From: "Nathan Tublitz" tublitz@uoneuro.uoregon.edu
To: "Joseph Cox" Joseph_Cox@ous.edu
Date: Thu, 15 Nov 2001 10:27:25 -0800
Subject: Re: Chancellor Search

November 15, 2001

Dear Chancellor Cox:

Thank you for your note requesting my thoughts regarding the Chancellor search. As the current President of the University Senate here at the University of Oregon, I have had the opportunity to listen to many colleagues on this issue and despite their varying views on nearly every other subject, there is a near unanimous coalescence of faculty opinion on the Chancellor search process and the next Chancellor. Below are the 5 major points which keep surfacing:

•  1. Inclusion of faculty and students in the Chancellor search process. Faculty and students are not only important stakeholders in the Oregon University system, they are, without question, the life blood of our higher education institutions. You understand, better than anyone else, the veracity of this statement. It is essential that the next Chancellor be able to work well with these two most important constituencies. Given the importance of a strong relationship between faculty and students and the next Chancellor, it seems prudent to start building this relationship by including faculty and students on the Chancellor search committee as well as in all other aspects of the search process.
• 2. Academic institutions are inherently different than a business enterprise. The mission of a University is to provide knowledge, yet this ÒproductÓ is qualitatively and quantitatively different than that produced by a for-profit corporation. The new Chancellor must intuitively understand that difference. Obviously someone with a strong educational/academic background would have this understanding.
• 3. Vive la difference! All OUS institutions are not alike. The new Chancellor must inherently understand and appreciate that individual OUS institutions have quite different missions, goals and aspirations. She/he must be willing to maintain and support this diversity in order to ensure student access to a wide variety of educational opportunities.
• 4. Fostering interinstitutional cooperation. Open competition might be a hallmark of the market economy, but has proven to be less than optimal when applied to a University system. The Bend campus competition, played out as it was in the state media, is, sadly, a perfect example of all that is wrong when campuses are pitted against each other. Such an open competition leads to a lose-lose scenario. Important OUS educational decisions should not be reduced to public sporting events. The next Chancellor should foster cooperation across campuses.
• 5. Upholding academic quality. It may go without saying, but to get my support and that of my colleagues, any new Chancellor must demonstrate a real and on-going desire for student diversity, academic freedom and, most importantly, academic excellence at all OUS institutions. Hiring a Chancellor who espouses these values is particularly important in this era of fiscal uncertainty. Otherwise you may see faculty fleeing to other institutions where these values are explicit and paramount.

I greatly appreciate the opportunity to present these views to you on the Chancellor search. I ask that you forward this letter to all State Board members.

Sincerely,

Nathan Tublitz

Professor of Biology

President, University of Oregon Senate