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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.

  1. Johnny says:

    I’m part of the of the ~15% conservative students on this liberal campus, where they care more about your skin color or sexual preference than hardwork and grades…why am I not getting at least a beer and bag o chips at the samurai duck?

    Don’t they see that racism is still racism, good or bad?

    And to the ‘social justice’ goofballs, MLK talked about equality not equity, he would throw up on your faces if he saw this, as MLK was a great Republican leader!

  2. Orev says:

    Damn, I’m white as an alaskan snow pack, but Jewish. Therefore, one of only 3% of this country. Where is my free dinner at a restaurant I wouldn’t even have my parents take me too?

  3. C.T. Behemoth says:

    Billie Wright Dziech
    “Why Academe Gets No Respect”
    The Chronicle of Higher Ed, November 22nd, 2002

    Relevant. Costs money to read unless you get it through the campus interwebs that have those nice built-in subscriptions to things like the Chronic.

  4. C.T. Behemoth says:

    The only time I’ve heard of this and been remotely involved with such a thing, what I remember is that 1/2 went to the faculty member’s professional development (etc) specifically while 1/2 went to the department, but it was to be spent at the discretion of the UMRP recipient. Of course, that’s only what I remember….

    It is a policy that really begs to be abused on more than a few levels, despite the good intentions (believe it or not there are likely assholes on this campus who view themselves as mini-dictators of ‘their’ department). When it has been, I’m sure that the U of O has solved it internally and had some non-disclosure legalese stuff thrown about to seal it forever. That would be the smart thing to do anyway.

  5. Vincent says:

    Good find.

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