skip to main |
skip to sidebar
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
Search This Blog
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 . . .
Bloggie is always glad to consider submissions to this blog. If you have something that you wish posted please send it to:
ascbloggie@gmail.com
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.
Another Claim and Disclaimer
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.
ASCBloggie
Google News for "University of Toledo"
Google News for "Higher Education Ohio"
Blog Archive
Links
17 comments:
Can you find the University of Toledo in these rankings?
http://www.stateuniversity.com/rank/score_rank/
UT is number 1,393 out of 2,000 - down from 1,313 in 2009.
BGSU is 661 down from 538 in 2009.
OSU 203 down from 144 in 2009.
Miami 160 down from 145.
U of M is 42.
You can find the University of Toledo ranked among Ohio institutions here:
http://www.stateuniversity.com/rank_by_state/score_rank/OH.html
(Trying hard not be be snarky, but c'mon, BOT. You see this as progress?)
Better yet...check the OH rankings:
http://www.stateuniversity.com/rank_by_state/score_rank/OH.html
No. I couldn't find our great school on this list. Perhaps it is the wrong list. Anyone have access to the list of the mostly richly compensated University Presidents? I suspect we rank much higher on that list.
Wow - UT is 48th out of the top 50 Ohio institutions of higher learning -- and that's including art schools and nursing schools and religious colleges (and I don't believe there are a whole lot more than 50 total worth mentioning in the entire state).
That's pretty freakin' bad.
Then again - we locals not wearing rose colored glasses have been calling UT "Bancroft High" for decades - and not without good reason.
Maybe this is why the Regents and BOT are finally allowing Jacobs & Co. to undertake drastic and often draconian measures.
Those who long benefited from the status quo were willing to go along for the ride as long as the pay and bennies were decent - but who can honestly remember a time EVER when ANYONE with a clue was truly happy with or at UT?
Like Horton or Moon or Kapoor or Goodrich or Stern or any of the other usual suspects (including quite a number of truly insidious, mediocre and egregiously incompetent and degenerate faculty) have been any better.
Many disagree with the methods and direction of Jacobs and there's no guarantee we are necessarily on the right track now.
But seriously, folks. How much worse could things possibly be than they have already been since anyone can remember?
To Anonymous 9:04. You write "but who can honestly remember a time EVER when ANYONE with a clue was truly happy with or at UT?"
This was a respected university throughout academia when I hired on as a professor over twenty years ago. Six years ago it began to become a laughing stock and its reputation in academia continues to sink like a stone. Why? Because of the very BOT and Jacobs crew you valorize.
The term "Bancroft High" was an endearment expressed by locals who were proud to have a university of their own. Now it is held hostage and beaten down daily by ignorant carpetbaggers and the BOT's outsider Wall Street ambition and ethos.
It's jerks like you that perpetuate this abomination of an administration. I think this university can still be saved from Jacobs Inc. and reclaim its dignity. I am totally dedicated to the rescue of this venerable state public university of higher education from the selfish spawn of almighty dollar that is now dragging it down -- and I am not alone in this noble cause.
Well, these rankings are pretty much a joke... I would rather look at student reviews (http://www.studentsreview.com/), where you can see what students think about faculty and administration, learning environment, etc. As you can see, in the case of UT students agree that administrators suck big time here. Some comments by students:
"My freshman and sophomore year were the best years until the university started making drastic changes. The president of the university is a joke and only cares about writing his own bonus checks and sits back in his chair doing nothing for the student body. The financial aid office is very rude and disrepectful, the college of business is not forthcoming what so ever. when you try to get help, they are not on your side most of the time. I have encountered racist situation with some of the students in my classes and when I talked to my professor about, he had a careless attitude. This is the worst university to attend and I don't recommend anyone to attend."
"The faculty are wonderful. The campus is beautiful. However, the entire administration needs to be replaced. There is no one to help the student when the administration makes a mistake. Most of the time, administrators here sit in their offices and talk about ball games and dances, etc. They do not like to work. This is unacceptable.
Rocket Solution Center is a joke. They make tons of mistakes and will not own up to them. Instead they lie and give you the runaround. Is this what we are teaching students at UT? Lying and blowing people off is acceptable?"
Other comments from students: "I have been here three years and my best piece of advice is not to come. The head of the University Lyod Jacobs has stated that this university is a business not a learning institution and the best thing for students to do is go to football games. I must dispute false charges every month and are constantly told that they still do not know how to work a system that they have had for three years.
I have walked into dinning halls with no food in them and told sorry we do not have anything today. Where am I supposed to eat I paid for a meal plan for a reason. The University finds more ways every year to make more profits off your tuition and usually it is by screwing you the student."
I think they pretty much understood Jacobs and his minions better than most of us...
Want to know what the Jacobs legacy is? Read these comments.
And on a slightly different note, Anon 9:40 asks:
But seriously, folks. How much worse could things possibly be than they have already been since anyone can remember?
Just wait. If Jacobs, the BOT, and this administration in general are not stopped soon, it can do nothing but get worse.
Other comments from students:
"This school will try to every red cent out of you. They want you to complete everything online but the information is not always provided online. When you call and want to talk to a person you will wait on the line for 45 to an hour. Then when you do get to talk to someone they never want to help, or they don't know how to help. They then go on to transfer you to only find out you needed to talk to the department you originally called. They are so understaffed and people are are rude not only as staff but students as well. I am a nice person but I HATE this school and would never recommend it to anyone."
