The meeting was called to order by President Myles Brand on December 2, 1992, in Columbia 150 at 3:34 p.m. The minutes of the October 14, 1992 meeting of the Assembly were approved as distributed. (No meeting was held in November)
Mr Sanford Tepfer, Professor Emeritus, Biology, presented a memorial for Mr. Harrison M. Howard, Senior Instructor Emeritus, Biology. Mr. Howard was a member of the University faculty from 1964 until his death on September 2, 1992. The memorial can be found at the end of these minutes.
President Brand announced the naming of the Bio Optical facility in honor of Mr. Howard. The new name will be: The Harrison M. Howard Bio Optical Facility.
Mr. John Nicols, Chair of the Academic Requirements Committee, was recognized to introduce the following motions. Mr. Nicols stated that the motion is in reality 4 different motions, but that he was introducing the motion so that all 4 could be looked upon as a single motion. {Please note: that the parts in parenthesis are not an official part of the motions).
1. The ARC moves that: "Beginning Fall Term, 1992, students be allowed to complete a cluster in their major."
"(Note: The legislation of May, 1992, did not specifically authorize such a motion, but by not forbidding it, it allowed for it de facto. This motion is designed to allow students to take advantage now of what will be allowed after the Fall of 1993. Both the Implementation Committee and the ARC feel that some formal statement is necessary.)"
2. The ARC moves that: "Beginning Fall, 1993, no more than three courses in any one department across the whole general education requirements may be used to satisfy the group requirements." "(Note: The essence of this motion appeared in a number of drafts circulated last year, but was not included in the final document approved by the Assembly.)"
3. The ARC moves that item D of the motion passed in May be amended (changes are in italics) to read: "Completion of the third term, second year of a foreign language or the equivalent passed with grades of C , P, or better for the B. A. degree; one year of approved college level Mathematics
4. The ARC moves that: "For non B.S., non B.A. degrees, students will be required to complete a cluster in two groups as part of a total of 12 credits in each group." "(Note: This motion is necessary to cover the needs of those students who are not in B. A. or B. S. degree programs. It represents a reconciliation of the older requirements tempered by the new legislation.)"
Mr. Michael Hibbard, President of the University Senate, reported that the Senate had passed the motions without dissent after a short discussion.
Mr. Nicols, speaking to the motion, stated that the motions were in a sense housekeeping or clean up motions. The legislation passed last Spring had, either through error or inadvertently, not contained the content of these motions and thus the attempt here is to clarify the situation.
President Brand asked if any person objected to having all 4 motions being treated as one. Hearing no objection the President ruled that the 4 separate motions will be discussed as one motion and voted upon as one motion.
Mr. Herb Chereck, Registrar, stated that the cluster in a major would be acceptable only if the cluster was an approved cluster. It is most likely that the clusters would be taken in the first or second year, and thus could very well be prior to the selection of a major by the student, he concluded. Mr. Paul Simonds, Anthropology, inquired as to #2. He wanted to know if this motion would cause problems for interdisciplinary clusters, an area that tends to be growing and should held harmless by this motion. Mr. Nicols replied that the Academic Requirements Committee would be exceedingly liberal in its interpretation of this motion and thus the fact that a cluster is interdisciplinary should be of no consequence in meeting the requirements. The motions were passed by a voice vote and without dissent.
Mr. Barry Siegel, Chair of the Academic Standards Committee, presented the following motion:
"1. Those academic departments in which undergraduate students are engaged as college teachers, readers, or graders will develop written guidelines for the supervision of those students. "These guidelines should: "a) provide an educational and pedagogical rationale for permitting undergraduate students to engage in these activities, and "b) describe the means by which the department will provide pedagogical and other appropriate training for undergraduate students performing these activities (such as training workshops and orientation meetings, supervision and evaluation by faculty, and written instructions to be followed by the students.) "These guidelines will be submitted to the Curriculum Committee for approval.
"2. Undergraduates should not serve as supervised college teachers, readers, or graders for courses in which they are simultaneously enrolled.
"3. Undergraduate students serving as supervised college teachers, readers, or graders should have demonstrated competence in the specific subject matter of the course.
"4. If academic credit is awarded to undergraduates for supervised college teaching, reading, or grading, it must be done under the 409 Practicum course designation. The maximum credit that may be earned for such activities is a total of 3 credit hours, per department, toward a bachelors degree."
