The sense of wonder I feel about Oregon and its flagship university is as potent now as on my first day — the character of the people, the quality of the institution, the geography, the colors, the perfect temperatures and the fun peculiarities of this community. Only a great place can claim Wayne Morse and Bill Bowerman among its heroes, have a statue of Ken Kesey in its civic square and crown a Slug Queen each year. Eugene exudes innovation, originality and extraordinary excellence.

Do you see what he did there? Lariviere invoked all of Eugene’s major cultural touchstones: old hippies, track and field and endemic celebrations of our own counter-culture. Well played, sir.

In the rest of the guest commentary, Lariviere touts the University, its faculty and its mad research skills:

In 2008-09 fiscal year, our sponsored research programs brought in more than $100 million in grants and contracts, much of it directly related to research discoveries and commercial applications. External funding has consistently increased for the past decade. The University of Oregon is now among the top universities in the United States in terms of its return on research through licensing of technologies.

Beyond a passion for teaching and research that is second to none, there is a drive for innovation, collaboration and interdisciplinary exploration that I have not experienced on any other campus. A new academic plan, called “Big Ideas,” brings faculty and students together in new ways to answer broad questions about society and our world. This is another example of how the UO is on the leading edge in higher education.

Over at UO Matters, the author is nonplussed:

[N]ice words, but we got those from Frohnmayer all the time – prestigious AAU membership, extraordinary faculty, opportunity for students – yada yada. Reads like Frohnmayer’s speechwriter wrote it. (Yup, same guy.) This is just cheap talk. Lariviere needs to make some changes very soon or we really will have a union.

The NYT found that four-year public colleges raised tuition by an average of 6.5 percent last year.

The Register-Guard ran a version that included numbers from the University (sorry, no link available):

At the University of Oregon, tuition rose 15 percent, climbing this year to $7,428 for a full-time resident undergraduate from $6,435 last year, not including a $150 surcharge imposed during last spring term only. With room and board, the costs exceeds $16,000 this year.

The average cost at a four-year public university is $15,213. The article ends with this rather relevant nugget (emphasis added):

“Colleges need to be looking for ways to permanently restructure, not just cut their budgets,” said Jane Wellman, executive director of the Delta Project on Postsecondary Costs, Productivity and Accountability. “A perfect example is furloughs, in hopes that eventually the work force can come back. But this isn’t a one-time problem, and eventually they’ll have to bite the bullet and reduce their work force.”

UO economics professor Tim Duy, who monitors the state economy very closely, said that in addition to drops in higher ed funding, state revenue forecasts for the coming year are “trending down below expectations.”

Duy said the fundamental problem is the initial forecasts were too optimistic in how fast the labor market will rebound. But even then, “very rapid growth wouldn’t fix the gap between expenditures and revenue,” he said.

Sorry to rain a little more on everyone’s parade.

Vince Cakic, a research assistant in the School of Psychology [at the University of Sydney in Australia], says in an article in the Journal of Medical Ethics that the increasing use of “smart drugs,” or “nootropics”—a phenomenon already seen among some of their professors—could mean that college students taking course examinations will begin facing routine doping tests.

Mr. Cakic says in the article that psychostimulants marketed as Dexedrine and Ritalin are already used by as many as a quarter of the students at some American colleges.

The proposition raises all sorts of questions. If we as a society consider it unethical for athletes to use performance enhancing drugs, is it likewise unethical for students and professors? Is it really cheating? What about students who have prescriptions for such drugs?

Hash it out in the comments thread, if you please.

According to the article, the University of Oregon raised it’s tuition by more than any of the other seven schools in the system; its up 15 percent from last fall.

The good news is that the extra income from tuition, as well as increased enrollment, is saving the UO from taking the more drastic measures that other schools are. PSU is cutting faculty salaries and taking five extra days off, and OSU is trimming its course offerings by 20 percent.

Nevertheless, enrollment won’t grow at this rate forever, and raising tuition isn’t a magic bullet. As University president Richard Lariviere said in the article:

“We’re managing, but we’re just basically hanging on by our fingernails to preserve that quality,” said UO’s new president, Richard Lariviere. “The model that we are working under right now is not sustainable.”

The situation the Chronicle describes in California is roughly analogous to our own here in Oregon:

The cash-strapped state is cutting its contribution to UC by $813 million, and what’s happening at the university is a microcosm of what’s happening across the entire economy: At UC, prices are also rising while services are diminishing. Pay has been cut. Employee furloughs imposed. People are losing their jobs.

But the faculty protest that the California system’s president ought to use $16 billion in earmarked research grants and medical fees to lower tuition and rescind salary reductions, which the aforementioned president, Mark Yudof, counters is unrealistic. And it appears to have gotten irredeemably personal between the faculty and the president, with him calling the strike a “tantrum” and them calling for his head.

This has little chance of replicating itself here, however, since faculty in the Oregon University System are not unionized.

You can read more about the strike here at its official Web site. Thanks to National Student News Service for the story.

