So, the UT faculty member goes into the psychiatrists's office and is shown the fabled inkblots. Says the faculty member to the psychiatrist, "Doctor, I didn't come here to look at dirty pictures."
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A MUST READ FOR ALL ACADEMICS! Now on Amazon Kindle. Click on Professor Goat above to be directed to the book.
DON'T BE A SHEEP
UT's Officially Disapproved Information Source and HISTORICAL ARCHIVE. The only source of truth, where Paradox Manifests: Hundreds of thousands of visits. Yet No One Admits to Reading It. Welcome to the "Grey Area" where "Unethical Utterances," i.e., criticisms of administrators, are commonplace. Make U.U. here where genuine civility still reigns, a.k.a., freedom......................... UNIVERSITY OF TOLEDO'S EQUIVALENT TO RADIO FREE EUROPE
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NEW!!! Hard Eight by Professor Extreme
HARD EIGHT
Hard Eight: Auto-Ethnographic Essays on Academic Culture Featuring the End of the Arts & Sciences College, University of Toledo, 2010
Daily Koan
Should the newly discovered black hole be named in honor of UT BOT?
Swamp Bubble
Do you agree or disagree that University of Toledo suffers from administrative bloat?
How do you feel about the proposed UT Degree Guarantee program? (Reposted to allow more people to vote.)
How do you feel about the proposed UT Guarantee program?
How would you grade the overall performance of the Jacobs' administration on running the University of Toledo?
COMMENT OF THE WEEK
Bloggie applauds this perspicacious observer:
"The administration is in a panic mode to implement controversial and irreversible structural and curricular changes campus-wide by early February fiscal plan deadlines with only the vaguest notions of their impacts. The plan is, according to an interview with a top administrator published in the most recent Independent Collegian, to cast out many seeds and "see what grows." This experimental garden, as most senators articulated in many different ways, seems a costly recipe for disaster. Utter madness. Stay tuned."
Print Version of Dictionary of Academia Available on Amazon.com
The profound ruminations of the goaty Sage are now available in this 119 page satirical masterpiece. See: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1480292494/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_2?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B009RC0SJA&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1JV8N5BYAYY9WC9SJWD2
"Dictionary of Academia" Read it While it's Hot
A MUST READ FOR ALL ACADEMICS! Now on Amazon Kindle. Click on Professor Goat above to be directed to the book.
Comment of the Week
"This is that old tension between the corporate way of doing things and the academic way of doing things. In the corporate world, you sweep everything under the rug to make your b.s. as shiny, pleasing to the nose, and profitable as possible. In the academic world, you operate with a higher moral standard. Veritas and all that."
Comment of the Week of August 13
Re UT academic posers and hypocrites:
Have their checks calculated in units of postmodern theoretical currency and issued in photocopied legal tender notes signed by Walter Benjamin with a photo of Karl Marx and a seal stamped “In Derrida We Trust”.
Comment of the Era
Wow! Ain't that something.
-Anonymous
Comment of the Week
Mention goes to the the anonymous commentator of Feb 7, who, regarding UT President Llloyd Jacob's "Investing in Faculty" letter, stated: "If we could use the same criteria for 'investing in administrators' we could cut most of those positions."
Comments to HLC
Make sure you address your comments to HLC to the email address listed below in the "Higher Learning Commission Wants to Know" post. This may be the only chance you have to be heard. Bloggie hears that UT administration has discussed giving faculty "training" so that faculty members know how to "properly" talk to the HLC folks. How's that for stacking the deck? Does everyone get a little script to read? Make sure you practice before a mirror at being bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.
Comment of the Week!
Definitely, the Comment of the Week award goes to Anonymous 12:14 pm, Dec 3, under the "Higher Learning Commission Needs to Know" posting by Diogenes. Pithy and pointed!
