IFS Meeting--LaGrande

IFS Meeting--LaGrande

June 7 & 8

Friday, June 7

In attendance: Elaine Deutschman, Bob Turner, Elizabeth Boretz, Duncan Carter, James Earl, Dan Edge, Peter Gilkey, Marye Hefty, Mary Anne Linden, Jim Lundy, Bruce Sorte, Steve Teich, Jim Tooke, Robert Mercer (from PSU, subbing for Scott Burns)

EOU President--Phil Creighton

Real danger is lower expectations w/in university community in current crisis.

How to reconcile unprecedented growth with unprecedented budget cuts. Leadership works best in a collaborative atmosphere. IFS needs to work with presidents, with AOF, with legislature. Very effective to approach legislature as a team, rather than individual entities pursuing their independent objectives.

What kind of Oregon do we want? Lesson from his Scottish heritage: Leave things better than you find them. Urges us to embrace this philosophy. In Oregon, resources insufficient to meet needs. "We are heading toward structural collapse." Need new tax structure. Observes that new ideas often greeted with silence in Oregon. So back to questions: What kind of Oregon do we want? What kind of higher education system do we want? We need to invest in recruiting and keeping the very best faculty and students. We lose talent to neighboring states that are willing to pay for it. We need to be responsive as a system rather than in a catch up or reactive mode. Already way behind in technology and biotech. Not too late to be at the forefront in teacher ed. Should envision higher ed and K12 as partners united for the common best interest of the people of Oregon. Need to strengthen and make more relevant senior year in high school, currently a void.

Urges us to hold joint meeting with university presidents to compare and contrast goals for higher ed in Oregon. James Earl asks about the possibility of faculty union at EOU. Creighton says he does not favor this.

Elaine asks about OUS strategic planning process. Phil says "We're trying to make strategic decisions w/o a strategic plan." Board itself has a good strategic plan, but we need a strategic plan for the system. Jarvis seems to be a strategic thinker. Strategic plan should be a top of the agenda for Jarvis.

OUS board member--Roger Bassett

Expresses appreciation for what Phil just said about strategic planning.

Update:

slightly better recognition of true nature of economic situation. Pervasive sense remains that economic upturn will turn it around. Cut-and-cap policy remains and trends downward regardless of the general state of the economy. Roger points the finger at the voters who bought the assorted tax-cut initiatives. "No new taxes" mentality empowers the demagogues.

Special session delayed. Kitzhaber wants agreement before session to ensure that special session will be limited to the budget and not balloon into a lengthy, multi-issue session. Date of special session uncertain at this point.

Likely consequences for universities somewhere in the low range of proposed cuts if income tax surcharge passes. Still expects additional cuts to not expand to top of the range even if short-term, stop-gap measures emerge from special session. Tough no matter what.

Elaine asks what response Roger anticipates if income tax surcharge is referred to the people. Big Sizemore backlash? Roger answers "rule of 30," meaning about 30% will vote no automatically. Perhaps 20-25% will happily vote for new tax if it improves conditions in Oregon. Middle 50-55% could go either way.

Warns of business lobbies willing to pour money into anti-tax campaign.

New chancellor, Richard Jarvis, may look forward to success in new role. (Roger knows him from other contexts.) Has good policy skills but little campus-level experience. Need a chancellor role that is more "enabling" than "controlling." Roger is pleased with the choice. Roger says, based on his recent experiences with chancellor and WOU president searches, board needs to consider and articulate in advance what it seeks in new chancellors and university presidents. He suggests the "the most experienced" is not necessarily the most suitable selection. Jarvis will not impose his own agenda but brings the skill set to implement the plan of the board. board's strategic planning focus on:

1. access (and what kind of access)

2. governance and decentralization

3. budget models

Board favorable (too favorable? Roger wonders) to decentralization.

Board believes current budget model is viable. Each school in the system has a unique identity. We don't need categories of institutions when we have only 7 ("going on 8"). "There is a role for the board." Role is to "enable" the campuses, to make sure that as change comes, unique institutional identities may thrive.

EOU budget director---Lee Lindsay

Hands out document, "EOU Budget Issues." (fill in notes from this document if needed)

EOU Interim Provost---Burr Betts

EOU decentralizing money a bit, though not all the way to departments. This process has stopped because of the budget crisis.

