another embed code test:

Let's see how this looks:



Gee whiz!

A letter to President Bruininks regarding cuts to the Regents Scholarship at the U of MN:

Dear President Bruininks:

Your argument regarding the Regents Scholarship cut is fallacious. The "$9 million and growing 10 p.c. per year" is fuzzy math. All those classes that employees are taking will still be offered; they will still be scheduled, take up space, have instructors, use classrooms, and use resources. The difference is that there will be fewer employees taking the classes (2 percent fewer people in the classes).

The "cost" you refer to is assumed from the amount of revenue that *would* be generated were the employees paying full price for the classes we are taking. But the reality is that allowing employees to take these classes really costs the University very little; as I said, the classes will still take place and the costs of offering those classes to students will still be in place.

This is a revenue generation tactic pure and simple, and you need to fess up and present it as such.

The Regents Scholarship is a part of our compensation package. I would get a higher salary if I worked the same job in the private sector, but the scholarship makes up for the difference. Now, if you expect staff to contribute to revenue generation by taking a cut in our compensation, I can understand that. HOWEVER: I think you should also ask P&A, Faculty, and administration to do the same. You must cut compensation across ALL employees of the University if you do it at all. Be fair; don't hide your tactics behind claims of "saving costs". Do the real math and ask that EVERYONE that works at the U make a sacrifice - not just the lowest paid workers.

I encourage you to set an example for our future leaders by doing this in an equitable and fair manner.

Sincerely, Pete McCauley

Testing a Flickr embed...

Vimeo!

I am testing the "Hubnut" widget video player from Vimeo to see how it looks in a blog. Here it is:

Testing Camtasia Relay

Baby video!

I wanted to post this little video of our son Finn that was taken over September & October of 2008. There's a little bit of boob in here, so be warned...

Twenty Demons (podcast test)

Testing to see if you can use Blogger as a podcast feed generator (they say that you can...)