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UO Senate candidates begin posting statements for election

Assuming no technical difficulties, the election will start Monday 4/25 with an email to the Senate constituents. Voting will be done as usual via Duckweb. The draft ballot is here. The Senate Executive Coordinator has asked all candidates for Senate and elected committees to submit statements. Click the hyperlinks in the ballot. Here’s the first:

Screen Shot 2016-04-21 at 12.58.39 AM

If you are running and have not yet set in your statement, email it to [email protected].

4 Comments

  1. Dr. Science 04/21/2016

    Nice statement! He’s got my vote, so far.

  2. Kitten 04/22/2016

    A lovely statement from Dr. Berkman. But he’ll probably have your vote by default, Dr. Science.

    In recent years it has proven difficult to get volunteers for the Senate period, much less a sufficient number to make election an actual choice in each of the categories. Now the willing have to submit and post statements of who they are and what they stand for? Good luck with that!

  3. Old Man 04/23/2016

    The decision by UOM to post self-evaluations of Senate Candidates is a great one. It is a move toward greater transparency in the governance of the UO. Strong candidates will be those who not only identify the areas of their interest but also an understanding of the powers and the limitations of the Senate.
    The UO Constitution created the Senate as the body through which the Faculty could openly debate and act on the important issues of Shared Governance demanded by the State Charter, which identifies the Professors and the President, equally, as the governors of the UO. To balance the veto power of the President, the Constitution requires that when the differing views and responsibilities of the Senate and the President lead to an impasse, the Professors at large shall weigh in on the issue in an Assembly. This open, maximally democratic process, has yet to be put to a trial. Why? Have there been no issues sufficiently thorny to provoke an Assembly? My take on that, following rather close watching and occasional active participation in Senate activities, is that the the issues that might be awkward for the President rarely get a proper hearing in the Senate. Why might that be so? We may speculate, with good reason based on past history, that such issues do get aired in the super-secret meetings of the FAC, comprised of the University President, the Officers of the Senate, some elected faculty members plus various JH dignitaries. Although no votes are taken by the FAC (according to FAC members), the views aired, especially by the President, profoundly influence the agenda and the debate of subsequent Senate meetings. In brief, the open governance called for by the Constitution will continue to be a dream as long as the FAC continues in its present form.
    The Senate has the power to change the FAC, but experience has shown that Senate officers LIKE to be in on the secret FAC meetings, which, they say, give them the real dope on how the President wants things go down around here. (Of course, the super-secret nature of the FAC means that these Leaders, and other Senate members who may also be FAC members, cannot share this knowledge with the Senate.) Unless present Senators are willing to displease their officers and unless incoming Senators face up to this fatal flaw in the execution of the ideal of open governance at the UO, the Senate will continue to flounder, subservient to the President and unable to carry out the task for which it was created.
    Legislation to free the Senate from the FAC, allowing it to exercise the authority granted to it by the Constitution, is likely to be re-introduced in the Senate next year ( http://senate.uoregon.edu/content/respecting-differing-roles-senate-and-faculty-advisory-council). This legislation would simply separate the membership of the FAC and the Senate. Candidates for the Senate who indicate their sympathy for that, or similar legislation, should be supported by the electorate.

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