Chooses not to cover ground already discussed by earlier speakers. EOU guarding core undergraduate programs, so ANYTHING else vulnerable to cuts before cutting that. Some administrative positions have been cut. Community outreach program will terminate. Will overspend this year because of revenue shortfall. Is committed to going ahead with 4% faculty salary increase. Says that employee benefit package has NOT been cut. Amount of benefit is same, but cost of insurance has gone up. Lundy asks about faculty morale at EOU. Betts says morale low regarding compensation, hence the pro union move. Otherwise faculty morale is high. Is some faculty flight, especially among younger, non-tenured faculty members who are free to move. Faculty pretty tired and stressed. "It's been kind of a cranky campus---more than normal." Probably reaction to budget crisis. Some workload equity issues but probably mostly compensation issues. Jim Tooke says security-related fears a big issue contributing to low morale.

Student representatives--- Mike Freese and Adam Guenther

Students have abandoned hierarchical student government model. OSA activities include a successful Youth Vote Campaign. Trying to keep tuition increases in single-digit range. Continuation of Oregon Opportunity Grant a critical issue also. Trying to stay abreast of special session, which will be difficult given that it will probably take place in summer when many students are away.

Affordability and accessibility are primary issues, which need to be addressed long-term. Distance of EOU from Salem a problem, but students feel they have a more powerful impact when they are able to travel to Salem because of the commitment that the long journey demonstrates. Many EOU students have limited awareness of the potential impact of the budget crisis. Apathy is a problem. Tuition increases vs. increased financial aid? Nobody questions the inevitability of tuition increase, so students are also working hard on Oregon Opportunity Grant and child care block grant and other supports that will help students stay in school when tuition goes up.

What is quality in higher ed?

"program diversity" and course selection

starts with the professors---need money to hire "diverse faculty." Hard to attract minority faculty to EOU

EOU faculty union organizer---Kathleen Dahl

For past couple of years, a group of EOU faculty have been exploring idea of union. Working with AFT. Growing support among teaching faculty. Administrative faculty are not enthusiastic. Fallen to Plan B---defining bargaining unit as teaching faculty and librarians. About 70% of teaching faculty have professed support in writing in one form or other. Submitted a letter, signed by 50 faculty members, asking for voluntary recognition of union, but President Creighton has said it is not his decision. Have filed request with Employee Relations Bd to hold election. Faculty see declining legislative support for higher ed. No expectation for high salary increase. More important is the desire to have a voice.

PSU decided to adopt nonadversarial bargaining in the current contract cycle.

Saturday, June 8

Approval of minutes from April 4 & 5 meeting. May 17

OUS Board Meeting:

Elaine reports on May 17 board meeting. She talks about the difficulty the board is having with agreeing on a meaning for "access." Does it mean any qualified student should have an opportunity to enter the program of his or her choice at any institution, or does it mean that programs will be available at some institution in Oregon.

Talk of merging community colleges and OUS continues, but Elaine sees no real action on this for the foreseeable future.

Academic Council meeting:

Bob Turner reports (see his notes posted on IFS website).

Consistent theme from all campuses is that each should be able to set its own tuition. Another theme is shrinking or eliminating tuition plateau, with different schools looking at different options. Bob confident that plateau will at least shrink if not shift entirely to flat per credit hour model.

Some talk about graduated tuition, i.e. higher tuition as student moves closer to degree

Chancellor search:

Elaine says all institutions had representation. Great that faculty had opportunity for meaningful participation at the end of the search process, but better to have been at the table from the beginning. Peter says faculty had better opportunity than presidents had. We agreed to send a letter to the board about search process---for both presidents and chancellor. Bob Turner suggests that we should write a letter that would elicit a response. Bruce says we should send letter to board chair with copy to chancellor and that it should be expressed in positive terms, acknowledging the value of the opportunity for participation that we were given and expressing appreciation. Decided letter should go to all board members.

