Remarks to the OUS Board of Higher Education

Mina Carson

March 2 2007

``For me, today is about affirming the idea, and the ideals, of a university, of its transformative purposes of teaching, learning, and research. American higher education is hailed as the best in the world, and attacked as falling short. Americans sacrifice and struggle to get their children into college or university, yet mock those same institutions as self indulgent, hidebound, badly managed. American universities were throughout the 20th century the sites of the nation's most significant scientific enterprise - as well as critical engines of innovation and economic growth. Yet we find ourselves wondering in 2007 whether we - at Harvard or at any other university - have the resources, the organizational capacity, the relentlessness, and the leadership to generate continuing excellence and innovation in the sciences and across the spectrum of knowledge.''

I'm not sure what kind of relief it is to note that the Oregon University System is not the only higher education organization moving through an identity crisis, and a genuine crisis of confidence. For Harvard it's about the culture - about how to be the greatest university in a broken world. I would suggest that Oregon faculties would love to have the luxury of that kind of crise de confiance. For us, I maintain, it's all about money -- a critical shortage of money. We are good people doing good work in the face of annual reports of worse to come. The system has undertaken to identify an alarming number of failed searches over the last few years: faculty and administrative searches that yield no satisfactory appointments because we're not competitive. Still - I look at my colleagues both at OSU and systemwide, and I am impressed. And I look at you all, and our administrators, who should all be in treatment for situational depression, and I am impressed. There is something extremely special about OUS: a kind of hardiness in the face of relentless adversity that helps keep good souls at this hearth when by rights they should have slipped away to a warmer fireplace.

What is IFS working on?

1) We continue to probe the realm of interinstitutional transfer of credits and pre-college programs. We hope we are helping to build cooperation among institutions in OUS, through the chancellor's office, our provosts and other curricular adminstrators, and reaching out to the community colleges to explore what kinds of data can be gathered to understand which of these programs are thriving and which might be shored up, in order to keep offering Oregonian youth good academic challenges whenever they are ready for them. We are delighted to sit in on the UEE meetings, which are a really exciting meeting place for K-20 institutions and offices.

2) We have been observing, and through our former member Larry Curtis taking part in, the transformation of the TDI and ORP portions of our retirement plan structure being shepherded by Denise Yunker and Jay Kenton in the chancellor's office. Though I don't have any official feedback from IFS, I will say personally that it's an utterly fascinating set of issues, and that the process reflects extremely well on the chancellor's office staff, who have committed themselves to working closely with faculty, no matter what the cost to them in time, mileage, and box lunches.

3) We are delighted to send forward IFS members to sit in with the new Board committees, and thanks for the opportunity.

4) We are sitting with the Higher Education Lobbying Network and watching the legislative process unfold with - great interest.

We continue to enjoy our monthly coffees with the Board and look forward to many happy returns.

We have the energy and the talent and the will to innovate that could make us, like Harvard, a world class set of institutions. We just don't have the money.