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UO Senate meeting, Wed in 128 CHILES

That’s Chiles. Part of the B-School. Across Kincaid from the “Duckstore”, behind the hotdog stand. AVP for Collaboration Chuck Triplett will be taking attendance, so don’t ditch this one.

I did a little live-blogging below.

Senate Meeting Agenda – October 21, 2015. Agenda  |  Watch Live [Not working]

Rm 128, Chiles; 3:00-5:00 pm

3:00 pm    Introductory Remarks, Senate President Randy Sullivan

3:10 pm    1.   Call to Order

3:10 pm    2.   Approval of Minutes 

2.1       October 7, 2015

3:15 pm    4.   New Business

4.1       Approve Committee on Committees members and call for volunteers for 2015-2016: Robert Kyr (Music), Anne Laskaya (English), Jennifer Ellis (Business), Gordon Sayre (English), Laura Leete (PPPM), Deborah Baumgold (Political Science).

Approved unanimously.

4.2        Motion (Legislation): To Promote Representative Attendance at Senate Meetings; Senate Executive Committee

Confusion about which of several circulating versions is on the floor. Postponed until next meeting with one nay.

4.3        Motion (Policy Proposal): US14/15-66: Hiring of Academic Executive Administrators; Senate Executive Committee

4.4        Motion (Policy Proposal): US14/15-67: Review of Academic Executive Administrators; Senate Executive Committee

President Schill has agreed to discuss strengthening Senate and faculty input into hiring and search. Ad Hoc committee of Harbaugh, Kyr, and Rowe will meet with administration to revise these. Therefore move to postpone vote until January. Unanimous.

S.1       [SUSPENSION OF RULES] Motion (Resolution): Support for the IFS Resolution Addressing Violence in our Schools; Robert Kyr (Music), Immediate Past President

Craig Parsons (Poli Sci) raises good question about what sorts of resolutions the Senate should vote on. Argues that it depends on how closely the topic approaches “academic matters”. Argues that the topic of school shootings does not come close enough. Uses earthquakes as an example. Should Senate approve anti-earthquake motion?

No, but a resolution about tearing down PLC before it collapses in an earthquake and wipes out the Poli Sci, Soc and English professors, not to mention the economists, would clearly be in the Senate’s purview.

Psaki, Walker, etc. back up Kyr on this. Walker very effectively, on point that threats of violence harm academic freedom.

Koopman says that he’s not opposed to taking stands like this, but Senate also needs to spend time and energy on policy changes.

Cramer: These votes matter to students, are part of our educational mission.

Price (Math) points out that UO Constitution addresses resolutions on “university issues” which this clearly is.

Parsons argues that Senators are selected to be representative of UO academic disciplines, but not on basis of political beliefs.

Passes unanimously.  Whoops, Parsons didn’t understand abstentions, he now votes no.

4:30 pm    5.   Open Discussion

5.1        Topics: Full participation of Senators and the UO Community in Senate Deliberations. Progress of Motions.

4:45 pm    6.   Reports

4:45 pm    7.   Notice(s) of Motion

4:45 pm    8.   Other Business

8.1       Announcement of special election for PTRAC and FPC.

5:00 pm    9.   Adjournment

One Comment

  1. Sun Tzu 10/22/2015

    When is the Senate going to be effective? Spending two hours in session only to pass one minor housekeeping motion and a second feel good, let’s-set-up-more-committees-but-do-nothing motion does little to contradict the general campus impression that the Senate is spinning its wheels. The Senate has been in a free fall for the past 4 yrs if not longer. When will the Senate leadership focus on real issues, the most important of which is halting the academic decline of our university? If the Senate actually was more focused on the real issues facing us, perhaps it would not need to waste its time cajoling its members to attend meetings.

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