Senate meets on fac-student engagement, policies, diversity

Senate Meeting Agenda – May 20, 2015

• 2014-2015
• Agendas

115 Lawrence, 3:00-5:00 p.m.

3:00 pm    1.   Call to Order

3:00 pm    2.   Approval of Minutes

3:05 pm    3.   State of the University

3:15 pm    4.   New Business

4.1       US14/15-86: Motion to Amend Policy on Faculty-Student Engagement in UO Courses; Alison Schmitke (Undergrad Degree Program Dir, Education Studies), Chair of the Undergraduate Council

Amended to rescind the entire policy, send back to committee, then passed unanimously.

4.2       US14/15-93: Repeal of Policy on Academic Procedure and Credit (Bonine #495); Monique Balbuena (Associate Professor, Honors College), Chair of the Curriculum & Program Matters Workgroup

Repealed.

4.3       US14/15-94: Repeal of Policy on Guidelines for Foreign Study Programs (Bonine #503); Monique Balbuena (Associate Professor, Honors College), Chair of the Curriculum & Program Matters Workgroup

Repealed

4.4       US14/15-95: Repeal of Policy on Accreditation Reports (Bonine #632); Monique Balbuena (Associate Professor, Honors College), Chair of the Curriculum & Program Matters Workgroup

Repealed

4.5       US14/15-82: Repeal of Policy on Textbooks and Curricular Materials (Bonine #243); Jane Cramer (Associate Professor, Political Science), Chair of Discrimination Policy Workgroup

Current language: Nothing herein either prohibits or requires the use of any particular textbook or curricular materials. If, however, materials are found upon investigation to exert a discriminatory impact on the basis of age, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, national origin, race or religion, the institutions and divisions shall make a reasonable effort to make available supplemental alternative nondiscriminatory materials.

Senate votes to delete this policy on the basis of academic freedom.

4.6       US14/15-88: Revision and Adoption of Appointment Policy (Bonine #284, 294); Deborah Olson (Instructor, Special Education and Clinical Services), Co-Chair of the Employment Matters Workgroup

Postponed for cleanup, along with others below, to give time for Equity and Inclusion plan, below.

4.7       US14/15-89: Adoption of Policies Related to Employment Matters (Bonine #s 42, 44). Deborah Olson (Instructor, Special Education and Clinical Services), Co-Chair of the Employment Matters Workgroup

4.8       US14/15-84: Adoption of Policies on Conditions of Service and Academic Freedom (Bonine #     270, 271, 275, 278, 288, 289, 290, 293, 295, 296, 297, 399, 301, 349); Deborah Olson (Instructor, Special Education and Clinical Services), Co-Chair of the Employment Matters Workgroup

4.9       US14/15-85: Revision and Adoption of Employment Policies (Bonine #s 268, 269, 272, 274,     276, 277, 279, 280, 281); Deborah Olson (Instructor, Special Education and Clinical Services), Co-Chair of the Employment Matters Workgroup

4:55 pm    5.   Open Discussion

4:55 pm    6.   Reports

6.1       Report on IDEAL Framework for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion; Yvette Alex-Assensoh, Vice President for Equity and Inclusion

The website for the IDEAL plan is here. I’m going to add a few numbers. The budget for Equity and Inclusion has grown by about 50% over the past 5 years. Administrative spending has doubled:

The university also spends about $780K on Penny Daugherty’s AAEO office:

IR has some pretty good data here:

After her presentation, VP Alex-Assensoh answered questions from senators:

Q: Jane Cramer asks about how Affirmative Action fits in with the plan.
A: I have no authority over AA, but they will have to implement parts of the plan.
Q: Wouldn’t it be better to have AA under Equity and Inclusion, instead of reporting to the VPFA?

[Obviously this is a touchy issue – rumors of some sort of AA reform are going around.]

Q: John Bonine asks: Would you have any professional objections to moving AA under your office?
A: We need to think about it.
Q: Gina Psaki: If you could do anything to improve equity and diversity here, what would you do?
A: Focus on helping one another.

Senate gives an enthusiastic round of applause for Yvette and her work, and adjourns. Next meeting next Wed 5/27, and the last Senate meeting will be Wed 6/3.

4:55 pm    7.   Notice(s) of Motion

4:55 pm    8.   Other Business

5:00 pm    9.   Adjournment

NOTE: The Policy Tracker may be viewed here.

5/18/2015: Senate Elections to resume 5/25 after software fix and nominee checks

Last week presidents Kyr and Coltrane postponed the Senate elections, due to errors in the election software. Myself and others pointed out that the software let people vote for committee members outside their own colleges and constituent status, and also that there was no confirmation screen showing who you had voted for and asking you to confirm your choices. The plan is for elections to restart Monday May 25th, I’m sure there will be an email with the details.

Meanwhile Kyr has asked the deans to email nominees and ask them to confirm their interest in serving. One thing missing from the the elections this year is the opportunity for people to add a statement to the Senate website explaining why they are running. This was tried last year, I thought it was pretty useful.