--Love,
Bloggie
MESSAGE OF THE DAY:
DON'T BE A SHEEP
Independent Collegian Article on Dicey Administrative Spending
IC reporter Casey Cheap looks at bow ties, apartments and movie tickets purchased by UT administrators at university/public expense. See
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Letter and Petition from Foreign Languages Faculty Member
A couple weeks ago, at the beginning of summer break, we in the Department of Foreign Languages were informed that our secretary's position was being eliminated and that while she will not lose her job (she'll be transferred), that position is not to be filled. We apparently will be expected to do our own jobs plus what we can of the secretary's. That is clearly not acceptable, and so one of the steps we in FL are taking against it is an online petition now available for any who want to (including those who for whatever reason--not a registered Ohio voter, not a US citizen, etc.--cannot sign the petition against SB5), to read and sign.
I know not everyone on the blog will be interested in this; I'm not asking anyone who doesn't want to, to sign or even read the petition. I do think that there are many who would be interested and would want to sign it--if they knew about it.
It's scary to post this under my own name; I'm as afraid as anyone of repercussions. But this is simply too important to keep quiet on, and we have to do something! FL is not the first department that this has happened to, and it's almost certain not to be the last if we don't speak up in a way that the administration will hear us and in a way that makes clear that other people are seeing that it's going on.
Here's the link to the online petition:For those who can make it, there will also be an informational meeting--including lunch and petition-signing--next Friday, May 27 in FH 2420, 12:00 - 2:00 p.m.
I know not everyone on the blog will be interested in this; I'm not asking anyone who doesn't want to, to sign or even read the petition. I do think that there are many who would be interested and would want to sign it--if they knew about it.
It's scary to post this under my own name; I'm as afraid as anyone of repercussions. But this is simply too important to keep quiet on, and we have to do something! FL is not the first department that this has happened to, and it's almost certain not to be the last if we don't speak up in a way that the administration will hear us and in a way that makes clear that other people are seeing that it's going on.
Here's the link to the online petition:For those who can make it, there will also be an informational meeting--including lunch and petition-signing--next Friday, May 27 in FH 2420, 12:00 - 2:00 p.m.
Katherine Best
Wave of the Future or Merely Sometime Later This Week?
The Chronicle of Higher Education ran a deeply fascinating article called, "When to Dissolve a Faculty Senate." Apparently this is any time that it becomes "adversarial" to administration.
The online comments to the article are priceless.
Nemeth on Mammon in IC
David Nemeth's most recent tour-de-force
Professor Nemeth has another fabulous and timely article in the new and increasingly wonderful Independent Collegian. See http://www.independentcollegian.com/forum/the-kraken-attacks-1.2340091
Nemeth Does it Again
See the forum article in The Independent Collegian at:
Nemeth's New Article in Collegian
The Independent Collegian has run another of Professor Nemeth's fine and provocative articles in its latest edition. This one discusses the double-talk by mouthpieces for the current UT administration concerning the effects of and reasons behind so-called strategic reorganization. Make sure you get the latest version of Newspeak 5.1 if you want to decode what UT administrators are really saying.
UT Ranks 13th Nationally on Administrative Bloat
See Appendix B of the Administrative Bloat report posted on 8/28 for evidence, but UT now has a higher proportion of administrators to students than all but 12 public universities in America. President Jacobs has finally put University of Toledo in the top tier. With Strategic Organization he may be aiming for number one.
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Recent Letters from The Blade
Jacobs' arrogance is astonishing
Recently, President Lloyd Jacobs of the University of Toledo stated that bonuses were justified because his administrators "took all the risks."
As a professor at UT, I am outraged that President Jacobs claims that administrators take all of the risks. What risks do they take that the other faculty and staffs on campus do not?
Administrators are protected by state and federal employment laws and by their contracts.
When ex-President Vik Kapoor was terminated, he remained a professor with a salary near what he was paid as president.
As president emeritus, Dan Johnson retained a salary greater than his pay as president.
In the recent layoffs, exceptionally few administrators were terminated. It seems to me that low-level personnel at UT have far more risks because the greater proportion of the layoffs have come from their ranks. And they did not have continuing salaries.
President Jacobs' answer to questions on two occasions regarding relinquishing part of his bonus was to the effect that he earned his bonuses and what he did with them was his business.
