Minutes of the University Senate Meeting April 9, 2008

 

 

Present:  H. Briston, M. Chong*, L-S. Chou, D. Falk, P. Gilkey, A. Gladhart, N. Gulley, E. Herman, D. Hernandez, J, Hunter*, P. Lambert, D. Levin, B. Malle, A. Mathas, L. Middlebrook, T. Minner, J. Newton, D. Olson, M. Pangburn, A. Papailiou, S. Paul, E. Peterson, F. Pyle, N. Rajabzadeh, G. Sayre, A. Schulz , L. Stephen, A. Taylor, T. Toadvine, P. van Donkelaar.  * -  

 

Excused: C. Cherry, R. Davies, R. Illig, P. Lu, C. Moore, M. Redford, L. Vandenburgh

 

Absent: C.A. Bassett, C. Bengtson, G. Berk, P. Boye, R. Bramhall, A. Coles-Bjerre, C. Martinez*, C. Parsons, P. Rounds, J. Rowell, N. Tublitz,

 

 

CALL TO ORDER

 

The regular meeting of the University Senate was called to order at 3:06 p.m. in 150 Columbia.

 

APROVAL OF THE MINUTES

 

After noting an incorrect spelling of ASUO President Emily McLain’s name, the minutes of the March 12, 2008 meeting were approved as corrected. 

 

STATE OF THE UNIVERSITY

 

Remarks from Provost Linda Brady.  Provost Brady updated the senate about an initiative for the next legislative session concerned with graduate education.  In recent years, the legislature has focused primarily on undergraduate education, and it has been difficult getting graduate program on the legislative agenda.  Provosts at OSU, UO, and PSU, with support from the chancellor’s office and Ms. Kirby Dyess, prepared a draft graduate education policy package which consists of a group of requests for new graduate education funding to be considered by legislature.  Provost Brady emphasized that the package was still in draft form, but the main idea was to increase competitiveness in attracting advanced degree students with an initial emphasis on doctoral programs.  The program would require a multi-biennia investment strategy.  The plan would make programmatic investments in graduate education across disciplines.  The provost indicated that strategic investments to attract and support additional graduate students in selected areas would be made to attract and grow doctoral programs.

 

The provost broadly outlined the type of strategic investment envisioned, including competitive salaries and stipend levels, bridge funding for summer support, movement toward eliminating fees, fellowships in targeted areas (including enhancement of diversity), and paid childbirth leave.  The OUS will request $10 million as a first step for 2009-11, followed by requests in the next two biennia for a total $50 million.  In the 2009-11 biennia, $6 million would go toward competitive salaries, $3.5 million for fellowships, and $.5 million for paid childbirth leave.  The provost noted that there are competing legislative priorities for such funding, but she nevertheless hopes to push the amount a bit higher.  The UO and OSU, and to a lesser extent PSU, would benefit the most from the proposed graduate education policy package. 

 

Provost Brady continued her comments about the graduate education policy package saying there are a number of direct benefits: reduced time to degree, enhanced recruitment and retention of female graduate students, enhanced diversity of the graduate population, and raised visibility of the importance of graduate education to research and economic development.  Similarly, indirect benefits include enhanced faculty recruitment and retention, which contributes to the quality of undergraduate education.  The provost explained that the legislature needs to understand the importance of graduate education that is complementary to the importance of undergraduate education – a stronger graduate program will enhance the quality of the undergraduate experience.

 

The next steps are to refine the draft proposal through the OUS Provost’s council and establish performance indicators.  She concluded saying that there is strong support from the state board and the chancellor’s office.

 

REPORTS

 

Update on parking and the arena from Frances Dyke, vice president of finance and administration.  Vice President Dyke reported that the Traffic Impact Analysis was due late Friday or Monday (April 11^th or 14^th) and due to the city on Tuesday.  She noted that that the university was looking into the possibility of including an underground parking facility with the proposed arena.  The plan is to go to state board in May for permission to sell bonds.  Ms. Dyke said the university will be firming up the details of conditions of selling bonds and will re-run debt capacity settings.  The expectation is to be in the ground by September 26^th.  Ms. Dyke also indicated that there are some processes and hearings ongoing with the city and the Fairmont neighborhood group that Greg Rikhoff, director of community relations, is overseeing; questions about those meetings can be directed to Mr. Rikhoff. 

