From sclark@OREGON.UOREGON.EDU
To: Peter B Gilkey gilkey@darkwing.uoregon.edu
Subject: Text for Brief Remarks at the Senate tomorrow
Tue Nov 30 22:04:29 1999

Dear Peter,

I am sending, as you requested, the text of the remarks I'd like to make at the Senate meeting tomorrow. Please correct any mistakes if you catch them. If you'd like to post this on the Senate site, that will be fine. If you believe this to be out of order, or best submitted only in letter form, please let me know. These comments are a summary of the response I've made to constituents who've wanted to be heard in the Senate. Suzanne Clark

Remarks:

As a senator, I feel compelled to report to the Senate that there have been widespread expressions of faculty concern recently, including the well written article by Gordon Sayre that appeared in yesterday's Register-Guard. Many faculty members were unpleasantly surprised by recent announcements about planning for campus construction, particularly at Autzen stadium. This, together with increasing worry about inadequate salaries, rumored reductions in the CAS budget, and the painful experience of resubmitting medical insurance choices with less money to work with have all moved faculty to express concern about administrative decisions and the status of faculty governance on this campus.

Faculty would like to know, first, to what extent the administration consulted relevant committees, such as the Budget and the Planning Committee, about recent decisions. Secondly, we need to ask what will be the consequences of any consultations--Senate report, review, vote, what? Are our Senate Committees being left out of the loop, are they merely advisory, perhaps not even fully informed? How does it happen that public announcements of important decisions are made that faculty know nothing about? It seems to me that faculty governance might insert itself at these junctures.

The charter of the University gives authority to the faculty as well as to the President in university decision making. At the least this seems to imply that major curriculum and planning decisions ought to come to the Faculty Senate for a vote, and that all major committees should report to the Senate. The Senate is shortly going to hear some important committee reports from the Senate Ad Hoc Committee on Committee Reporting Structures and the first draft from the Budget Committee.

I strongly agree with calls to use faculty governance to address the salary and budget issues that so concern us. Therefore I urge us to work hard to call attention to the current work of Senate committees and to involve our constituents in the important meetings that will be coming in January, both the Senate meeting and the Town Meeting on January 26.

Suzanne Clark Professor, English Dept. University of Oregon Eugene, OR 97403 541-346-5819

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