Introducing the Under-represented Minority Fine Dining Plan
The latest post over at UO Matters, a new watchdog blog about the university, digs up some information on the university’s Under-represented Minority Recruitment Plan (UMRP). The UMRP gives up to $90,000 to departments that hire minority faculty*. UO Matters has an accounting statement from a professor’s UMRP account. Most of the money went towards salary, but the professor also used the account for, among other things, an $82 meal at Excelsior and $227 for “catering.”
Now, the UMRP is considered legal because it awards money to departments, not minority faculty themselves, but I’m not sure of the legality of using UMRP as a Diner’s Club card. AS UO Matters says: “Affirmative action law (in our view appropriately) allows employers to make certain specific extra efforts to recruit minorities – but it is completely illegal to use race, ethnicity, or gender when determining pay, benefits, or working conditions.”
*Or faculty who self-identify as a minority, to be specific.