Administrators do not risk their personal money in their duties: they use taxpayer money and funds collected through donations and grants to the university.
Administrators take home salaries in the hundreds of thousands of dollars and then add bonuses for longevity and whatever else the president decides is fitting for their contracts.
However, the lower-level personnel have much lower salaries and no such bonuses. Where is the risk?
It seems to me that these bonuses are convoluted: The lower-level personnel are taking the greater risks with no bonuses while the administrators with very rewarding jobs with little risk receive large bonuses.
Am I missing something here?
WALTER W. OLSON,
Mechanical, Industrial, and Manufacturing
Engineering,
University of Toledo
It's the same old, same old at UT
I could hardly believe the arrogance of Dr. Lloyd Jacobs, president of the University of Toledo, when a reporter asked if he would be willing to forgo his bonus in light of the layoffs, raise in tuition, etc.
His comment was that he worked for it. Is that to say that the ones being laid off did not work for their pay?
All I can say is, business as usual at UT. Some things never change.
SANDY FLICK
Rose Acres Drive
UT also has checks, balances
In response to letter titled "Professors must focus on teaching," I would like to point out that the University of Toledo operates on the basis of shared governance.
This means that faculty members participate in the administration of the university.
A focus on teaching requires faculty to address administrative issues such as policies, procedures, and yes, finances, because these all affect classroom outcomes. A university with solid and equitable finances benefits everyone, including and especially the students. Just as the U.S. government is constituted to have checks and balances, so is our university government.
The UT-AAUP is one of those checks against UT administrators who most recently have displayed more concern for their own profit rather than a concern for the common good.
LINDA M. ROUILLARD,
Associate Professor
of French,
University of Toledo
Quote of the Year (so far)
The following is excerpted from the recent UT AAUP newsletter concerning the official university response to news of the bonus scandal:
. . . . Either Jacobs is misleading the media or he has misled the Board of Trustees. President Jacobs objected to "the general tone" of the UT-AAUP Newsletter. Many persons on this campus object to the "general tone" of the Jacobs Administration. During his tenure as President, he has introduced an administrative culture of fear and intimidation. . . . A point of logic must be raised here, with all respect to UT AAUP, the conclusions that President Jacobs has (1) misled the media and (2) the Board of Trustees are not mutually exclusive. Both would seem likely given his considerable talent at spinning "visions." |
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27 comments:
Two evil garden gnomes giving high-5s?
"Two evil garden gnomes giving high-5s?"
Honestly, I saw that too before I read this!
Gnomes, deans, whatever...
This was always my favorite Rorschach.
What does it mean if you see happy elves giving each other high fives?
Happy blood-drenched elves? Means another orc done gone! Anyway, we are talking garden gnomes here. Changing the topic won't save one dean on the President's *hit list.
I thought they were happy chrstmas elves with red caPs aboots....
Instead of complaining about organizational structure, counting deans, and complaining about the quality of our incoming students we should embrace our role as a metropolitan university.
http://chronicle.com/article/Using-Its-City-as-a-Teaching/234096
When Sharon Gaber was named earlier this year as UT’s new president, she was hailed as a “transformative”—what a cliché—leader who will elevate UT’s national academic reputation and stature.
Here’s hoping she knows the herculean task in front of her.
In its inaugural ranking of four-year U.S. universities, The Economist, a well-respected British weekly, attempted to gauge universities’ and colleges’ value added, untangling the thorny question of financial return on investment based on salary, with regard to bachelor’s degree programs only.
The magazine’s analysts calculated expected earnings based on entering student SAT scores and sex ratio, along with the university size and other variables. The magazine then subtracted expected earnings from actual earnings.
So, where does UT stand in the rankings?
Nowhere.
Zip.
Nada.
Missing in action.
Call an Amber alert.
Entering UT’s name in the search database yields this frustrating, embarrassing response: “We do not have data on that college.” (See http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2015/10/value-university)
What the hell!!
The magazine relied on the U.S Department of Education‘s college scorecard website that contains a wealth of information about universities and colleges.
Was the data about UT incomplete or perhaps not submitted at all?
