SENATORS PRESENT: Robert Brandon (EOU), Ronald Cease (PSU), John
Cooper (PSU), Bill Danley (SOU), Carroll DeKock, (OSU), Elaine Deutschman,
(OIT), Irja Galvan (WOU), Maurice Holland, (UO), , Kirsten Lampi (OHSU),
Janet Nishihara (OSU), Marion Schrock, (WOU), Paul Simonds (UO), J. Antonio
Torres (OSU), Dennis Trune (OHSU), Mel Turner (OIT), Una Beth Westfall
(OHSU), Sarah Witte, (EOU), Craig Wollner (PSU), Kemble Yates (SOU).
SENATORS ABSENT: None
GUESTS PRESENT: Dr. Peter Kohler, President, OHSU; Dr. Leslie Hallick, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, OHSU; Professor Dan Hatton, OHSU Faculty Senate President, OHSU; Diane Vines, OUS State Board Secretary; Dr. Shirley Clark, Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, OUS; Senator (elect) Rick Metzger, Welches; Representative Max Williams (elect), Tigard; Bill Wyatt, Chief of Staff to Governor Kitzhaber.
Call to Order: Kemble Yates, president, called the meeting to order at 1:05 p.m. and welcomed guests.
President Peter Kohler: Dr. Kohler welcomed IFS senators to OHSU and offered remarks on the public corporation status of OHSU which makes the university more autonomous with its own board and able to react more quickly to changing challenges than it could as a purely public entity. President Kohler listed keeping state programs, finding capital for upgrades and maintenance, and developing efficient infrastructure as the major challenges facing the institution. Research, he said, is what will make OHSU a premier academic health center; this requires hiring top-notch faculty. The OHSU goal is to increase research grants by 15% per year. OHSU is successful because (a) it's invested in good faculty, (b) put about $200 million into capital investment which it can depreciate, unlike other public institutions, (c) has garnered federal investment and (d) has a lean governance structure since it no longer has to go through the OUS State Board.
Diane Vines: Ms. Vines spoke to Senators about the Oregon Emerging Business Initiative (see appendix) - an effort to meet the needs of small emerging businesses in the state. She noted that the OUS does not have a good record in addressing these needs. Since Oregon's economic growth depends on these emerging companies for jobs and to create wealth, OUS is developing some plans and programs to connect with these firms. The major OUS goal is establishing an excellent postsecondary education system that has strong collaborations with industry. Increasing resources for highly-talented faculty and state-of-the-art facilities are among the activities to meet that goal. Vines envisions a one-stop service (incubator program) to link OUS more closely with the entrepreneurial sector that would take ideas from small businesses and transfer them to colleges where help on technical matters would be available. Each institution will identify a liaison to field requests for such services. She characterized the one-stop service as a "conduit" or "marriage broker".
Academic Council Report: This item, normally on Saturday's agenda, was moved to Friday to accommodate Sarah Witte's absence on Saturday. The Academic Council minutes for the October 15, 1998 and November 19, 1998 meetings were distributed (see appendix). Witte highlighted discussions on the foreign language requirements for OUS admission and noted provosts are concerned as community colleges don't always check their students who transfer to OUS schools for that competency; individual admissions officers will have to follow up. The trend is strongly to Spanish but OUS wants to keep diversity in languages so may need to subsidize the study of other languages. The provosts again visited the general education requirements; transferability is an issue with courses outside the AA degree. More articulation is needed. The OUS is interested in becoming a player in the "College High" movement; the number of high school students taking college-level courses at the community colleges is increasing and OUS would like to participate. Finally, the Bend-area movement towards a college in the region is gaining momentum. A public hearing with Chancellor Cox in early November coupled with a summary of the effort and the plans for an institution have given the undertaking some currency. A set of handouts regarding the central Oregon college accompany the minutes of the Academic Council in the appendix.
Senator Rick Metzger and Representative Max Williams: Senator-elect Metzger says higher ed. is a high priority in the upcoming legislature as legislators recognize the damage done in the past 10 years. Representative-elect Williams asserts there's general agreement on funding the new budget model; the question is "How much money is that?". The economic level-off will put the legislature in a bind and there's no reserve fund to cover downturn incurred because of the heavy reliance on income tax revenues. Discussion among senators and the legislators followed. When asked to respond to the proposition "Oregon no longer has a public higher ed. system", Williams commented that Oregon is having difficulty keeping K-12 going and higher ed. may be a secondary priority. Higher ed. isn't compelling to people; imprisoning a burglar is. To make higher ed. more compelling, it must be tied to the larger picture: Is your child going to have access to a reasonably-priced college education? Does living in Oregon mean you have a second-rate chance at a college education? OUS is a mysterious entity to most people - citizens don't understand academia. Faculty must connect with the "movers and shakers" in their own communities. Both legislators agreed that chances of passing a sales tax are zero to none: people don't want it and won't lobby for it.
Vice Chancellor Shirley Clark: Dr. Clark provided Senators with background on the post-tenure review (PTR) issue, saying we're operating in an environment demanding accountability. She provided senators with a draft copy of the report the Academic Council prepared for the State Board (see appendix). PTR is a topic of conversation at many Academic Council meetings, she said. The State Board was reminded that PTR has been "on the books" since 1973. However, there's no money to support the faculty development the policy requires. She also noted the importance of tenure in protecting faculty positions; she cited two instances: a breast implant researcher ran "afoul" of a major firm because of her work and a salmon researcher's work was impugned when it didn't agree with outside agencies' work. Dr. Clark also gave each Senator a copy of the State Board's revisions of the Administrative Organization and Procedures Internal Management Directives (see appendix).
