Articles by newsletter

April 18, 2018

LERC’s Labor Research Colloquium Series

Lecture Series Sponsored by the UO Labor Education & Research Center Spring 2018 February 28th, 2018 • 4 – 5 pm Eileen Otis, Associate Professor, Sociology. Walmart in China: How are Chinese workers confronting the world’s largest company? April 18th, 2018 • 4 – 5 Lola Loustaunau, PhD student, Sociology. Organizing multiethnic, multilingual workers with insecure legal status: challenges and lessons from an intensive campaign in the Portland food industry. May 16th, 2018 • 4 – 5 Bob Bussel, LERC Director and Professor, History. Anti-racist union education in the post-WWII era: learning from history how working people’s art and education…

March 9, 2018

Lego Grad Student Coming to UO!

Whether you care to openly admit it or not, grad school has probably felt like a sledgehammer repeatedly slamming into your face and soul. Spend an hour with Lego Grad Student as he attempts to explain why this is a perfectly normal–but not inevitable–feeling, and offers painfully learned advice on how you can manage it. (Satisfaction absolutely not guaranteed.) We all know that graduate school is not easy.  Many students experience ‘imposter syndrome’ while navigating their graduate program.  Imposter syndrome is a concept describing individuals who are marked by an inability to internalize their accomplishments and a persistent fear of being…

February 16, 2018

Budget Cuts, Reorganization, and Frustration in COE

The College of Education (COE) has recently been presented with relatively significant budget cut targets by the Provost’s office.  The COE faculty are eager to find ways to maintain the excellence of our programs while also achieving the prescribed fiscal goals.  Unfortunately, we are not being given the information that would make such collaborative problem solving possible.  Frustration levels are high. In response to this situation, UA stewards in COE recently hosted a meeting of college faculty with UA Executive Director David Cecil.  25 faculty attended, and 28 others sent regrets along with lists of their concerns.  The concerns expressed…

January 23, 2018

Save the Date for Healthcare: January 23rd!

This year, a broad coalition of Oregon Democrats, Republicans, health care advocates and providers, and healthcare companies passed a landmark Medicaid funding package. Unfortunately, some want to turn back this progress and have gathered signatures to repeal this critical funding. Currently, 95% of Oregonians, including all children, have health coverage. Voting Yes on Measure 101 protects healthcare for 350,000 Oregonians who rely on the Oregon Health Plan for their insurance, including 66,000 children. Measure 101 stipulates that hospitals, insurance companies, and other healthcare providers pay a small, temporary assessment which is then matched by the Federal government. This crucial funding…

January 3, 2018

Everyone Needs a Friend, Even Assistant Professors

Are you a first, second, or third year faculty member? Feeling a little unsure of how everything is supposed to work here at UO and in academia in general? Wish you had someone with more experience you could talk with? Many faculty feel this way, so we have developed a mentorship program to help facilitate informal faculty networking and support across campus. Connections with colleagues matched by interests and experiences can be useful in providing guidance on a range of professional issues and topics, including but not limited to: navigating work-life balance, publishing, teaching, nuances of department life, new community…

January 3, 2018

The Chickens Are Roosting, Do YOU Know Where Your 403(b) Is?

Since the first day faculty began organizing United Academics, one of the requests our postdoctoral faculty had was for the union to fix the “PERS problem.” Postdocs and PIs were paying into PERS accounts, but since most postdocs were not state employees for more than 5 years, few were ever vesting in their accounts. The money paid in was remaining in the PERS system, but never benefitted the faculty for whom it was paid. It was also difficult for PIs to compete for grants because they had to include retirement payments into their cost calculations when applying for grants. Scientists…

October 27, 2017

Social Justice through Antiracist Writing Assessment

On Friday, October 27th, UO Composition will host “Social Justice through Antiracist Writing Assessment,” a symposium that will bring together instructors of writing-intensive courses and campus leaders in curricular reform to develop more inclusive pedagogies. The symposium features an antiracist assessment workshop led by Dr. Asao B. Inoue, whose social justice-focused work in Rhetoric and Composition addresses the disproportionate barriers to success for students of color, first-generation college students, and other students of diverse backgrounds.

October 17, 2017

Solidarity and Recovery support in Puerto Rico

As faculty with family in Puerto Rico, we recommend a focused fundraiser for ISER Caribe. Here is also a helpful list of local organizations. Among other topics at our membership meeting, we will hear from Professor Alaí Reyes-Santos who is organizing a delegation of students for a trip to Puerto Rico. The pedagogical goals are: To engage the ethical issues raised by the current crisis in Puerto Rico through documentation and relief efforts in affected areas. Deepen our understanding of what digital humanities research can provide to address issues of racial, economic and environmental justice through documentation and distribution of…

October 2, 2017

CAS Professional Development Policy Revisions

Recently, CAS sent a memo to department heads reminding them of the need to finalize a Professional Development Policy by October 20. Units were working on these policies last spring, but a series of miscommunications and misunderstandings resulted in a decision to delay finalizing the policies until this fall. We hope this delay has given faculty enough time to discuss the best policy for their department. CAS has sent a template and guidance to the departments to help frame the development of the policy. Several of our colleagues have asked if their unit can just use or modify the Professional…