AOF/AAUP/IFS Joint meeting at OSU Saturday 8 May 2004 -- REPORT by Bob Turner.

Kelvin, Mina and I attended the joint AOF/AAUP/IFS meeting at OSU from 9-11 last Saturday. Neil Bryant, the former state senator from Bend who has been retained by the OUS Board, was the first of the two speakers at this meeting. He briefed the audience of about 20 on the status of the Governor's initiatives and the OUS Board working groups - I heard no new information beyond the fallout from Goldschmidt's resignation, though perhaps it should be taken as positive signs that Gov. K and Neil Bryant both remain (even more) actively involved in the OUS board's efforts. I spent about 15 minutes with Sen. Bryant in the hallway after his talk, and so missed most of the 2nd talk on ORP/PERS litigation. In our conversation, I sought, successfully I believe, to impress upon him the serious faculty concerns about the process and substance of the More, Better, Faster curricular initiatives and that continuing the current process will not produce strong (if any) faculty support for the Governor's initiatives. He asked that I send him a letter summarizing the faculty position. I am working on that letter now, and would appreciate input any of you wish to provide. I do not want to create an impression that IFS is unorganized or uninformed, so I ask Peter and Sarah, and anyone else who attended last week's board meetings in LeGrande, to reply to this e-mail, advising me of changes in the legislative initiatives or methods of the MBF working group on their statewide common core and lower division proposals. I will talk to Kristina Frankenberger, the WOU faculty member who addressed MBF, for her impression of the LeGrande meeting. Thanks to all of you for your work - I hope your day and week go well Peace Bob