 

Vice President Dyke continued the update saying that the consultants preparing the traffic impact analysis included an underground parking facility for 400-500 cars.  The design team for the area is to assess whether the underground parking garage can be built for under $18 million.  Donors have been approached to help pay for a parking structure – some $10.2 million bonds were approved previously for campus parking facility.  Ms. Dyke said she will be forthcoming about the possible underground parking option when she has the final costs.  The Athletics Department will be asked to retire 75% of the debt for the parking facility, with 20 - 25% from other sources.  The need for increased parking for the campus is evident, and there are a number of potential users, such as UO Foundation employees, faculty and staff, and visitor parking for prospective students and their parents in addition to use during arena events.  Daytime parking for students is likely to be available; for students who live on campus there are better sites that are less central that can be made secure for that purpose.  Lastly, regarding formation of the East Campus Gate Task Force, Ms. Dyke noted that she has received names for potential members and is currently making contact with faculty members to serve on the task force and waiting to hear from several students. 

 

There were a number of questions during a discussion period.  Most dealt with the number of spaces available for parking, options available for accessing the campus other than by driving and parking cars, and meeting sustainability building code issues.  Ms. Dyke indicated that plans are to make the 200 parking spaces dedicated specifically for the arena available for campus parking when not used for arena events. She suggested that the general campus parking plan needs to be revisited to look at alternatives to driving and parking on campus.  The university has had conversations with the city and Sacred Heart officials to discuss possible parking solutions and alternatives.  A suggestion was made by Senator Amalia Gladhart, romance languages, to offer free LTD passes to employees with less than a .49 FTE. 

 

Ms. Dyke also commented that she and the university are extremely sensitive to issues of building a sustainable building, and that is part of her job.  She commented that she has kept this issue in front of the donor and continues to lobby very hard to assure that the building will be sustainable.  She noted that the level of LEED certification required for state buildings, as well as the 1% for art requirement are dependent on the financing and classification of the building. 

 

Senator Ellen Herman, history, raised a question about a different building in the planning stages, the proposed Academic Learning Center for student athletes, and recent newspaper reports regarding the conditional arrangements for maintaining and staffing the building.  In response, Provost Brady said that she has worked with Special Assistant to the President and Provost Lorraine Davis, who in addition to other duties, is responsible for work related to the academic support of student athletes.  In working with the athletics department regarding staffing, agreement signed was consistent with negotiations for all the positions that currently exist in the department of athletics – they are not new positions.  There are some additional positions that relate directly to the challenge of staffing the building; it is a very different building from the current facility that adjoins Esslinger and Mac Court in that it will require a reception position and staffing not directly related to academic advising, but to positions required to staff the building, paid for by athletics.  The provost went on to say that the university obviously is interested in improving advising to the general student population; Vice President for Student Affairs Robin Holmes and Vice Provost for Undergraduate Studies Karen Sprague are jointly leading an effort to look at how academic learning communities and student neighborhoods, academic programming, and advising for the general student population can be enhanced.  They expect to have a draft document addressing these issues in the next several weeks. 

 

Update from the on-line course evaluations implementation committee.  Senate Vice President Paul van Donkelaar reported that co-chairman Brad Shelton, mathematics, .has received a good deal of feedback, and although there were a few “hiccups”, the new on-line system worked rather well.  The plan for spring term is to put into use the newly adopted course evaluation questions for evaluations at the end of the term.  All units are to review and revise their own unit specific questions to be included on-line with the new questions.  The on-line course implementation committee will put together its report for the May Senate meeting as well as some housekeeping motions to amend the March course evaluation legislation to reflect the fact that course evaluations are now on-line and how they may be used, and so forth. 

