It’s no wonder higher education in Ky is so expensive. ie. a “glorified secretary” to the President at UofL making $162,000. Robert S. Goldstein, M.P.H.; promotion from Assistant University Provost for Institutional Research, Assessment and Data Management to Associate University Provost for Academic Accountability, Institutional Research and Effectiveness, Mary H. Griffith, B.A., Centre College; Senior Associate Vice President for Advancement Patricia R. Payette, Ph.D.; promotion from Executive Director, Ideas to Action Program, to Executive Director, Ideas to Action and Associate Director, Delphi Center for Teaching and Learning, Gale S. Rhodes, Ed.D.; promotion from Assistant University Provost for Distance and Continuing Education to Associate University Provost and Executive Director, Delphi Center for Teaching and Learning, No wonder higher education in Kentucky is so expensive. What’s described to us as a glorified secretary to Jim Ramsey is making $162,000. [Email]
FINALLY! Train service may get to Dulles in our lifetime! No more going out of our way to truck it from Baltimore. And maybe no more layovers in Detroit. All because we want to/have to avoid Dulles. Anyone else excited? [Washington Business Journal]
Joe Conason, one of our favorites, has a great piece about Mitch McConnell and his phony thrift. His campaign for a sixth term last autumn might as well have been a tour of the many federally funded sites that literally bear his stamp. In Owensboro, residents can stroll through Mitch McConnell Plaza, an urban renewal project that is the pride of that riverfront town. In Lexington, students can take advantage of the wonderful Mitch McConnell Distance Learning Center at the university’s law school. In Louisville, joggers can stretch their legs along the Mitch McConnell Loop Trail in the city’s new $38 million park. [Truth Dig]
Are we on the brink of the collapse of daily print journalism? We don’t think we’re on the edge of disaster in America, but print outfits need to shape up and redevelop. Can America’s paper of record, the New York Times, survive the death of newsprint? Can journalism? [The Atlantic]
Think the economy is super-fancy and nice in Kentucky? Haha, fat chance. The Kentucky Education and Workforce Development Cabinet was forced to increase capacity to handle an unprecedented number of unemployment claims. 44,000 last week. 88,195 new claims in the month of December alone. All those claims crashed the system. Pure insanity. [KEWES]
The University of Louisville will house Mitch McConnell’s archives. Shirley Willihnganz says the University plans to spend $3 million converting part of Ekstrom Library. Elaine Chao’s papers will also be part of the exhibit. Shirley, the woman who, it seems, turned a blind eye while Robert Felner was wreaking havoc, says the millions will be privately raised. One has to wonder why our public schools can spend thousands of hours raising money for something like this instead of working to lower the cost of tuition or working to improve education. [Business First]
14 responses so far ↓
1 Steve Bittenbender // Jan 9, 2009 at 9:33 am
Rail service to Dulles would be nice, but it’s still cheaper to fly into BWI. It may even be quicker since you don’t have to fly through Midway.
2 Novena // Jan 9, 2009 at 10:05 am
“Academe’s Administrative Riches”
More evidence of needless, endlessly multiplying administrative jobs that cost the public dearly. Such auxiliary services are among the main reasons for the incredibly rising costs of higher education. We’ve seen this before in the CEHD’s losership team (more assistant/associate/vice deans than any other college of education in the nation, with undeserved huge salaries). And, I’ll say it for the umpteenth time: some Ph.D. professors with 25-30 years of service at UofL making about $55,000 (compared to JR’s secretary at $162,00 with a B.A. degree). In addition, many other staff across campus earn barely enough to rise above food-stamp level. Where is the justice and equity on the Belknap greens? Next, we’ll build a golf course for upper-administrative personnel only, with human statuaries (played by “lesser” staff and faculty). Students can gawk from afar while struggling to digest cardboard grub from their required meal plan.
3 Novena // Jan 9, 2009 at 10:43 am
“Anointing the Oily Pols”
OK, now I’ve heard enough from SW. She’ll help raise $3 million for McConnell & Chao’s personal & professional archives to be housed at UofL. Why not do more to lower costs for our students who have to work several jobs to go to UofL? Or why not set up better programs to help low-income city children prepare for UofL?
Also, to aid McConnell & Chao (despite their obvious and untold connections to UofL) is to anoint people who are out of sync with what is good and solid about America. Chao, as Labor Secretary no less, has referred to US workers as lousy dressers who have body odor and putrid overall hygiene. She recommends that they take anger management courses (probably at UofL). My guess is that she may have been projecting some of her hubby’s traits on hard-working people who do not have her imperial advantages.
