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I got two interesting pieces of news at work today.
Security Update
For online access to certain kinds of things, like our W-2 forms, we now not only have to use our employee ID number and password but an additional hoop which requires us to check our smartphones for a second secret one-time-use-only password which we also type in.
If we don't have a smart phone, we can receive the password as a text on our mobile phone.
I'm not sure my phone can even get texts. Plus I can't find it. So I sent an e-mail with this quote:
"I have a landline and an e-mail address. Yes, I'm old. Also frugal ... from working here with low pay."
I also asked if we could show up at the Accounting office with a photo ID for our second form of proving who we are.
Yes, we can.
President Fired
The president of the university where I work was told by the Regents that he must resign immediately or he will be let go at the next Regent's meeting (this Friday).
President Powers (who we all enjoy referring to as "the Powers that be") has refused to resign immediately, though he has stated that he could be talked into submitting a resignation that would go into effect next May.
It's all very exciting.
He's not even being fired for any of the stuff he's bad at. The problem is that he's not running the university sufficiently like a low-quality business. Or some political reasons I don't understand.
According to Inside Higher Ed, "Powers has defended the university and its faculty members from criticisms from the governor's allies, who have questioned the value of research and graduate programs that do not bring in outside dollars (in other words, non-science research). He has also defended the need for tuition increases, which have been opposed by [Governor] Perry. Powers has also been a strong defender of affirmative action in higher education, notably in defending the university's admissions practices all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court."
Non-science research?! Tuition increases (and fundraising) to make up for state funding reductions?! Making sure minorities can get in? Also, not mentioned in the article, he thinks that it's not a waste of time for faculty to prep for their classes or do research.
I know! He's basically an embarrassment to all mankind.
The faculty don't want him fired, nor do the students. They have a petition. After three days it still has only 10K signatures, though.
Part of me wants to resign in protest. But then I have a bias toward wanting to quit, so that's no big surprise.
Security Update
For online access to certain kinds of things, like our W-2 forms, we now not only have to use our employee ID number and password but an additional hoop which requires us to check our smartphones for a second secret one-time-use-only password which we also type in.
If we don't have a smart phone, we can receive the password as a text on our mobile phone.
I'm not sure my phone can even get texts. Plus I can't find it. So I sent an e-mail with this quote:
"I have a landline and an e-mail address. Yes, I'm old. Also frugal ... from working here with low pay."
I also asked if we could show up at the Accounting office with a photo ID for our second form of proving who we are.
Yes, we can.
President Fired
The president of the university where I work was told by the Regents that he must resign immediately or he will be let go at the next Regent's meeting (this Friday).
President Powers (who we all enjoy referring to as "the Powers that be") has refused to resign immediately, though he has stated that he could be talked into submitting a resignation that would go into effect next May.
It's all very exciting.
He's not even being fired for any of the stuff he's bad at. The problem is that he's not running the university sufficiently like a low-quality business. Or some political reasons I don't understand.
According to Inside Higher Ed, "Powers has defended the university and its faculty members from criticisms from the governor's allies, who have questioned the value of research and graduate programs that do not bring in outside dollars (in other words, non-science research). He has also defended the need for tuition increases, which have been opposed by [Governor] Perry. Powers has also been a strong defender of affirmative action in higher education, notably in defending the university's admissions practices all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court."
Non-science research?! Tuition increases (and fundraising) to make up for state funding reductions?! Making sure minorities can get in? Also, not mentioned in the article, he thinks that it's not a waste of time for faculty to prep for their classes or do research.
I know! He's basically an embarrassment to all mankind.
The faculty don't want him fired, nor do the students. They have a petition. After three days it still has only 10K signatures, though.
Part of me wants to resign in protest. But then I have a bias toward wanting to quit, so that's no big surprise.
