The University of Oregon’s faculty is the lowest paid in the American Association of Universities, according to the University of Missouri Maneater. (Missouri was second-from-last) In response, according to an e-mail from Jim Bean reposted on the UO Matters blog, the new president Richard Lariviere intends to make this “job #1″ in his presidency. The e-mail is below:
The Missouri article stating that UO has the lowest salaries in the AAU has caused quite a stir (we have since verified that they were correct). Low salaries were always thought of as just Oregonian. But 34 out of 34 is a whole other thing. We cannot have this. Richard’s reaction was “this is job #1.” Richard will likely have an announcement on how we are attacking this when politically feasible (after last gavel). Please communicate to your faculty that the Missouri article really got our attention. This may require disruptive solutions.
Thanks, Jim
However, UO Matters says that Bean “knew this already – he’s writing this email to make it sound like he is ‘shocked to discover,’” adding that the provost “is repositioning his nose from Frohnmayer’s ass to Lariviere’s.”
A poster on UO Matters also pointed to a recent list created by the University of North Carolina of faculty salaries at “Very High Research Activity and AAU Universities.” Where did the University of Oregon rank? Actually, it wasn’t on the list (although Oregon State was 91st out of 92). Why? According to the poster, because “The University of Oregon no longer qualifies as a Very High Research Activity Univesity because we have not paid attention to our grad enrollment and just let this slide.”
What is striking, though, is the seemingly genuine hope that appears to surround Lariviere’s impending tenure, both among these posters and among some Frohnmayer opponents I’ve spoken to. UO Matters says: “It is nice that Lariviere cares enough about this to get Bean to dig in,” while the poster who pointed to the research rankings indicated hopefully that Kansas placed 61st on UNC’s list.
Incidentally, I was at Frohnmayer’s “Farewell Tour” event today, at which there were several people who said very nice things about the man. Among those who spoke were Suzanne Clark, an English professor and daughter of former University president Robert Clark, ex-ASUO President Sam Dotters-Katz, an alumni association representative who called Frohnmayer “irreplaceable,” and Governor Ted Kulongoski. There were also tiny hot dogs.
