They schedule more classes at 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.

If they scheduled some classes on Fridays, you'd find that just about every room on campus is available.

But, of course, university professors act like working on Friday constitutes abusive working conditions.

I'm a UO professor, it's 11 AM on a beautiful sunday in the summer. I'm spending it doing data analysis for my research, answering emails from students on their research papers, advising them about what to take this fall, and comparing new textbooks and interactive websites for next year's classes, trying to find a good combination that won't cost them anymore than necessary.

I think I'm getting paid for part of this month from an NSF grant, but UO's administration is so screwed up they won't tell me yet. I spent all last week volunteering for a free UO summer camp program for local low SES kids I co-founded, to encourage them to go to college.

So let me put this as politely as possible: Garage Wine, you don't know what you are talking about.

I don't know...it seems to me like you're surfing the Internet and reading and commenting on this blog. Get back to work.

It was just a quick break while I relit my pipe and poured another scotch - honest!

UO M

Well done!! enjoy your Sunday!

Good find - I chuckled when I saw the mention of Professor Cramer, I had a great foreign policy class with her that was also my introduction to coffee as a sophomore trying to crank out a research paper. She's a heck of a teacher.

That said, I love UO sports, but the school needs to do a better job of leveraging sports donations as a conduit to more academic giving or "live within its means" and accept only as many students (or as I'm sure they're called in the business office, "tuition paying units") as it can fit in the spaces it has. Of course, that would mean less income, so I doubt that happens. I was lucky enough to do my grad school at Stanford after UO, and while you can't compare the two academically or financially, I really admired Stanford's policy that coaches couldn't make a certain percentage more than high level professors/administrators. Easy to do with the money that place has, but it sends a clear signal that the school is an academic institution first and foremost. Of course, it could never happen at UO, but just a thought.

Maybe if the Academics Boosters could figure out a way to sell more tickets?

Football tickets, of course.

Regarding limiting students:

I seem to recall that if a student graduates from an Oregon high school equal to or above a certain GPA, they were guaranteed admittance to any of the state schools, including UofO. Not sure if that (or grade inflation) is contributing to the overcrowding.

Also, with the overcrowding, it is getting tougher to graduate within 4 years, with hard limits for many required courses.

I know at OSU, there is also overcrowding of many remedial math classes for students wishing to pursue science and engineering degrees without the necessary proficiency in core classes students should have mastered in high school.

Our public schools seem to be able to provide portable classrooms for short term enrollment crises; didn't see that as a possible solution in the article.

I hope Oregon doesn't take the path seen in the CA university system, with preference for out-of-state students who pay higher tuition, at the expense of the in-state students who are the offspring of the tax-paying CA residents. Quite a controversy with that.

It's a shame that alumni supporters favor sports over academics. The school can't build its reputation on sports alone now, can it?

"I hope Oregon doesn't take the path seen in the CA university system, with preference for out-of-state students who pay higher tuition, at the expense of the in-state students who are the offspring of the tax-paying CA residents. Quite a controversy with that."

Second that notion. A strong, affordable public university system is something we need to strive for. The fact I was able to leave UO with no debt as an in-state student helped me a lot then and now.

"It's a shame that alumni supporters favor sports over academics. The school can't build its reputation on sports alone now, can it?"

Problem at UO is we don't have the strong research/publishing/tech/etc. base other schools do to draw dollars. There are some great programs and teachers at UO (and each state campus), but part of the problem with the way the OUS divided the campuses is no school has a critical mass of strong programs - and Lavierre is a lesson to any president who questions that. So, while for the 99.999% of the campus not playing football, the riches the football team gets are largely inaccessible, but football drives a lot of donations/out of state interest UO currently enjoys. So, while the school would be better off if it was academics getting the heralds, it's pretty much stuck this way.