This is the Dec 7 committee meetings. Dec 8th board meeting is above. Update: I’ll fix these links and add some live-blogging during the meetings today and tomorrow. They scheduled their last meeting during summer break, to coincide with a Duck football game. So I suppose this is a D+…
Posts published in “Uncategorized”
It looks like a busy meeting for their Executive and Audit Committee. Presidential Assessment, Audit report, Annual reports from the GC, Compliance, Ethics, etc. Here’s their agenda, with handy links: 1. Call to Order/Roll/Declaration of a Quorum (Borkar) 2. Consent Item a. Minutes of the July 20, 2017 Executive & Audit…
Update: In the Oregonian, here: … The narrative will be that Taggart went 7-5 in his first season and he and his agent, Jimmy Sexton, baited Oregon into a bidding war with Florida State that resulted in a six-year, $30 million windfall. But the reality is, the Ducks didn’t do…
12/3/2017: That’s according to Andrew Nemec in the Oregonian here, who thinks this will be a disaster for recruiting. The Las Vegas Bowl is run by ESPN, so there’s no public information on how much the organizers rake in. With any luck UO’s take, after the expenses for team travel and the junkets for top JH and Senate administrators and families, will be enough to cover the $500K we paid Southern Utah for the body-bag game that gave Willie Taggart a winning season and a $100K bonus. Who goes and what it costs will be available under Oregon public records law however, since “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” is not yet listed as a mandatory exemption under ORS 192.
2016: Losing season, no bowl game.
12/28/2015: UO cuts Bowl of Ducks list to the bone
Two and a half weeks after asking, UO’s Public Records office responds to a request for the Alamo Bowl junket list:
No University employees will be receiving paid “junkets” to the Valero Alamo Bowl on January 2nd. However, the following University employees will be travelling to the Alamo Bowl as a part of the official delegation, and will be expected to perform work on behalf of the University.
Mike Andreasen
Roger Thompson
Tim Gleason
Rob Mullens
Randy Sullivan
The office considers this to be fully responsive to your request, and will now close your matter. Thank you for contacting the office with your request.
12/6/2017 update: Or maybe they Judge will hear it after all. From the Oregonian: A Benton County judge has ordered Oregon State University to halt termination proceedings against a longtime professor accused of sexual harassment and bullying. The order signed late Tuesday by Judge Matthew Donohue arrives days before the university’s…
Update with text as passed by the UO Senate:
After a full, frank, and extended discussion led by Senate President Sinclair (Math) – with UO President Schill, Provost Banavar, and many UO Collective students present – the Senate voted 23-21 today to pass a revised version of US17/18-02: RESOLUTION TO SUPPORT THE UO STUDENT COLLECTIVE. This resolution was regarding disciplinary charges for Student Conduct Code violations brought by the administration against students who had protested at, and disrupted, President Schill’s October 6th State of the University Address.
This resolution had been presented to the Senate and posted on its website for review two weeks ago. Yesterday afternoon President Schill and Provost Banavar sent a letter to the Senate responding to it. The UO Student collective took this response to heart, in part, and redrafted their motion last night and this morning, taking out some of the parts the President and Provost found objectionable and making general edits and explanation. The Senate received that revision shortly before the meeting today.
The revised resolution was considered under a suspension of the normal rules, given the fact that time was of the essence, since the Student Conduct Office had given the students charged with disciplinary violations a firm deadline of December 8th to decide on how to respond to the charges, the students had exams, and that the next Senate meeting was not until January.
After voting to suspend the rules with the required 2/3 majority, a motion was then made to divide the resolution, separating the parts on the student conduct process from the parts asking the administration to condemn speech by white supremacists. This passed with considerable support.
The Senate then spent about 30 minutes discussing the student conduct part of the resolution. The resolution was read out in its entirety twice – once before division, and once after.
Some Senators urged the Senate to delay, arguing that this was too little time to consider. Others argued that the students had been given a deadline and the Senate needed to act today.
Provost Banavar asked the students if they would be satisfied if the administration would extend the Dec 8th deadline. The students asked if the Provost could promise such an extension. He said he could not.
Senate VP Harbaugh (me) relayed that he had just been told by the Dean of Students that the Student Conduct Office had failed to make recordings or verbatim transcripts of the student conduct hearings held so far (and had prevented the students from making recordings), despite that fact that verbatim transcripts were required for appeals of conduct violations. Whoops.
The Senate extended the time for debate several times. One OA Senator said that the OA’s would feel that passing the resolution would be taken as an attack on the OA’s who have the difficult job of enforcing student conduct code violations. This was received with respect.
One Senator, from the law school, argued for delay and more deliberation, until next quarter. This same Senator had been on the UO Board of Trustees as its sole faculty member when they passed their 2014 motion taking authority for Student Conduct away from the faculty. At the time she raised no objection with the board that the Trustees were given that motion only shortly before their meeting, and she did not even bother to inform the faculty or the students that the motion was coming. The Greeks had a word for this: hypocrisy.
One Senator raised the point that the motion could be taken as supporting students rights to disrupt classrooms. This did not get a lot of resonance with the faculty, who are quite experienced at turning student disruptions into teachable moments. Many of us even enjoy it. Here’s hoping VP Kyle Henley and the administration’s PR machine do not decide to give Duck spokesman Tobin Klinger instructions to go to the press with that canard.