"I've only been attending UT for a year and I completely regret coming to this college. It is not because of the teachers or the students. It is because of their "customer service" as I would call. They do everything online so you don't have a person to talk to about this massive bill you just received. Instead, you can either go to the Solution Center and wait for an hour to be helped by workers who are tired and annoyed and not very nice or you can call and get someone on the phone who doesn't really care if they help you or not.
They charge you for every little thing they can charge you for. I've never even used the library but I still get charged 18.00 a year for Library Information Resource. The school is just running to get as much money out of you as possible. They confuse you with your bill so that they can grab a late fee out of you. I absolutely hate this college!!"
"I have been attending as a Mechanical engineering Major for two years. The only beneficial thing I can say about this university is that engineering is the only thing that I know of that is worthwhile. Unfortunately it is shadowed by the gloom of everyday life on campus. The people who run this school are cheap and constantly cut necessary things to save money while building stadiums for their losing sports teams. One way they save money is by cramming 3 people into a 10 by 14 foot dorm, meant for two people, while still charging the same rate. The school does not care about its students it only makes itself look nice when outsiders are scheduled to come in and visit. The university also gives away personal information like your e-mail address to advertisers that fill up your inbox. As time goes on I see my money being spent on people who don't deserve to be here instead of being spent on my education."
I would say: heckuva good job Jacobs and his minions...
Now that they closed down the printing shop on UH for "efficiencies". I do not know what they are going to cut...
Re Anon 10:33 et al. – Some Hard Truths about UT
1) There undoubtedly have been and still are some outstanding people at UT – but you would be hard pressed to provide any objective metrics to support the contention that “UT was a respected university throughout academia… over twenty years ago,” or that it is widely respected today.
You can cite all the anecdotal evidence or opinions of those with vested interests you want – but anybody can do that to support anything and such “reasoning” therefore does not constitute any sort of viable argument.
Unfortunately much contemporary so-called scholarship and research in academia and elsewhere is nothing more than precisely this sort of completely biased and politicized propaganda.
The liberal arts at UT specifically and in the “postmodern” academy in general have become nothing short of pathetic.
This is a travesty, but trying to cure the disease with more of the same old quackery is absurd.
It is highly doubtful anyone in any humanities or social science department or program of UT’s former A&S College would honestly try to claim they were or are “respected throughout academia.”
As far as math and science (Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Astronomy) – maybe. The various professional colleges – Engineering, Pharmacy and Business – maybe. Law? Not likely. Education? No way. The former MCO? I can’t say.
UT has been something of a laughingstock for various reasons for quite some time. This fact is widely known locally and regionally, if not nationally (though it is more often only whispered in the safe company of like-minded friends).
And nobody knows this better than those truly outstanding people who have occupied the UT campus over the years. How painful for those truly brilliant dedicated academics and students to look around and find themselves surrounded by riff-raff.
The main reason UT became a poster child laughingstock among academics in more recent years is that the UT BOT, in an attempt to improve UT, began trying to swim against the very powerful currents of some long-established dogmas and sacred cows in academia.
Lots of people talk the talk of education reform – but whenever anybody actually tries to walk the walk – watch out. The natives can get restless in a hurry.
2) Attempting to claim that any institution of higher learning could regard the moniker “Bancroft High” as term of endearment or esteem is a stretch to say the least.
Would you consider being referred to as a high school teacher – since you teach at an institution of high(er) learning – a compliment?
3) FYI - ad hominem name calling (“jerks like you”) is the classic indicator of someone who has already lost the argument and is lashing-out in desperation and frustration. Rigid, angry groupthink mentality and incivility – especially coming from “open-minded” professors – is never a good thing.
4) You said: “Now [UT] is held hostage and beaten down daily by ignorant carpetbaggers and the BOT's outsider Wall Street ambition and ethos.”
The old tried and true class warfare gambit? Really?
“Ignorant carpetbagger Wall Street and multi-millionaire/billionaire ambition and ethos” like… George Soros and Bernie Madoff and Warren Buffett and Oprah Winfrey and Bill Gates and Rosie O’Donnell and Whoopi Goldberg and Al Franken and David Letterman and Cornell West and Noam Chomsky and Larry Summers and Nancy Pelosi and Michael Bloomberg and Hillary Clinton and Obama and…
But wait! The Wall Street/Washington/Hollywood/Media/Academia millionaire/billionaire Power Elite Player’s Club is packed to the gills with liberal Democrats – and we all know they can do no wrong. Sorry. Guess that political class warfare argument doesn’t work either.
5) The semi-illiterate student comments submitted as evidence against the UT BOT and administration say it all…
I wish all of you and UT only the very best – even if I am just a jerk…
This is tangential but symptomatic: Why is it called the "UT Center for Excellence in Autism?" Isn't this like saying the Center for Excellence in Cancer? One would assume that the purpose of this place is excellence in the treatment of autism, rather than to produce excellent autism. Sheesh. BTW, lj, I'm available as a proofreader for the titles of new centers.
This administration is just tone deaf in everything.
5:00 PM Jerk
Some of us have worked our damned asses of for decades helping students and building this instittion we love. No, I haven't lost the arguement--but I am going to say this to you. Go to hell.
-K
Lately I've been seeing new little suits running around with clipboards examining things.
Is the administration getting ready to sell off the buildings to some of its buddies or something? Then they could lease them back at insanely high rates, use the money from the sale to pay themselves even more, and crow about their business model.
Business? Their only business is money business.
12:04 am K
You sound like one of my students. Not one of my better students either.
To fix things at UT, you have to want to fix things, and that starts with acknowledging painful parts of reality. Not just blowing off steam by juvenile cursing. You may feel superior, but it won't help the cause.
Post a Comment