacobs claims that administrators take all of the risks. What risks do they take that the other faculty and staffs on campus do not?
Administrators are protected by state and federal employment laws and by their contracts.
When ex-President Vik Kapoor was terminated, he remained a professor with a salary near what he was paid as president.
As president emeritus, Dan Johnson retained a salary greater than his pay as president.
In the recent layoffs, exceptionally few administrators were terminated. It seems to me that low-level personnel at UT have far more risks because the greater proportion of the layoffs have come from their ranks. And they did not have continuing salaries.
President Jacobs' answer to questions on two occasions regarding relinquishing part of his bonus was to the effect that he earned his bonuses and what he did with them was his business.
Administrators do not risk their personal money in their duties: they use taxpayer money and funds collected through donations and grants to the university.
Administrators take home salaries in the hundreds of thousands of dollars and then add bonuses for longevity and whatever else the president decides is fitting for their contracts.
However, the lower-level personnel have much lower salaries and no such bonuses. Where is the risk?
It seems to me that these bonuses are convoluted: The lower-level personnel are taking the greater risks with no bonuses while the administrators with very rewarding jobs with little risk receive large bonuses.
Am I missing something here?
WALTER W. OLSON,
Mechanical, Industrial, and Manufacturing
Engineering,
University of Toledo
It's the same old, same old at UT
I could hardly believe the arrogance of Dr. Lloyd Jacobs, president of the University of Toledo, when a reporter asked if he would be willing to forgo his bonus in light of the layoffs, raise in tuition, etc.
His comment was that he worked for it. Is that to say that the ones being laid off did not work for their pay?
All I can say is, business as usual at UT. Some things never change.
SANDY FLICK
Rose Acres Drive
UT also has checks, balances
In response to letter titled "Professors must focus on teaching," I would like to point out that the University of Toledo operates on the basis of shared governance.
This means that faculty members participate in the administration of the university.
A focus on teaching requires faculty to address administrative issues such as policies, procedures, and yes, finances, because these all affect classroom outcomes. A university with solid and equitable finances benefits everyone, including and especially the students. Just as the U.S. government is constituted to have checks and balances, so is our university government.
The UT-AAUP is one of those checks against UT administrators who most recently have displayed more concern for their own profit rather than a concern for the common good.
LINDA M. ROUILLARD,
Associate Professor
of French,
University of Toledo
Quote of the Year (so far)
The following is excerpted from the recent UT AAUP newsletter concerning the official university response to news of the bonus scandal:
. . . . Either Jacobs is misleading the media or he has misled the Board of Trustees. President Jacobs objected to "the general tone" of the UT-AAUP Newsletter. Many persons on this campus object to the "general tone" of the Jacobs Administration. During his tenure as President, he has introduced an administrative culture of fear and intimidation. . . . A point of logic must be raised here, with all respect to UT AAUP, the conclusions that President Jacobs has (1) misled the media and (2) the Board of Trustees are not mutually exclusive. Both would seem likely given his considerable talent at spinning "visions." |
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17 comments:
Did all of you read the unctuous drivel that the Blade wrote about Snake Daddy's great speech?
No! Can you provide a link please?
see: http://toledoblade.com/Education/2011/04/15/UT-president-says-school-must-adapt-to-changes.html
This one is even worse...
http://toledoblade.com/frontpage/2011/04/14/UT-president-promises-revolutionary-changes-to-higher-education.html
Shame on The Blade!
Airline Hub Model to be Applied to Ohio Universities
The change to the core (which is coming from the top). The administrators want fewer core classes so they can be BIGGER classes (25 minimum? with so few to choose from the classes will have 50..100..150 students) taught by fewer instructors and taught by tenure/track professors not part timers or lecturers.
Humanities? Columbus wants to create "hubs" like the airlines have. The hub for the humanities will be Bowling Green. They will eliminate all graduate programs in the humanities at UT, which will be the "Solar Panel Fiasco" hub. The Board is behind this - a Board member last year stated this explicitly.
The Union - the biggest reason Columbus/Jacobs wants to do away with the AAUP? they HATE grievance hearings, they HATE being called into court to testify, in fact they HATE having to justify/explain their actions. Jacobs/Columbus wants public workers to be governed by imperial fiat.
A university in the clouds. OMJ. Oh My Jacobs! University of Phoenix here we come.
Note that the ubiquitous Brown-nosing Primadonna of postmodernism continues to deftly pirouette with the prevailing political winds on campus – never failing to land deftly in the most personally advantageous career position…
Re 4/20 2:25 Primadonna:
Indeed.
