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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.
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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22 comments:
I can't believe the relentless kicking of deans and other administrative folks going on here. Wake up. UT is not a one room school house. Learn to see the bigger picture. There are compliance, regulatory, and audit requirments from both the state and federal level. Accreditation organization demand that certain data be maintained and compliled. Funding agencies, both prive and public, require data, reports, etc. While teaching is the most important thing we do at a University, it is far from the only thing we do. No one likes getting a message that they need to complie a 20 page report by the end of the week, but that is a reality. I'm sure the deans are under the same pressure from their superiors, who are probably under the same pressure from funding agencies, the state, accreditors, etc.
I'm sorry, the negativity here is starting to get to be to0 much. I'm sick of the throw the bums out mentality in politics and at UT. UT is a metropolitan research university that is fullfilling its stated mission as best as it can with limited resources. Join us and work to make it even better, or just retire. I suspect you won't be missed much.
Sorry for adding to the negativity. Now go on and call me a dean or shill.
Throw the bums out.
If the deans and associate deans don't like all the regulatory reporting required of them, perhaps they should return to full-time faculty positions, though I thought their high, six-figure salaries were compensation for all the pressure and all the workload as administrators.
The reality is that Arts and Sciences was once administered by 1 dean and 2-3 associate deans. Now we have 3 deans, at least 4 associate deans, all at significantly higher salaries than before (and I don't mean 2% increases!). Has the regulatory reporting increased? Probably, but that has trickled down to faculty, as well.
Administrators attend regular HLC meetings and regular meetings in Columbus. If the bureaucratic red-tape has exploded into meaningless busy-work, then do something about it. I'd like to see administrators use their highly-paid time for better things, like promoting our programs and increasing enrollment.
The point the poster was making was in reference to "throw the bums out" when in fact Deans and Associate Deans are always going to be in place, it is just a matter of whom and how many. Just to be clear there is nothing the University, President, Provost or Deans can due about the increase in reporting required by the State or HLC - they have no choice. If there is a return to an A&S with one Dean, and 2-3 Associates they will still be highly paid and required to do reporting on all 18 Departments and 18+ programs. Plus the eliminated 2 Deans and 2 Associate Deans go back to the faculty with total savings of perhaps $250,000 (since they will all be still earning top faculty salaries, especially the 2 Deans). Yes savings, but not as much as I suspect some people think. Even the President has said publicly that merging colleges is not about budgets or cost savings, but more due to addressing the public and political perception regarding administrative expansion in higher ed, hence her focus to date in eliminating 2 VPs and 2 Deans, with more to come.
Yeah, but don't forget you have a junior H.R. Haldeman occupying an office on third floor of U. Hall and pulling a cool $205,000 for doing what?
Where in the hell is the cost savings there?
Since we are on the topic of deans, the new dean of the College of Law certainly has a lot on his plate--a big drop in student enrollment and a poor performance by UT grads on the most recent Ohio bar exam,, tying another law school for last place.
Good luck!
And time for some posters here and in LLSS to move on from pushing for NMS to rejoin other two colleges and thus recreate A&S - that idea is DEAD, no support from anyone besides a handful of faculty. Provost and NSM have said NO, and President made it clear she was not going to force the issue. Focus now needs to be on the issues and concerns with keeping or merging COCA and LLSS, and any continued debate about reforming A&S is a waste of time and only detracts from the more important and current discussion regarding a merger or not.
Curriculum reform really needs to be on the table regardless of whether we merge.
Anonymous 7:20 The President will listen to all arguments for and against recreating A&S and then do what is just, pragmatic and most advances the long-term fulfillment of the university's academic mission on the main campus in measurable ways, resulting in higher rankings across the board. She will recreate A&S as it once was. President Gaber has the power to right the terrible wrong of dismantling the A&S College, and because she is an intelligent woman of fine character,will do so, with courage and with speed. Did you not know that the three leafs on the UT shield logo represent the unity of natural sciences, social sciences and humanities under one college?
Reforming A&S will not improve the image of the university, help with recruitment and retention or improve higher rankings, as the fundamental issues with enrollment and rankings at UT are not due to the college structure. Gaber is focused on the future not the past, and has already stated publicly on multiple occasions that reforming A&S is not a battle she is willing to fight if many faculty are not supportive (NSM have clearly stated they are not), and rightfully so as she understands that her focus and efforts need to be on the bigger more important issues that actually will address budget, enrollment and rankings including better marketing and fund raising - neither of which were effective under A&S and no assurances they will be better because of reforming A&S. And no that is not what the three leaves represent on the UT shield. The small minority of faculty looking to rebuild A&S have to accept the reality and start focusing their efforts to work within their colleges and with the Deans and administration to address the fundamental issues of enrollment, retention, fund raising and marketing to improve our programs, attract more students, and provide quality learning environment for students - none of which would be enhanced by A&S, they can all be achieved by current college structures if efforts, leadership, and resources are provided -along with support and efforts of the faculty. Spending time and energy on discussing reforming A&S, and the efforts if it was recreated, takes away from more productive endeavors by deans, faculty and staff to tackle the important enrollment issues. UT will not attract and retain more students simply because A&S exists.
To: Anonymous 5:25
Nice try.
I always thought the three leafs in the UT logo represented the three main job responsibilities of the Main Campus provost—finding close-to-office parking spaces for faculty, football tickets for alumni, and sex for the students.
For the historical record, the three leaves were part of the original Medical College of Ohio seal that were incorporated into the new UT seal created following the 2006 merger. They symbolized education, research and community service, which were MCO’s three institutional goals.
What types of curriculum reforms are you referring to?
Bravo Anon @ 6:00 AM.
The long-term success of UT lies in 1 of 2 paths: merging UT and BGSU or programmatically differentiating the two institutions. It makes no educational or economic sense to have 2 four-year research universities 24 miles apart offering degree programs with the current level of overlap.
UT and BGSU are completely different. UT is a research institution that has professional schools like medicine, Pharmacy, Law, Engineering and Nursing, while BG was and is basically a teachers college with an emphasis on the arts.
@ 7:27 How many semesters of foreign language are needed? Should we require more math/statistics for social sciences programs? Should we pool resources between social science departments to offer common research methods courses? Should programs have more required courses and less flexibility in the area of electives?
Anonymous 6:09 raises a pertinent point and an even more irksome question.
With all of UT's professional schools as well as an academic health center in its broad academic portfolio, why has UT's national reputation continued to languish, even trailing "a teacher's college" with a lot of arts programs in the U.S. News and World Report's national rankings.
Of all of the disappointments associated with the 2006 merger, that is the biggest.
Well, it could have something to do with the previous administration's penchant for touting the breadth of our programs without actually providing the resources for those programs to be much other than than third rate. Take for instance one of this college's professional terminal degree programs, public administration. The administration let all of the faculty retire without replacement. The previous administration and the interim administration, knew that this was going to happen but they let it die on the vine anyway. Now, UT has an MPA program that cannot accept students because there are no faculty left to teach them. And now, BGSU has an accredited MPA program to take our natural market. Well done.
BGSU has a college of arts and sciences. That structure has not hindered its rankings which top UT's. Hmmm...
University of Michigan has Literature, Science and the Arts together. Hmmm...
OSU re-assembled Arts and Sciences. Hmmm...
6:20 AM, I'll tell you. A reputation to the general masses is all about undergraduates, especially admission and graduation rates as reported by USN&WR. Because UT will admit a high school student with a 15 ACT, the lowest in Ohio, and graduates few of these unprepared students, there's your answer.
Jacobs Inc. = nucking fuckelheads
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