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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." |
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23 comments:
Our administration is certainly where the epistemology hits the fan!
The postings and commentary on the ASC blog seem to have slowed to a mere trickle - especially when compared to the previous torrent of frequent, numerous and often voluminous postings of the past year or so.
Are heavy-handed campus censors by any chance trying to suppress dissent and apply behind-the-scenes pressure to the blog moderators again?
My welcome to the new academic year was an e-mail message from Parking Services declaring ' you ate not eligible for parking. " I hold faculty emeritus status and naively assumed that the administration would honor its promise at the time of my retirement to continue my parking privileges. Now, if I read their welcome back message literally, I'm not allowed to even visit if I come by car. Would an application of the brown stuff resolve this bit of epistemological confusion ? I have no desire to find out. My response is " you re no longer eligible for my donations. "
Former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan says declining American education standards and Gen-X slackers' inability to match the productivity of harder working and more capable retiring baby boomers threatens the future of the American economy:
http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2011/07/13/alan-greenspan-its-gen-xers-fault-theyre-out-work/?intcmp=obinsite
Excerpt from the Greenspan article:
It has been difficult for American students to keep pace with those from overseas when viewed through the lens of quantitative, objective metrics like standardized tests.
But the lack of productivity Greenspan frets over can arguably also be set at the feet of our growing entitlement culture, which we explored in some detail several weeks ago for Entitlement Nation Week. Being a productive worker means having a commitment to honest labor.
That has eroded as more people have relied upon the federal government for the growth of their household wealth. That, in turn, has led to a troubling change in attitude in this country.
As [Pulitzer prize winning syndicated columnist] George Will put it, “Americans, endowed by their solicitous government with an ever-expanding array of entitlements, now have the whiny mentality that an entitlement culture breeds.”
"Most high-income people in our country do not realize that their incomes are being subsidized by their protection from competition from highly skilled people who are prevented from immigrating to the United States,” Greenspan said. “But we need such skills in order to staff our productive economy, so that the standard of living for Americans as a whole can grow."
Think of that last line for a moment. We need to import labor – intelligent, skilled labor – to guarantee that Americans’ standard of living is maintained.
Have we indeed fallen so far?
Dumb and Dumber go to Ed school:
American students are dumb because American teachers are dumb because American Ed schools suck.
Yo, duh!
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/how_education_schools_fail_the_nation_XqhgOtRklbn3Ly1NWJ4JZJ
Nice of Tom Brady to weigh in on the parking controversy. I'm relatively new to campus, but I would have expected better rhetorical skills from a former dean. Just asserting stuff without evidence is no way to make your case. What's his background?
One of the parking people told me last year that Brady and Jake's other buddies were on the "Do not Ticket" list that is programmed into the little ticket writing devices they carry. Brady was exempt. No wonder he liked the system. He was a beneficiary of it.
Disingenuous!!!
Tom Brady's background ? He's a retired businessman with an Engineering degree. Despite his cozy relationship with Jake, the Blade published an editorial urging that he not be appointed Interim Dean of the College of Education ---on the grounds that deans ought to have some background in the field
Yes, with Brady and his whole "I have nine cars" bit, he's clearly in that class of people who have the resources to evade little things like parking violations. Even if he has to pay a ticket, it's not like he's going to notice an impact on his finances. It's almost as though his response to the AAUP was some kind of intentional self-parody.
I'm more interested in hearing from the economically challenged first-generation college students we're supposed to be serving. Folks in that group lack extra time and resources to fight parking tickets due to technological glitches.
Re Tom Brady's rebuttal: in addition to what others have already said, consider this: How many of us have as many vehicles--"9 cars and a motorcycle"--as Brady brags about having? How many of those 9 cars are taking up "do not ticket" parking spaces at one time?
On my commute to and from UT, I often listen to NPR—they’ve just had a story: “Making professors more productive”
(http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2011/08/25/pm-making-professors-more-productive/)
which is part of the series http://marketplace.publicradio.org/
There is also a related series:
http://www.npr.org/series/127367098/setting-out-new-grads-quest-for-work
Potentially dangerous stuff going on—worth a look—or a listen!
Re NPR Anon 10:11 am
Thanks for the info, but these UT profs are clearly far more concerned with the usual petty "gotcha" campus politics of name calling, parking spaces, etc. - as opposed to any real substantive issues concerning students, professors and indeed the questionable future sustainability of UT, Toledo, America and American higher education.
It's no wonder people are increasingly cynical about academics and academia.
How will the new permit system affect UT / BGSU parking reciprocity? Is that one more thing we will lose--if we haven't already lost it? Will BGSU have the same scanner devices?
Simple. UT students will be issued new hang tags to be used in case they want to park at BG to drink beer (until Gradowski's Pub and Poolhouse finally opens on the UT campus).
When and if BG becomes as financially robust as UT they will discuss in a demcratic fashion any move to adopting the new "parking" surveillance technology -- assuming the new system works at UToledo.