Our very own Zelig the Human Chameleon.
If you check out the latest union newsletter and the info they are digging up on administrative use of PCards you will see another benefit of the proposed legislation: administrators won't be held accountable for their expenditures. If SB5 goes into effect it will be impossible to obtain the information that would hold administrators accountable if they misuse public funds.
Speaking of slimy behavior, I tip my cap to AAUP folks who investigated credit card spending by our betters. The crash pad in beautiful and scenic Ypsilanti will make the beginning of a wonderful movie... "The Apartment 2011, starring Jack Lemmon and Shirley McLaine!!" But who gets to play Fred McMurray's role? Enquiring minds want to know...
Don't get too worked up. There are clinical rotations in Ypsilanti that require students stay there for several weeks. Many students rotate through there. It is likely an apartment that the students use.
RE PRIMADONNA AND VARIOUS MIXED METAPHORS INVOLVING SHERLOCK HOLMES AND MARXIST FEMINIST POSTMODERN FOXES GUARDING THE HENHOUSE - PART 1
PROPOSED COST CUTTING MEASURES FOR ALL MARXIST FEMINIST POSTMODERNIST ADMINISTRATORS (MFPA’S) ON CAMPUS:
SINCE WE (RATHER THEY - THE MFPA’S) HAVE LONG DECREED THAT MONEY IS THE ROOT OF ALL OPPRESSIVE WESTERN CAPITALIST SCIENTIST PATRIARCHAL LOGOCENTRIC EVIL…
…AND MOREOVER, THAT REALITY IS MERELY A RELATIVIST SOCIAL CONSTRUCT…
…THEY (THE MFPA’S) SHOULD NOT MIND AT ALL HAVING THEIR PAYCHECKS CALCULATED IN MULTICULTURAL UNITS OF HOLISTIC POSTMODERN ALTERITY (AS OPPOSED TO THOSE OPPRESSIVE AND “LINEAR” DOLLARS AND CENTS).
…UNLESS OF COURSE THEY (THE MFPA’S AND THEIR COHORTS) HAVE JUST BEEN BLOWING MARXIST FEMINIST POSTMODERN SMOKE ALL THESE YEARS… (HINT – THEY HAVE)
SO, THE QUESTION REMAINS – BY WHAT STRETCH OF THE IMGAGINATION ARE THOSE WHOSE ENTIRE ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL EXISTENCE HAS BEEN PREDICATED UPON UTTERLY ABSURD AND IRRATIONAL MFP SMOKE AND MIRRORS -- BY WHAT STRETCH OF THE IMAGINATION ARE THESE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AND BUSINESS AND CAPITLIST-HATING ACADEMICS QUALIFIED TO RESTRUCTURE AND LEAD THE NEW “RELEVANT” UNIVERSITY OF THE 21ST CENTURY?
ANSWER: THEY AREN’T.
HERE’S WHAT’S GOING ON: AMERICAN EDUCATION FROM K-PHD HAS BEEN ROYALLY SCREWED UP SINCE EVERYTHING RELATED TO EDUCATION (AND PRETTY MUCH EVERYTHING ELSE) WENT TO HELL IN A HANDBASKET IN THE 60S
THE REMEDY UNTIL NOW HAS BEEN TO THROW ESSENTIALLY LIMITLESS MONEY TO THE TUNE OF HUNDREDS AND HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS OF DOLLARS INTO THE BOTTOMLESS SINKHOLE OF INCREASINGLY INSANE EDUCATION POLICY – AND TO ASK NO QUESTIONS
…AND TO EXPLOIT STUDENTS (STUDENT ACADEMIC OUTCOMES HAVE LONG BEEN ATROCIOUS, EMPLOYMENT AMONG LIBERAL ARTS GRADUATES ABYSMAL, OUTSTANDING STUDENT LOAN DEBT IS NOW APPROACHING $1 TRILLION – COMPARABLE TO THE U. S. DEBT CURRENTLY OWED TO CHINA ETC. ETC.)
