Board Presentation 17 October 1997

President Aschkenasy, Members of the Board, Chancellor Cox

The Interinstitutional Faculty Senate held its first meeting of this school year at Eastern Oregon University on October 3rd and 4th. We thank President Gilbert for hosting our meeting and Gail McAllister for joining our Friday afternoon session. Grattan Kerans, Senator David Nelson and Representative Bob Jensen also joined us for a round table discussion of this past legislative session and the prospects for the next one. The faculty recognize that good progress has been made in gaining support around the state for higher education but we are also concerned that we should do better than we have. Financial support for K-12 education in Oregon is in the top 20% of states while that for the state system is in the bottom 20%. Somehow we need to approach equity with the rest of public education in Oregon.

It is not too early for us to develop a strategy for the next legislative session. We will invite the other faculty organizations to join us in planning within the next few meetings of the senate. It is too early in the process to lay out specifics but we hereby offer to join in the preliminary planning and to participate with the Board in presenting OSSHE's case at the next session. We specifically offer our services in explaining the quality programs OSSHE has in its various institutions.

As another element in developing OSSHE's case for 1999-2000, IFS is joining with the Academic Council in an extensive survey of post-tenure review across the system. We developed part of the questionnaire at this meeting and submitted it to the Academic Council. While we have already collected information on the official structure of post-tenure reviews, we want to know how they have worked in practice: what rewards are provided for good to excellent performance, what assistance and mentoring are available for strengthening faculty performance and what remedies are applied when performance is less than adequate to various degrees. We know what the rules are, we want to know how they work.

Governor Kitzhaber has urged cooperation between all segments of higher education in Oregon, the Board has moved ahead on Engineering as an interinstitutional program and the push is on for developing guidelines for broad post-secondary policy and articulation. We would like to participate in the process. There is a long list of interinstitutional cooperations that have given the faculty experience in articulating disparate elements of higher education in Oregon. Some have worked well and provide models of success for future efforts, others have failed to develop their full potential, giving us lessons on how to improve. Here is a short list, drawn from the knowledge of 20 senators, that shows the range of such cooperations:
1) For many years SOU and U of O Special Education programs cooperated allowing students complete their standard special education endorsement at the U of O and their Master's degree at Southern. It was discontinued when Southern was able to offer their own standard but it was a great success in interinstitutional cooperation

2) PSU, SOU, U of O and WSU cooperate in offering statewide ednet courses toward the standard special education endorsement, making this mandatory continuing education requirement accessible to outlying areas.

3) The "Oregon Collaborative for Excellence in Preparation of Teachers", supported by an NSF four year grant (Marjorie Enneking of PSU, director) includes faculty in mathematics, physics, biology, chemistry, computer science, geology, engineering and education drawn from all community colleges and four year public and independent colleges.

4) Master of Public Health is a statewide program involving PSU, OHSU and OSU with tracks in Health Education and promotion and health administration.

5) Manufacturing Engineering uses facilities and faculty from PSU and OSU and is taught through interactive TV with reception centers throughout the state.

6) The Oregon Executive MBA is offered at the Capital Center with the degree awarded by U of O.

7) The Ph.D. in Bioanthropology is based on the Ph.D. degree in Anthropology at the U of O and has participating faculty at PSU, OSU and SOU in addition to those at the U of O.

8) Tri-State General Agriculture BS degree program is a cooperative venture with Blue Mountain Community College, Treasure Valley CC, University of Idaho, Washington State University and Eastern Oregon University. With this program a monumental effort to solve interstate and instrastate problems has been successful.

9) OIT and EOU Electrical Engineering Technology teacher certification

10) OIT and SOU plus three community colleges cooperate in applied environmental sciences

11) OIT, PSU, Clatsop Community College cooperate on a core environmental curriculum

12) OHSU school of nursing offers an undergraduate curriculum leading to a BS degree in nursing. Courses are taught by OHSU faculty in residence at EOU using Eastern's facilities.

13) OSU offers programs at EOU leading to BS degrees in Agricultural Business Management, Agricultural and Resource Economics, Crop and Soil Science, and Rangeland Resources. Degrees are conferred by OSU and their courses are offered on the Eastern campus by OSU faculty in residence.

14) Programs leading to an Masters in Education and a Bachelors in Multidisciplinary Studies (primarily elementary education) are offered in cooperation with the University Center and Central Oregon Community College in Bend. EOU has two faculty in residence in Bend.

15) EUO and OSU have a 5 year program in engineering whereby students in Physics, Chemistry, or Mathematics take their first three years at Eastern and transfer for the last two to OSU. They finish with a BS in one of the above subjects from Eastern and one from OSU in Engineering.
The faculty already have experience in removing the barriers to interinstitutional education. We know some of the pitfalls and have successes. We can move toward a seamless higher education in Oregon with the lessons we have learned from these and many more such programs by incorporating the faculty experiences in developing these existing programs.

Finally, IFS adopted its schedule of meetings for 1998 and extends an invitation to board members to join us in our hearing meetings of Friday afternoon.
5-6 December 1997, Portland State University
6-7 February 1998, Western Oregon University
3-4 April 1998, University of Oregon
5-6 June, 1998, Southern Oregon University
1-2 October 1998, Oregon State University
4-5 December 1998, Oregon Health Sciences University