At 4:56 the vote was called, and the motion passed 23-21. Here’s the final text as passed, absent footnotes. It should all be on the Senate website Th AM:
US17/18-02: RESOLUTION TO SUPPORT THE UO STUDENT COLLECTIVE
Section I
1.1 WHEREAS the Mission Statement of the University of Oregon states:
“We value our diversity and seek to foster equity and inclusion in a welcoming, safe, and respectful community”; and
1.2 WHEREAS the UO Policy on Free Inquiry and Speech states
“Free speech is central to the academic mission and is the central tenet of a free and democratic society.” [Emphasis added];
and
“The University supports free speech with vigor, including the right of presenters to offer opinion, the right of the audience to hear what is presented, and the right of protesters to engage with speakers in order to challenge ideas, so long as the protest does not disrupt or stifle the free exchange of ideas. It is the responsibility of speakers, listeners and all members of our community to respect others and to promote a culture of mutual inquiry throughout the University community.”; and
1.3 WHEREAS UO students have approached the UO administration with their concerns about UO policies and US policies that affect their well-being, safety, and academic success; and
1.4 WHEREAS the preamble of the Student Conduct Code reads:
“The primary mission of the Student Conduct Code is to set forth the community standards and procedures necessary to maintain and protect an environment conducive to learning and in keeping with the educational objectives of the University of Oregon. Founded upon the principle of freedom of thought and expression, an environment conducive to learning is one that preserves the freedom to learn — where academic standards are strictly upheld and where the rights, safety, dignity and worth of every individual are respected.” [Emphasis added]; and
1.5 WHEREAS overzealous disciplinary action against students may result in the repression of dissent and free speech and continues to harm these students’ academic success; and
1.6 WHEREAS UO officials have made public statements that may prejudice the adjudication of the alleged conduct code violations; and
1.7 WHEREAS the UO Policy on Academic Freedom says
“Members of the university community have freedom to address, question, or criticize any matter of institutional policy or practice, whether acting as individuals or as members of an agency of institutional governance.”
and
“These freedoms derive immediately from the university’s basic commitment to advancing knowledge and understanding. The academic freedoms enumerated in this policy shall be exercised without fear of institutional reprisal. Only serious abuses of this policy – ones that rise to the level of professional misbehavior or professional incompetence – should lead to adverse consequences. Any such determinations shall be made in accordance with established, formal procedures involving judgment by relevant peers.”
and yet despite this requirement, relevant peers have not been involved in this conduct code judgement process.
Section II
2.1 BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED that the UO Senate supports the rights of students to peacefully protest during university events, even disruptively, so long as those protests do not prevent speakers from being heard and the audience from hearing what they have to say; and
2.2 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Senate recognizes that the students involved in the protest at the State of the University Address succeeded in bringing significant matters of academic concern and student well-being to the attention of the university community, and that we urge that this be taken into consideration when judging their discipline cases; and
2.3 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Senate calls on the the Student Conduct Code and Community Standards Committee to ensure that the Student Conduct Code is revised to include student peers in judgements on disciplinary cases involving free speech, as required by the Policy on Academic Freedom. Given the importance of free speech and academic freedom, the Senate urges the Committee to develop Student Conduct Code procedures distinct from standard discipline charges; and
2.4 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the UO Senate urges the administration to cease the Student Conduct disciplinary charges process and pledges to support student protesters during the disciplinary appeals process; and
2.5 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Senate supports the conversations the administration has now initiated with the UO Student Collective and that the Senate will continue to provide a forum for all students.
Finis.
Having spent more than the expected time on the discussion and debate of this resolution, the Senate then adjourned, putting off the remainder of the agenda until January.
That’s the rumor from Sports Illustrated, here. Presumably the porkalicious deal will have to be approved by the Board of Trustees, although last year Schill gave AD Rob Mullens millions more without going to the board, and managed to keep it secret for 8 months. At this rate there’s not…
11/28/2017: Just thought I’d repost this classic. 8/26/14: Four word joke nets UO student five unconstitutional bad-conduct charges: Saul Hubbard has an excellent report on this in the RG. Peter Bonilla of FIRE notes: “Universities have never prevailed in court when defending their [anti-free speech] codes,” he said. “Every single time there’s…
Tough job, he seems to be doing very well at it, but it’s troubling that there was no search. Bad precedent. Dear University of Oregon community members, It is my pleasure to announce that I have appointed Kevin Marbury to the permanent position of vice president for student life. Kevin…
No, I’m not talking about student athletes trying to help Willie Taggart make his payday. This is about regular UO students selling their blood plasma to pay for their living expenses. Emerald reporter Francisca “Frankie” Benitez has the very interesting story here, with comments from a few UO Econ professors.…
11/28/2017 sort of live blog: Membership, from https://senate.uoregon.edu/entry/?Committees=Intercollegiate%20Athletics%20Advisory%20Committee Johnny Earl, Custodial Coordinator, Campus Planning and Facilities Services Dennis Galvan, Vice Provost for Intl Affairs, International Affairs Tim Gleason, Professor / Faculty Athletics Representative, Journalism and Communication / President’s Office Andrew Karduna, Professor / Director Graduate Studies, Human Physiology Laura Leete, Assoc.…
Dear colleagues and friends, For those of us in higher education, the period between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day is about completing research projects, taking and grading exams, and planning for the winter term. This year, however, we should all be concerned with something going on thousands of miles away…
This is despite the March 2017 report from UO General Counsel Kevin Reed, saying the Ducks don’t prevent players from talking to the press. Steve Mims has the report in the RG here: … Altman found a few things that fit into the “you-can’t-do-that” category after Oklahoma defeated the Ducks…
Update: More Bach news in the EW from Bob Keefer, who has uncovered a 2016 firing of a Matthew Halls ally by Director Janelle McCoy, here: … In an Aug. 11, 2016, email to Doug Blandy, then the UO’s senior vice provost for academic affairs, McCoy wrote: “I believe I mentioned…