Portland TV station KATU has an article up about it. The first place I read it was UO Matters.

The contract includes 16 furlough days, more than the staff’s union hoped for, but fewer than the OUS pushed. In case you need to brush up on the history of this dispute, here’s our last article about it, and we should have another one up soon.

We’ll post a longer story later. In the meantime, read the full Post article here and the article we ran about this earlier in the year here.

Co-workers & friends,

The contract bargaining/ mediation for Higher Education workers at 7
Oregon campuses is deadlocked, but continues today at Portland State
University.  As of the end of mediation meetings yesterday, there was
little movement towards a fair and respectful contract.

Would you please join me in sending a FAX or email to Chancellor
Pernsteiner’s office at U of O?
The FAX number is:  346-5764.

Please use your own words in your fax, phone or email message to the
Chancellor’s office.  Feel free to use my message (below) as a guide.
Also could you send me a note to let me know if you were able to send
a fax, email, or phone message today to Chancellor George Pernsteiner!

The Chancellor’s phone message line is: 346-5703
Email address is:  george_pernsteiner@ous.edu

See the on-line petition, which is for everyone to sign…friends,
students, faculty, neighbors, etc.  Please send the link to everyone
you know!

http://www.seiu503.org/state/ous/OUSpetition2009/Default.aspx

Thanks for doing all you can to help settle a fair, equitable and
respectful contract such as the agreement that other state workers
(Dept. of Administrative Services) successfully negotiated.
YOUR involvement will make the difference!

James Jacobson

Attached to it was this message:

Chancellor George Pernsteiner:

Support staff laboring at the 7 Oregon University campuses
deserve respect, fairness and equal treatment with other state
employees (DAS-Dept. of Administrative Services).

In the 12 years I have worked at UO, I cannot remember being so
disrespectfully abused during the bargaining process.

We will not accept your office’s insulting contract language for
24 unpaid days PLUS your absurd Article 51 language changes calling
for unlimited unpaid days at the will of administrators.

Workers are mad as the dickens and have begun talking seriously
about preparations for a strike action in September.

How would it look to the parents of students and taxpayers if you
are responsible for a system-wide shutdown of the campuses!

This is a serious labor dispute that you need to solve immediately by:

–withdrawal of the nonsensical proposed changes in Article 51

–agreeing to equal treatment of OUS workers compared to DAS employees
(We want the same tentative agreement to vote on including 10-12-14
unpaid days, a step raise in the 2nd year, and a 10th step increase
near the end of the contract.)

–include the PSU student recycling workers in the contract settlement

–An earnest commitment for shared economic sacrifices among ALL
employees in OUS including managers, administrators and other
non-classified staff.  We are willing to accept our share of the
economic burden, but NOT a disproportionate load.

Please come to your senses and settle this contract immediately with
fair and respectful language that includes parity with the DAS
tentative agreement.

Sincerely,

James Jacobson

For those of you not familiar with the issue, the ceremony was originally moved up before finals week to accommodate the NCAA Track and Field Championships (red the original Emerald article about it here). Then, it was moved back (read about that here). Here’s some history on the issue:

Here’s an e-mail Provost Jim Bean sent out over the Human Relations mailing list. I can’t glean a clear reason for the change from it. I’ll post a larger story later when I know more.

Colleagues:
We have just completed a wonderful Summer Commencement.  This is noteworthy as it was President Lariviere’s first commencement at Oregon, and each graduate was able to march and shake the President’s hand.  It is now time to turn our attention to the Spring 2010 Commencement.  As we announced, we  have moved the Commencement back to the days following final exams.  This will be a very exciting weekend on campus hosting both Commencement and the NCAA Track and Field Finals.  For the past year a committee has been studying a renovation of the Commencement exercises to make them even more celebratory for our students and their families.  We also have the advantage that new venues, such as the lawn behind the Knight Library, are back on line.

The Commencement team including (Commencement Director) Amber Garrison, (Vice Provost) Karen Sprague, (Vice President for Student Affairs) Robin Holmes and others have been working closely with the Faculty Advisory Committee, Track and Field, and Lane County Travel to design the weekend.  I am very excited about the resulting pageant. To summarize, a few of the 38 Commencement exercises will take place prior to the main event, as is currently the case.  The primary festivities will begin Sunday afternoon, June 13.  Families can arrive in Eugene at a leisurely pace that day and attend celebrations on Campus, a cookout, or just hold family events in town.  Monday the 14th will begin with a redesigned, primary ceremony that we hope to develop into a “must-see.”  The unit ceremonies will then take place over two time blocks in early afternoon and late afternoon.  Other activities on campus will add to the celebration for those not immediately engaged in a graduation ceremony.
I would like to thank the Commencement committees, the FAC and the Track and Field staff for their great sense of innovation, collaboration and commitment to our students and their families in developing this plan.  I can’t wait to see it.  We will release more details as the year progresses.
Regards, Jim

More will soon follow.