What administrative unit is responsible for ensuring that UT submits accurate, timely, complete data to the U.S Department of Education, Ohio Board of Regents and other federal and state agencies that collect statistics that are then used in these national surveys and rankings?
The first thing the new UT president should do Monday morning is to determine what UT administrative unit is responsible and hold it accountable.
What about other area universities?
BGSU is listed and is estimated to add value. So does Ohio Northern University, Columbus School of Art and Design, Ursuline University, Muskingum University, Baldwin-Wallace University and Defiance College. Most of UT’s MAC peer schools appear in the survey, although the magazine estimates some fail to add value. Even tiny Lourdes University in Sylvania is listed, although it is estimated to subtract value.
Perhaps The Economist, which is just the latest magazine to get into the ranking business, used a somewhat dubious, daffy methodology to judge U.S. universities. But the hard truth is that students and their parents rely on magazine rankings like this to bet their futures and spend their hard-earned money.
UT needs to become a more data-driven university and put in place more effective and productive systems and processes that collect and use data to inform school improvement strategies, to provide information for accountability, and finally to allow UT to at least be included in these kinds of surveys that are not going away.
If the Office of Institutional Research needs more resources, provide it. We live in a data-driven culture and all kinds of data about UT should be readily available.
Relying on nationally televised Tuesday night ESPN football games at the Glass Bowl to jumpstart UT’s national standing isn’t going to cut it.
Institutional Research is being reorganized and with new leadership and President Gaber has already stated her intention to provide better data for the surveys that are used in these ratings and to place more effort behind the factors that drive such surveys.
A piece disinformation is being floated. At a recent LSS meeting someone claimed that feelings in the Communication Department about separating from COCA are divided, that some felt one way and some another. This is UNTRUE. Department members have discussed the reorganization and consensus is this: Communication Department faculty wants OUT of COCA and IN to a larger reorganized college. No dean, assistant dean, chair or other person speaks for COMM regarding this matter. Period.
Some of the COCA folks are talking like the fix is in and they already have their own school, directors and development officers. This I disbelieve..
yes deal has already been struck by administration for a School of Arts within but independent from merged CLLSS/COCA - believe it.
Why did the LLSS Dean let COMM go to COCA in the first place? Why did she not use the same tactics she is using now to impede the merging of COCA and LLSS? Now she campaigns against re-structuring, but where was she when Scarborough siphoned off COMM to prop up CVPA? The goal of the 2010 restructuring was to break down siloes. Result: we have more siloes, and more turf warfare and pilfering.
As long as COCA doesn't steal the COMM department's budget when it forms this new school with all these administrators, then good luck to them.
Did not matter then, does not matter now what the Deans think, Provost took COMM away from CLLSS, and movement by administration is now to merge CLLSS/COCA. Deans have no real power or decision-making, once upper administration decides on such changes they are done. I give credit to COCA Dean who has been able to keep independence for the Arts,via School of Art structure within CLLSS/COCA.
Current CLLSS + COCA = two Deans, three Assoc Deans
new CLSS/COCA = one Dean, one School Director, 2 or 3 Assoc Deans or School Directors
No increase or decrease in college administration and President already said merger is not about cost savings, but about appearances - too many Deans and Colleges at UT.
Didn't Disney Do a Movie called "Bad News Deans?" Get rid of these bad news deans and start fresh with someone that half of the people on campus may actually come to trust. National search! It's bad news to keep the old guard around when trying to accomplish organizational change. Too much baggage and deeply rooted nefariousness. And there is more than "optics" involved here. Say bye bye to COCA and LSS deans and don't make them directors or some such nonsense. Less bureaucrats is best. Don't kid yourselves, considerable money can be saved and appearance improved simultaneously. One dean. No directors. make things easy on the students instead of the deans for a change.
With a merged CLLSS/COCA college there will come a national search for a new Dean(who likely will end up making more than one the current Deans).