As for Mitch, how can one say enough? He’s had a profoundly wicked impact on national leadership for many years (except for fat cats like those who “lead” UofL). As I recall, he led the “fight” for $20 million to “celebrate” our “victories” in Iraq and Afghanistan (while voting against body armor, pay raises, and health benefits for our troops). Maybe he can raise his own $3 million to celebrate his disastrous, backward-looking career–and his archives could be more rightly housed at Cave Hill.
4 Bob // Jan 11, 2009 at 1:39 pm
I’m glad to see less than usual knee-jerk negative response to the McConnell archives story. Agree with him or not, the man is a force to be dealth with here and beyond our county/state. If you limit library research materials only to the materials you find agreeable, Ekstrom Library could be shifted into that cute little parking lot kiosk by the University Club.
5 Novena // Jan 11, 2009 at 3:07 pm
“The Devil’s Advocate”
Bob, you make an interesting point. But there is mixed news regarding questionable “force(s) to be dealt with” and their archives. SMU has agreed to house G. W. Bush’s (Laura is a Mustang alumna). Duke University refused Nixon’s (even though Richard Milhouse was an honors graduate of its Law School). On this one, I guess we both seem to be the “Devil’s advocate” (as in the Blue Devils and Mitch). May the force (not) be with him.
6 notshocked // Jan 13, 2009 at 2:05 pm
Novena: Where did the $162,000 for JR’s glorified secretary come from?
7 Novena // Jan 13, 2009 at 8:54 pm
“Glorified Secretary Needs Definition?”
Notshocked, that’s how Jake described it in his blurb on this thread. Do you mean, where did the money come from (especially during a budget crunch)? Good question. Maybe another earmark from Anne or Mitch? Remember where Anne’s last one went, if you’ve been following the Felner saga.
P.S. I admit I got lost in all of Jake’s listing of the various administrative promotions (again, amid the budget crisis, no less), especially with all the commas, semi-colons and titles. I hope the letterhead to fit all that stuff in doesn’t cost too much, either. Jake, can you help?
8 jake // Jan 13, 2009 at 8:57 pm
The funds come from where ever all salaries come from.
9 Novena // Jan 13, 2009 at 9:52 pm
“Kiddin’ & No Kiddin’”
Thanks, Jake. Notshocked, I was just kidding about the possible Anne or Mitch earmarks. It is ye ole State of KY that is paying for that $162,000 out of regular salary funds to State employees. Funny how campus presidents and provosts can find funds in a budget crunch whenever they want to do so (but not for the $55 K profs and low-paid staff folks who beat the bushes to avoid taking food stamps).
10 Kidding // Jan 20, 2009 at 12:50 am
Novena: What about Felner friends’ salaries? What about those who were not hired through by following proper procedures? Sa still makes more than $ 175,000 as a professor and speaks from both sides of his mouth. Once Felner’s strong supporter, now bad mouths him. No loyalty, no shame, no conscience, only matters the mighty dollar.
11 Novena // Jan 22, 2009 at 7:11 pm
“On SS & Salaries”
Kidding, you’ve got SS pegged to a high degree. Yet some of us have noticed some nervous tension in his demeanor over the past year or so. Guilt pangs? Who knows. But fewer and fewer seem to care about him anyway. The inequitable salary issue (Felner’s cronies vs. the rest of CEHD) has been widely covered on these threads–so much so that the dead horse is coated with crusty blood. What more can be said except silence and inaction continues on that front. Why expect anything else? This is the UofHell.
12 Le Gardien de but // Jan 25, 2009 at 9:34 am
What’s really sad is that most of those people Jake mentioned have not spent much time in the classroom or in doing research. None of them is going to contribute where “the rubber hits the road”. They haven’t paid their dues from the ground up. U of L has a history of being the most administratively bloated U in the state.
I wish SW would commission (done by a truly impartial outfit) a STUDENT survey on the effectiveness of the DELPHI center and the BLACKBOARD system. I suspect the citizens of this state are not getting a whole lot of bang for their bucks with these. Most businesses survey their “clients” occasionally; why not survey our students????
The responses may be a real eye opener for SW…..
13 Novena // Jan 28, 2009 at 12:04 pm
“The Value of Student Surveys”
Le Gardien, the last time UofL surveyed its students, about 47% stated that they wouldn’t recommend the place. Even worse, 42% of the faculty said they wouldn’t send their kids here. I think Garrison was provost then. She went on to become prez of UAB (while dumping Shumaker). The student surveys were apparently irrelevant to her rise to the top (or maybe UAB’s search committee just missed that fine detail). After all, we hired Felner.
14 Kidding // Feb 4, 2009 at 11:46 am
Why SS is being paid more than $177,000? Don’t u think some serious wrong with this picture?
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