It is too early to tell if the "flexibility" he asked of the legislature 
will create the better UT that he wants. It might move us towards a greater 
emphasis on grants and research, and that seems to be what the Trustees 
want. I did point out the possible negative impact on collegiality and 
cooperation, but then there is no empirical evidence to support that 
either; only time will tell.

Richard

At 10:45 AM 11/2/2005 -0500, Fritz Efaw wrote:
>Richard,
>Did our Beloved Leader offer any empirical evidence to support the 
>assertion that his "incentive plan" is working or is ever likely to work?
>Did he offer any explanation of why it might work better than the recently 
>abandoned post-tenure review incentive plan, or the chairs of excellence 
>incentive plan, or the bonus incentive plan?
>Did he defend what the results might be when all the best young scholars 
>figure out that they will become victims of salary compression and that 
>over the long haul their "rewards" will grow at the same rate as state 
>appropriations?
>Do you think he would be interested in a sure-fire 20 percent return on 
>his money as long as the stock market bubble lasts (with the caveat that 
>past performance is no guarantee of future earnings)?  If so, I also have 
>a nice bridge between lower Manhattan and Brooklyn for sale.
>
>Fritz.
>
>At 07:25 AM 11/2/2005 -0500, Richard Rice wrote:
>>President Petersen last week at the Trustees Meeting defended his 
>>incentive plan to attract and reward the best young scholars in the UT 
>>system. A recent survey of scholars teaching international relations in 
>>Foreign Policy suggests that an unintended consequence of this will be a 
>>trend towards teaching more theory and less real world application. I 
>>wonder if this will be true in most disciplines at UTC? I quote:
>>
>>"The international relations field today is surprisingly young: Half of 
>>the professors who teach at U.S. colleges received their Ph.D.s in the 
>>past 12 years. Even more surprising is how young scholars change the 
>>focus of their teaching over time. Early on, when young faculty are fresh 
>>out of graduate school, they focus their teaching on theoretical 
>>questions and scholarly debates. But, as their careers progress, 
>>professors are inclined to teach their students more about real-world 
>>policy debates and less about scholarly arguments. The image of the 
>>ancient, tenured professor reading from decades-old notes needs to be revised."
>>
>>  Richard