Bill Wyatt: The Governor's Chief of Staff stated the Governor has encapsulated all education spending in a "cradle to grave" manner. He has tried to figure out how to stop the funding decline for higher ed; he directed the State Board to more directly fund students and in that way, make the system more competitive. Wyatt noted that higher ed. got the largest percentage increase to its budget of any state agency in the Governor's budget. Income tax revenues are down by $250 million which means there'll be no kicker and no funding from the 0 - 2% portion. In March and May reports, the state could find itself with less money than currently available; budgets will have to be reduced, not just "not increased". On the issue of a faculty member on the State Board, Wyatt clarified the Governor's position. The Governor resisted the bill to require a faculty member on the State Board; it was subsequently amended to allow but not require a faculty member. It is not the Governor's staff's understanding that the next appointment would be a faculty member but very strong consideration will be given to faculty on the next appointment. Appointments are carefully made - about 15% of staff time is spent on board/commission appointments. Wyatt's advice to the IFS and other faculty groups: find someone who's enthusiastic about the direction the Governor wants to go and someone who won't just represent faculty interests but will take a broader view; and find someone who can take a message of the importance of higher ed. into the community, can speak with multiple voices and has credibility outside academia. The Governor's office will worry about "confirmability". The Governor is still ambivalent about individual institutional governing boards. Decentralizing and handing more power to each institution has risks.
The meeting was adjourned at 4:30 p.m. so Senators could enjoy refreshments before dinner at a Willamette riverfront restaurant.
SENATORS PRESENT: Robert Brandon (EOU), Ronald Cease (PSU), John
Cooper (PSU), Bill Danley (SOU), Carroll DeKock, (OSU), Elaine Deutschman,
(OIT), Irja Galvan (WOU), Maurice Holland, (UO), , Marion Schrock, (WOU),
Paul Simonds (UO), J. Antonio Torres (OSU), Dennis Trune (OHSU), Mel Turner
(OIT), Una Beth Westfall (OHSU), , Craig Wollner (PSU), Kemble Yates (SOU).
SENATORS ABSENT: Kirsten Lampi (OHSU), Janet Nishihara (OSU), Sarah Witte, (EOU)
Call to Order: Kemble Yates, president, called the meeting to order at 8:25 a.m.
Approval of the Minutes of October 1998 meeting: It was moved and seconded that the minutes of the October, 1998 meeting be approved as sent on e-mail. The motion passed unanimously.
Announcements and Remarks from the President: Peter Gilkey at UO has volunteered to construct and maintain a web page for IFS that would contain the IFS Constitution, By-laws, minutes and other information as approved. He has indicated he'll link the IFS page to the UO Senate page. President Yates asked if Senators wanted to respond in any way to Shirley Clark's report on post-tenure review. Discussion followed in which several points were made:
The slate was moved, seconded and unanimously elected.
Farewells were extended to retiring Senators Kemble Yates, Maurice Holland, Janet Nishihara, Una Beth Westfall and Craig Wollner. Yates and Wollner have been re-elected to represent their institutions.
Craig Wollner offered a motion of "Much thanks" to outgoing president, Kemble Yates; it was seconded by Paul Simonds and unanimously supported.
Grattan Kerans and Mark Nelson: Kerans and Nelson were invited to update the IFS on the upcoming legislative session and to discuss expanding the IFS role in lobbying for faculty and OUS issues. Kerans outlined legal guidelines for state employees for working with legislators : Spend £ $100 and meet with groups or legislators £ 24 hours in a 3-month period so as not to be a lobbyist. Nelson outlined the makeup of the legislature and noted that appointments to Ways and Means and the subcommittee of Ways and Means for Education would be important to watch. Brady Adams is providing the most support for higher ed.; he sees K-12 as a hole he'll never fill and won't get credit for trying but may be able to make a name for himself by supporting higher ed. Neil Bryant is the key player in getting the OUS budget passed. Nelson noted there's 20% more money in the Republican budget than in the Governor's; the Governor wants to fund "everything" while the Republicans want to shrink government without looking like they're against everything so they support higher ed. The Governor has cut the higher ed. budget to fill elsewhere; higher ed. is not among his top 4 priorities. Kerans related that the Republicans love the new budget model and the fact that money follows success; it's a transparent business model and they want to "fund it to success". The figures in the two budgets break down as follows: Governor: $73 million Republicans: $100 million. The message must be that $73 million isn't enough; the system would really like $116 million. The Governor's budget does not move faculty salaries toward the midpoint; it's back-end loaded consisting of 2% + 2% over the biennium. There is other money: $5 million for recruitment and retention and $44.7 million to get the new model off the ground though there's no indication what part of that would go to salaries. The salary money in the Governor's budget would only go to salaries if the campus presidents/provosts choose to spend it that way. Salary increases must be sold based on what the legislature wants in the way of system graduates: if they want so many graduates in technical fields, they have to fund that; 75% of funding is salaries - some to existing faculty and some to new hires. How much goes each place is in the hands of the provosts and faculty will have to make their case there. Faculty must understand that faculty salary money may not go to existing faculty but to hire faculty in new and emerging programs. Each president must write a business plan to the academic side of the house to explain the development of a reserve fund and where the money will come from to fund it. It's possible some campuses will raise existing faculty salaries toward the midpoint while other campuses may use the money to hire new faculty.
February 1999 meeting: Tentatively, the schedule for the February meeting encourages senators to get to Salem on Thursday evening (the 4th of February) and to meet with legislators on Friday morning. Thereafter, IFS will hold a business meeting from 3 - 5 p.m. On Saturday, the 6th, there will be a joint meeting of IFS/AOF/AAUP from 8:30 a.m. to noon at OSU.
Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 12:10 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Elaine Deutschman, Secretary