 

During a discussion period, President Sayre noted that departments and units should be alert to the notion that there can be multiple forms used for different classes in revising the unit specific questions; for example, the questions pertaining to a writing class may be different from that of a film study class.  Other questions raised during the discussion concerned the response rate for the winter term evaluations, which question students would have access to, and will they be available on Duck Web.  Ms. Sue Eveland, associate university registrar, reported a 77% response rate (students who logged on to complete a course evaluation) for the winter term, compared with 65% as the typical return rate for the paper forms previously used.  Mr. van Donkelaar indicated that students will have access to the first seven questions, and the evaluation results will be available on Duck Web.  The vice president added that perhaps next year individual instructors may be able to add their own specific questions, but the system is not geared up for that possibility at this time.  With no further questions, President Sayre closed the discussion on this topic but updated a discussion from the March meeting regarding the method for posting one’s course syllabus on –line using the Duck Web, the faculty menu, course administration center, and one’s own course viewed on the class schedule link.  As pointed out previously, the earlier professors post their course syllabi, the more useful it is for students selecting classes for the upcoming term.

 

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND COMMUNICATIONS FROM THE FLOOR

 

Upcoming faculty/staff elections.  The secretary reminded senators of the upcoming nominations and elections later in the month.  She indicated that there were many open positions remaining after the initial card/paper solicitation for all university committees/councils and encouraged senators solicit nominations from their various constituent groups.  Eligibility and committee information is linked from the main nominations web page on the senate web page. 

 

Interinstitutional Faculty Senate (IFS) meeting.  Senator Peter Gilkey, mathematics, reported on the April IFS meeting.  He commented that there is a $25 million problem for OUS that translates into a $7 million problem for the UO in that salary increase funds (which were passed for the 2007-09 biennium, and which have been spent and/or committed) have been held back by the state.  Senator Gilkey said it is not expected we will get this money, but that the deficit will not be rolled up – our continuing service level will include this.  Consequently, there is a $7 million dollar one-time cash flow problem.  Chancellor Pernsteiner did not think the OUS would get the funds from the Emergency Board.  Nevertheless, Provost Brady added that the UO is committed to salary increases as promised in is looking into ways to meet that commitment. 

 

Senator Gilkey also reported on the implementation of electronic course evaluations at OHSU, and commented that OHSU does not think it is legal to withhold grades related to completing course evaluations.  Gilkey also reported that the IFS discussed some of the difficulties the regional universities are facing, and discussed the assessment effort that is underway (in response to the Spellings Commissions), to which Vice Provost Russ Tomlin added that the UO is on track regarding the assessments. 

 

Mandated letter sent.  President Sayre reported that the letter mandated by senate legislation US07/08-10 (regarding the majority needed to pass legislation) has been sent to the State Attorney General.

 

Former Japanese American students honoring ceremony.  Executive President Dave Hubin reported on the ceremony to award honorary degrees to former UO Japanese American students who were unable to complete their degrees due to a 1942 Executive Order for them to go to internment camps (see State of Oregon HB2823).  Mr. Hubin opined that the occasion was a very important one for the 20 students who were identified as former students during 1942.  He noted that there have been requests to do the speeches delivered by Provost Brady and President Frohnmayer in telecast format.  Mr. Hubin also noted that the poet laureate of Oregon at all of the gatherings, and it was a marvelous gathering.  He said the university is committed to on-going scholarship and investigation of this incident in our university’s history, and Archivist Heather Briston would be most willing to share the exhibit and papers she has developed.  He added the oral histories of the families will be digitized and put on the website. 

 

NEW BUSINESS

 

Distinguished Service Awards.  The senate moved into an executive session to consider the discussion for these award nominees. 

 

ADJOURNMENT

 

The meeting was adjourned at the conclusion of the discussion for the Distinguished Service Awards.

 

 

Gwen Steigelman

Secretary of the Faculty