Meanwhile a new plastic "boot" device designed to both immobilize and asphyxiate parking scofflaws has been patented by Tom Brady Industries and will be introduced around the time of Halloween, when it will undergo stress tests in the faculty parking lot next to Bowman-Oddy. Till then, those that have seen the completed device have been sworn to secrecy about its existence.
A photo of the nefarious device is however circulating on the Internet. Viewers of blogs that have uploaded this photograph have commented unanimously that it looks "just like a bow tie." Stay tuned.
As an educator with more than 40 years experience at several different universities and under numerous administrations, I have never before witnessed an administration so interested in excluding the professorate from the decision making processes of the university as I have the Jacob's administration. If one wants to complain that the professorate is not interested in the sustainability of this university they should provide facts rather than innuendos.
This administration has all but eliminated faculty discussion and input on substantive factors that influence the future of this university. A new school at Scott Park was established without any faculty input. Three colleges were formed on the main campus without faculty input. A college was combined with another without any faculty input. Programs were eliminated without any faculty input. The faculty had no input on the budget creation, the establishment of new student fees or where the fees collected would be spent.
These are the major factors which influence the sustainability of the University of Toledo. Yet, any time the faculty attempted to provide input, the input was either accepted with a smile and never again considered, the input was impugned in both public and in private or the input was outright rejected. In an attempt to allow for faculty input and to enforce the provisions of the Faculty Senate Constitution, this administration was taken into the courtroom. This is the first time that I, as an educator have ever seen a body of faculty become so frustrated with an administration that this was deemed necessary.
This administration has shown time after time that they do not respect the faculty. Many of the problems of this campus are rather easy to solve IF this administration would enlist the aid of the faculty and give sincere consideration to what the faculty are advising. However, this administration from the very top is so insecure that they feel they must be the source of all ideas, that they must mandate solution and demonstrate it is they who are in power. We have experts in the professorate, experts that are recognized externally by successful people throughout in the world. Yet, This administration can not acknowledge that our experts in public policy, social sciences, arts and humanities, sciences, business, engineering and in medicine can solve the problems of this campus and refuses to capitalize on their talents.
The professorate is interested in the survival of the University of Toledo. Most of the professorate were here before this administration and plan to be here after they depart. We do discuss what it takes to have a successful university today. But on-campus forums for working with the administration do not exist. The administration probably will claim that they have created such forums. Yet when faculty attempt to discuss the relevant issues, they are quickly closed out by the administrative indifference and lack of feedback from the administration that indicates that they have heard and considered the faculty voice.
And don't forget that whenever the admin "invites" faculty to participate in discussions they schedule the length of the discussions in such a way that faculty cannot possibly stay the entire time.
Re Anon 12:57
Radical change at UT and in higher ed and indeed all education in general is being mandated by some harsh global, national, regional and local economic, political, technological, scientific and intellectual realities of the 21st century.
We can either confront these realities realistically or be crushed by them.
Academia is notoriously slow and reluctant to change - even if change is necessary and beneficial.
What's done is done and it remains to be seen whether or not Jacobs & Co. are on the right track.
That said, the faculty DID in fact buy in - well, at least sort of.
The CSO Gang of 12 who orchestrated the restructuring of A&S at the behest of Jacobs & Co. were nearly all prominent tenured faculty and ALL women (albeit mostly mediocre faculty from mediocre pseudo-disciplines like Women's Studies, Education etc.)
They, along with Pryor and a few other opportunistic sycophants were more than happy to buy-in and help the Jacobs juggernaut steamroll wayward fellow faculty into submission.
Of course the fact that they all knew they were going to be duly rewarded and bought-off with high salary dean and vice provost administrative positions in the New Campus Order may have had something to do with their zealous cooperation...
There is a powerpoint (what else) floating around that the President used at a Board meeting: its an argument for increased class size and teaching loads. It seems to argue that the "base" load should be either 4/4 or 5/5 and then will be "reduced" only after written approval (by dean or provost). It also seems to be arguing that a formula/matrix will be created that will generate teaching loads, based on class size and other factors. The first slide or so has a pie chart with 70% being a 4/4 teaching load, 20% research, and 10% service.. but later it uses a 5/5 load as the base. He proposes that this change take effect 8/13. Maybe there are others who have seen or heard more about this forthcoming change? The ppt I've seen is short - only about a dozen slides.
Washington Monthly's National University Rankings - "contribution to the public good."
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/college_guide/rankings_2011/national_university_rank.php
UT is at 211/258
Being ranked 211th out of 258 is not all that bad. Considering.
I've looked at a number of rankings of universities lately. I haven't found a single one that doesn't rank UT near the bottom in academic quality. Even BGSU outranks us . I have heard, however, that we rank near the top in administrative costs , and, as the latest AAUP bulletin points out , the Jacobs regime has taken steps in the last few months to reallocate even more dollars to administrators' salaries. I guess that's the way they propose to meet the "sustainability " challenge. Pathetic.
More lies from that liberal rag:
"In a nutshell: schools are spending billions on technology, even as they cut budgets and lay off teachers, with little proof that this approach is improving basic learning."
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/04/technology/
technology-in-schools-faces-questions-on-value.html?hp
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