NASS General Assembly chaired; elected Secretary of NASS; Lauri Linask new NASS President

Yesterday, on Friday June 9th, I chaired the general assembly of the Nordic Association for Semiotic Studies (NASS) in conjunction with the 13th conference of the Nordic Association for Semiotic Studies (NASS) in Helsinki (June 7-9th). After three terms - six years - as President, I stepped down from this role, and was elected Secretary (I was also Secretary in 2011-2017). Lauri Linask was elected President of NASS.

Gathering and 2 meetings - elected as chair of steering group for Cognitive Lab

Yesterday I attended the second day of our faculty leadership group gathering at Hotell Jæren, Bryne. I also attended, and chaired, the first, constitutive meeting of the steering group for Cognitive Lab (Cognitive and behavioral neuroscience lab), and was elected chair of the steering group. And I had one more meeting.

Vote

I have just voted in the election at University of Stavanger of scientific staff members of the board of the new Faculty of Social Science.

Minding Animals Norway: General meeting held, no board elected

Today Minding Animals Norway held its annual General Meeting. Six people were present, five of whom current board members. No financial report or budget was prepared for the meeting. An annual report and an action plan was decided on, however. Election of board members was discussed for an hour or two before it was decided that an extraordinary General Meeting will be held on February 1st to elect a new board. This was because two people wants to quit the board and two more were ambivalent with regard to continuing.

UiS news story on election results

Here is a University of Stavanger news story from November 30th about the election results, "Nye interne styremedlemmer ved UiS". As reported in the post below, 11 votes got me a 2nd deputy position only representing temporarily employed education and research staff. The news story provides info on who were elected in each category of employment, and how many votes each candidate got.

See also:

Another election for the UiS board lost

General Meeting of Minding Animals Norway held; reelected as chair

This year´s General Meeting of Minding Animals Norway (MAN) was held yesterday afternoon at Funky Fresh Foods (a vegan restaurant) in Oslo. 7 people were present. I was reelected as chair of MAN for another year, and August Torp and Iselin Linstad Hauge were elected as new board members.

Another election for the UiS board lost

Today the election for the board of University of Stavanger ended, and the results have been communicated to candidates. Among temporarily employed education and research staff, I got 11 of 71 votes not including blank votes, or in other words 15% of the votes. This makes me 2nd deputy representative in the board 0101.2016-31.07.2017, given that there were three candidates and that I came in 3rd place.

Debate on research productivity - UiS board elections

A couple of days ago I posted "Vi må ha ambisjoner for forskningen!" [We need ambitions for research!] on the University of Stavanger debate pages, in reply to a post by Svein Tuastad, "59 poeng" [59 [publication] points]. Yesterday he replied, with the post "Kulturforklaringa" [the culture explanation].

UiS board elections

This news story from the webpage of University of Stavanger links to the elections for the board of UiS, which are taking place these days.

Three UiS election-related open meetings attended

On November 18th, Wednesday this week, I attended all three open meetings at University of Stavanger in relation to the upcoming elections of representatives for the UiS board. While I was an attendee only during the meetings for permanent scientific staff and administrative staff, I was one of the candidates presented during the meeting for temporarily employed education and research staff. Attendance varied from ca. 25 during the other two meetings, to 9 during "my" meeting.

Open meetings today on UiS elections

News story at the webpage of University of Stavanger: "Husk allmøter i dag med kandidatene til ansattes represententanter i UiS' styre" [Remember open meetings today with the candidates for employees´ representatives in the board of UiS]. I am running for the position for temporarily employed education and research staff.

The open meetings were also announced yesterday (see news story).

Debate article: Where now for the University of Stavanger?

I have just composed the debate article Hvor nå for UiS? [Where now for the University of Stavanger?], which has been posted on the debate pages of UiS. Amongst other things I write that UiS should in the future be organized as an independent foundation rather than as a public university under the government.

UiS news story on candidates for UiS board; open meetings to be held November 18th

Here is the official UiS news story presenting (or rather listing) the candidates for the board of University of Stavanger. Open meetings where the candidates will present their electoral programs will be held on Wednesday November 18th. The meeting for temporarily employed education and research staff will be held at noon.

See also:

17 candidates for the UiS board election

17 candidates for the UiS board election

Today the deadline for nominating candidates for the board of University of Stavanger  expired. In the category of temporarily employed education and research staff, I am one of three candidates, along with Clemens Furnes (currently 1st deputy representative) and PhD scholar Sanne Lorentzen. Ten people are nominated as candidates for permanent faculty, four for administrative staff. Altogether there are thus 17 candidates, three of whom will be elected as permanent members of the UiS board, and six as deputy members.

Election of UiS rector: Boyesen reelected by wide margin; almost 10% voted blank

Marit Boyesen has been reelected as rector of University of Stavanger, with a surprisingly big share of the vote, see news story of the UiS webpage. Dag Husebø (43) will be pro-rector.

Altogether the two got 800 votes, while the challengers Einar Marburg and Gro Johnsen got only 420 votes. Boyesen´s margin of victory was especially big among administrative staff, here she won 3-1 (while she won about 2-1 among research and teaching staff, and 3-2 among students).

No fewer than 126 out of 1346 votes, or 9,4 %, were blank.

See also:

Election of UiS rector: Why I vote blank

Rector candidates debating in UiS debate forum

Open meeting with Marnburg and Johnsen attended

Two candidates for UiS rector

Election of UiS rector: Why I vote blank

The election of new University of Stavanger rector and pro-rector started today. I have voted - submitting a blank vote. I think that both candidates (Marit Boyesen and Einar Marburg) are too mainstream in their reasoning about university strategy.

Einar Marnburg is a straight-talker - that is a strength - and appears to call for fresh ideas about how to organize work at the university. However, he has not provided many substantial, specific fresh ideas himself during the electoral campaign, and his envisioned university strategy is on most key points very similar to that of Marit Boyesen. Marit Boyesen, on her side, is more experienced than Marburg on broader university policy issues, and has somewhat of an advantage regarding her ability to formulate measured policy ambitions, though her statements are often quite vague and sometimes not committing enough.

Open meeting with Marnburg and Johnsen attended

Today I have attended an open meeting where two of the candidates at the election of rector for University of Stavanger, Dean Einar Marnburg and Head of Department Gro Johnsen, were presented, in dialogue with the audience. The meeting was targeted at Department of Health Studies and Department of Social Studies. I asked a few questions on the candidates´ thoughts about research, and the relation between rector and university director.

I have not decided who I will vote for, if anyone (the other candidates are Rector Marit Boyesen and Dag Husebø).

Elections for UiS board to be held late November; I will run

Elections for the new University of Stavanger board are due November 24-30th, with nomination deadline November 11th. I intend to run again. Today I was informed that the functioning time for  the representative for temporarily employed education and research staff will be 1.1.2016 to 31.7.2017, i.e. one and a half year (vs. usually 1 year).

Two candidates for UiS rector

There are two candidates for rector of University of Stavanger ahead of upcoming elections - Marit Boyesen (with Dag Husebø as pro-rector), the current rector, and Einar Marburg (with Gro Johnsen as pro-rector), currently the Dean of Faculty of Social Science. The linked electoral programs are in Norwegian.

I happen to have met all four at different occasions.

Election lost

I lost the election of representative for temporarily employed education and research staff with a big margin, winning only 6 votes out of 54. Kristian Thorsen was reelected, Clemens Furnes was reelected as 1st deputy representative and I as 2nd deputy representative for the period 2014-2015 (Autumn to Spring).

See results here.

See also:

Electoral program online at UiS webpage