Debrief Friday session:

Elaine thanks Elizabeth and Jim for their wonderful job in organizing this meeting. Elaine reports that Roger has spoken of the value of his contacts with IFS, as it provides opportunity to see faculty as diverse, multidimensional people, not just a homogenous mass interested only in faculty salaries. Elizabeth wanted to make sure we know that generally faculty are happy at EOU, so all the talk about low morale is particular and not general. What can we do about the continuing public anti-tax sentiment? Distrust in government, carefully cultivated with skewed "facts". Bob says people really believe that for every complicated problem, there is a simple solution. Bruce talks about tenure buy-out. Faculty members can relinquish tenure and go to 1040 hours. Duncan talks about enrollment growth and its impact on quality. How are different campuses dealing with it. Could we have informed reps from each campus talk to us about this? What exactly is this decentralization issue about? How can we follow up on this? What are the implications for faculty, for quality, for students? Elaine says the pressure for decentralization has originated with the presidents. Decentralization means institutional autonomy on a wide range of issues, not just freedom to set tuition, including possibly having institutional boards. Jim Earl says decentralization is move toward a more corporate model for our institutions---it's about money more than about traditional conception of higher education

Bob says three aspects of decentralization:

entrepreneurial

programmatic

political

Bob's "random thought" is that we ought to be inviting more board members and not put all our eggs in the Bassett basket---not to uninvite Roger but to expand board participation.

BREAK

Campus reports:

UO:

Jim Earl "It's all budget; it's all we talk about. Moseley is extremely gloomy." Expecting "a lot of losses." Travel money, salary increases, S&S money,anything not contractually committed is fair game. Maybe even offer fewer classes, but this is worst-case scenario. Still, no definite decisions, and faculty waiting in the dark for the bad news.

OIT:

Strong message to admin is no program cuts, but program cuts coming. Admin positions cut. No salary increases. All vice-presidents are gone, and many other staff members leaving. Searches all over campus. Elaine says budget a factor, but maybe other factors? Morale low; enrollment in AAUP increasing. Has new interim ass't provost, but no provost.

OHSU:

Feel good about general obligation bond passing in primary. "Budget, budget, budget!" More uncertainty than ever before in Steve's 20 years at OHSU. Faculty Senate reorganizing, developing new bylaws. Senate will be smaller with hope of greater participation, stronger sense of identity and purpose, stronger voice in campus policy-making.

EOU:

Covered yesterday.

OSU:

Budget situation transparent. Faculty understand what's happening, though they may not be happy. Much faculty time and effort going into strategic planning---OSU 2007---40 teams, 400 people. Skepticism about outcomes.

PSU:

PSU drawing on reserves at this point, and so far relatively small cuts at this point. Still, faculty will need to do more (due to enrollment increases) with less. Bigger hit expected next year.

WOU:

change (president, vice-president, dean, DEP, TR)

low freshman applications

budget (uncertainty)

Bob Turner talks about warm campus reaction to choice of new president.

Final word from EOU: Jim talks about potential for union, says faculty support for union not nearly as uniform as suggested yesterday.

Special Session:

Letter writing effort. Perhaps we can talk to face-to-face legislative leadership.

Bruce recommends severing connection with Mark Nelson---very ineffective lobbyist for AOF. MN also a lobbyist for tobacco industry, which has interests counter to those of higher ed at least in this revenue-starved environment. Bruce asks that we discuss in the fall what we want to do about lobbying for the regular session.

Bob points out that faculty participation at candidate forum (at joint meeting) was very small. No wonder only three candidates showed up. They would all have been there for an OEA candidates' forum because of the presumed much higher participation. Do we want to play a more active role with AAUP & AOF? If so, we need to contribute more in time and funding for the joint meeting, says Elaine.

Peter talked about increasing our interaction with OSA. He will direct them to IFS website, so students can contact us. Suggestions to Elaine about her remarks to the board at next meeting? Bob shares anecdotes about two WOU sudents. Good news about one student who will be going to University of Chicago on full scholarship. Bad news about another student----hard-working, Hispanic single mother----who will have to leave WOU and return to community college because she is unable to pull together sufficient financial aid to allow her to remain in 4-year college. Jim Earl wants Elaine to give voice to non-money issues---quality and "the nature of the enterprise." They should be listening to faculty as an important constituency in their decisions.

Elaine will also invite the board members to attend IFS. Fall (Oct 4 & 5) meeting in Bend:

eclectic (OIT, OSU, COCC)

new chancellor will attend

Jim Lussier

Elaine is trying to get editor of Bend Bulletin to attend

IFS funding:

No news at this point

President's duties:

Elaine suggests that IFS president-elect should attend board meetings along with sitting president in fall meetings, to help establish presence and make connections before formally taking office.