…AND TO EXPLOIT THE LABOR OF ACADEMIC UNTOUCHABLES I.E. NON-TENURE/ADJUNCT FACULTYAND STAFF, GRADUATE TA’S ETC. – ALL THE WHILE IGNORING THE GREATER GOOD OF THE NATION, THE TAXPAYERS, THE STUDENTS AND THE SCHOOLS AND UNIVERSITIES THEMSELVES
WHILE PRODUCING REDUNDANT POLITICIZED STUDIES AND FOSTERING THE PROLIFERATION OF POLITICIZED PSUEDO DISCIPLINES AND PC ACADEMIC DEPARTMENTS AND PROGRAMS AND PC SOCIAL TYRANNY AND MEANINGLESS CRAZY TALK AND LEFTIST MFP PROPAGANDA.
ONLY THE ELITE TENURED FACULTY AND UPPER ADMINISTRATORS HAVE PROFITED FROM THIS IDEOLOGICALLY-DRIVEN EDUCATION PONZI SCHEME RACKET
AND ANYBODY WHO HAS DARED QUESTION THE STATUS QUO WAS PROMPTLY INFORMED THEY COULD STICK THEIR “FASCIST” QUESTIONS AND CONCERNS WHERE THE SUN DON’T SHINE
THE ONLY REAL COMPLAINTS EVER HEARD FROM EDUCATORS WAS – THERE STILL ISN’T ENOUGH MONEY
BUT NOW WE HAVE FINALLY KILLED THE GOOSE (THE AMERICAN TAXPAYER) THAT SO GENEROUSLY LAID SO MANY GOLDEN EGGS FOR SO MANY YEARS
NOW SOME “HARD CHOICES” NEED TO BE MADE. WHAT TO DO… WHAT TO DO…
HOW ABOUT APPOINT AN ELITE HAND-PICKED GROUP OF SOME OF THE MOST RELIABLE INSIDER MARXIST FEMINIST POSTMODERNIST FACULTY FOXES – YOU KNOW, THE ONES WHO HAVE BEEN RAVAGING THE HENHOUSE FOR DECADES AND TELLING THE REST OF US EVERYTHING WAS WONDERFUL AND TO MIND OUR OWN DAMNED BUSINESS YEAH. THEM.
APPOINT THE ELITE GROUP OF TENURED FACULTY MFP FOXES TO UPPER ADMINISTRATOR POSITIONS - DOUBLE OR TRIPLE THEIR SALARIES – PUT THEM IN CHARGE OF REINVENTING THE WHEEL OF THE “NEW AND IMPROVED” ACADEMIC HENHOUSE – AND THEN PUT THEM IN CHARGE OF GUARDING THE “NEW AND IMPROVED” HENHOUSE OF THE 21ST CENTURY
RE PRIMADONNA ETC. PART 2
HOLMES AND WATSON SURVEY THE DEVASTATION...
...SOUNDS LIKE ANOTHER FINE STRATEGIC PLAN WE’VE GOTTEN OURSELVES INTO, WATSON.
BUT WHO IS IN CHARGE OF DRAFTING THIS “NEW AND IMPROVED” STRATEGIC PLAN, HOLMES? PRAY TELL IT ISN’T THE NEFARIOUS DR. MORIARITY??
WORSE, WATSON. MUCH, MUCH WORSE THAN THAT I FEAR.
GOOD GOD, HOLMES! YOU DON’T MEAN…
YES, WATSON. I’M AFRAID SO MY GOOD MAN. THEY HAVE SIMPLY APPOINTED MORE MFPA FACULTY FOXES TO DO THEIR DASTERDLY DIRTY WORK…
(CUT TO BLEAK FOG-BOUND MOORS AND CUE MOURNFUL BAYING HOUNDS OF THE BASKERVILLES)
At 5:42... please take your facts someplace else. That's not part of the narrative.
@3:01 -- "There are clinical rotations in Ypsilanti..." may be a fact. "It is likely an apartment that the students use" is mere speculation.
I don't claim to have facts. Merely plausible speculation. There is enough dirt in the water to focus on. We do not need to get overly heated about something that may have a reasonable explanation.
If you want to complain about the clinical enterprise, we should be concerned that we are farming out our teaching to other institutions so that our clinical faculty can teach less and see more patients. That was Jacobs strategy from the beginning. We don't need teachers at a Medical College. We need "earners." Anyone can teach.
That is what I would focus on. Not the apartments (if my speculation is accurate) that our students need when they have to go out to find teachers.
signed Anon 5:42
Ok, that explains it.
Can UT pay for other students' living expenses too?
Why are they in Ypsi and not Toledo?
If you think any facts are getting in the way of the narrative of spendthrift administrators feathering their own nests, you're wrong.
And if the narrative is that things were going along pretty well at UT until MCO glommed onto us, I haven't seen any counterexamples yet.
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