And merging the College does not represent considerable cost savings - President already has admitted as much. ex Deans and Assoc Deans go back to faculty, saving perhaps total of perhaps $100,000 at most in salaries and benefits. Real impact could fall on 2 executive assistants and deans office secretaries (CWA positions) displaced and having to force others out of positions somewhere on campus, perhaps 2 job positions lost somewhere down the road somewhere on campus.
And I am not so sure how the specific deans, number of them, having directors, or having current two colleges or one merged college, makes anything easier for the students?
students will benefit by having to maneuver through the bureaucracy of fewer colleges. More deans = more BS. And we will all benefit from a lessening of their nonsense. I do admit the deans seems to exhibit plenty of self-love. Get them mirrors as a parting gift.
All this incessant strum und drang over college configuration and number of deans is a red herring. The real problem is that the University cannot demonstrate the value--or value added--of a UT education. The academic management structure has nothing to do with fixing that problem.
"students will benefit by having to maneuver through the bureaucracy of fewer colleges" Unless you are doing a double or duel major across colleges, how do the Deans and college structure impact our students?? Vast majority of our majors are currently in one college with one dean, and same will be case after the merger.
"The real problem is that the University cannot demonstrate the value--or value added--of a UT education." If you are a faculty member or staff, this is also your role, perhaps more so then the Dean or President as students and their parents will interact more with staff and faculty then others. And I can do this using numerous examples of successful recent grads from our programs to show current and perspective students the value of our degree, and often do at many recruitment events. If you work at UT with students can you say the same about your efforts? If not, stop blaming the Deans and President get to work doing it within your department.
To 5:53 am: if the current structure is so useful, with more deans to interact with more students, why are enrollments dropping? Yes, after the merger of LLSS and COCA, students will still be in one college with one dean, but they will also be in a college with more departments and degrees, and it will be easier for students to complete degrees that span the disciplines. We should encourage more double majors and double minors. Students cannot rely on specializing in one discipline that will see them through their careers. They need more than one major and minor to see them through all the professional changes they will have to make over their lives.
Enrollment drops are a reflection of poor marketing and promotion campus wide with the focus on sports and UTMC (plus the largest drop this year came from graduate students, specifically Business and Education), plus lack of college based resources for recruitment within CLLSS and COCA specifically (and the loss of faculty focusing fewer course options and students seeking courses to complete degree elsewhere besides UT. Some programs have 50% less faculty and have seen huge drops in enrollment as they can not support students without faculty and resources and less course offerings.
I never said or implied the current structure was useful, just that the number of colleges and deans, and their interaction with students, were not factors in enrollment drops. I agree and support the opportunities with duel and double majors across programs within a CLLSS/COCA college, but one less Dean is not going to impact student recruitment or retention, which need to be the focus of the institution and everyone here, including staff and faculty working on these efforts at the department and program level.
And having that one more dean apparently has not helped retention and recruitment. Staff and faculty already work at recruitment and retention. But the University has neglected many units in its resource allocation; the University has not helped certain departments and programs to market their opportunities to students.
The condom maker Trojan recently released its 2015 Sexual Health Report Card, which ranks college campuses across their country based on accessibility to health resources. The report card measures the level of sexual education and available sexual health resources on college campuses across the nation. (See http://www.trojancondoms.com/Articles.aspx)
So how did UT rank in still another college survey?
According to Cleveland.com: “Ohio State ranked 28th, dropping five spots compared to 2014. Other schools and their rank compared to 2014 are University of Cincinnati (rising 7 spots to 39th), Bowling Green State University (rising 10 spots to 69th), Miami University, (rising 13 spots to 70th), Ohio University (dropping 34 spots to 75th), Kent State University (dropping 15 spots to 76th), University of Akron (rising 1 spot to 105th) and University of Toledo (dropping 15 spots to 110th).
Holy Alfred Kinsey, Batman!
But do not despair.
UT did top Brigham Young University — Utah’s private school run by the Mormon church — which finished in last place of the 140 schools that were ranked.
The top-ranked school?
Oregon State University.
Go Beavers!
Re "Go Beavers!" I can't define irony, but I know it when I see it. ~ Hemingway?
Here's my guess.
It's Hef!
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