Mr. Hibbard stated that the University Senate had passed motion by a vote of 18 yes, 9 no, and 5 abstentions. Mr. Hibbard said that after a period of debate a majority of the Senators felt that minimum standards should be established in this area. Mr. Siegel said that the Academic Standards Committee was not opposed to the use of undergraduates in teaching, grading and reading positions as they are used at present. But the Committee felt that some standards had to be established to protect the integrity of the University, especially now that more attention is being focused on the instructional faculty by the legislature. The Committee felt that some limits had to be placed on the practice to make sure that no abuses could take place.
Mr. Frank Anderson, Mathematics, rose to amend #1. to read: "Those academic departments in which undergraduate students are engaged as college teachers, readers, or graders
The amendment was put to a vote and passed. The motion is now amended and discussion continued.
Ms. Barbara Pope, Honors College, stated that if the repeatability for credit was to remain a part of the motion and the motion passed the Women's Study program would suffer tremendously as many students are used as discussion leaders over and over. The program could not afford to lose these students as discussion leaders and the program could not afford to pay them in lieu of credit. President Brand stated that #4. which limits the maximum credit that may be earned for credit, per department, would be 3 hours, but that the transcript would could show many more hours of credit than this number. The 3 hours would be what is actually counted toward a degree.
Mr. Chereck pointed out that the Registrar's Office would not be able to control the counting of credit and that this would have to be controlled at the department level.
Mr. Hibbard stated that the class number 402 should be created to allow a line for this activity to be recognized. It would parallel the present 602.
Ms. Pope moved that the motion be tabled. By a vote of 38 yes, 20 no, the motion was tabled.
President Brand made a few comments concerning the proposed state budget released yesterday by Governor Roberts. The higher education portion of the budget is fairly near what higher education had submitted in September. The proposed tuition increase is not what was recommended and thus with fewer dollars from tuition (as well as from the State) the impact on the several institutions will be considerable. Larger classes and few teaching faculty will be one result. But at a time when the number of high school graduates is rapidly increasing the financial situation for higher education will see a cap placed on enrollment, and thus not all of the qualified students will be able to enroll in state institutions.
The proposed budget does speak to an increase in work load for faculty and this should not be translated into "teaching one more class." An increase of 15 % is anticipated, that is output and not input. An increase in student faculty ratio is one measure, an increase in student credit hours would be another. Fewer faculty and more students does not necessarily mean more courses.
It is important to remember, the President stated, that it is a long way until the final budget is adopted in late Spring or early Summer. If the budget does not change appreciably from what the Governor has proposed, the University will have to make total cuts, in the worst case, in 15 % range. By mid January a number of Officers of Administration and support staff will be notified that their positions will be terminated at the end of June. These cuts will be at the 5 % level, and they will not intrude on the instructional faculty. However, if the cuts reach the 7 or 8 % area or higher it will be more difficult to protect the instructional programs. With the 5 % cut level, instructional faculty will feel the cuts as they will have to do more advising, they will not have the office personnel to do some things that are presently being done, and in some instances what will be done will take longer because fewer people will be available to do the work.
It is important that the University remain a sustainable institution. The breadth of offerings must be kept and the academic integrity of the University must be protected. The University must be responsive to change, to look toward doing things differently and more efficiently. The present move toward creating 4 credit courses shows that we are moving in the right direction. We are being innovative.
ADJOURNMENT
The business of the meeting having concluded the Assembly adjourned at 4:47 p.m. Keith Richard Secretary
In 1964 Harry came to the University as a part time expert in optics and photography after a career with the Oregon State Highway Ð
Harry Howard developed one of the finest Bio Optical laboratories in the country that was and continues to be used heavily by a wide spectrum of faculty, staff, and graduate students in biology and in other fields. All that the user needs to do is to bring the problem to the lab with the material, and photographic products are produced that are widely admired when they appear in scientific journals, often including cover photos.
Harry was a very friendly and open man, confident of his own knowledge and ability in spite of a lack of formal academic training. His abilities contributed enormously to the success of graduate and faculty research during the years. His work was widely known and appreciated. While many institutions have photographic labs, ours was and continues to be unique in the manner in which its personnel are able to design and set up systems that can provide the desired photographic results. This requires a sophisticated knowledge of research microscopes and associated optics and camera equipment.
In the course of his years with us, Harry developed a graduate level course in photo optics that was part of a year long sequence in microscopical techniques; other faculty members added courses in electron microscopy and in more classic techniques. He was a tremendous asset to all of us in the science community, helping with research and teaching projects. His photos and films were and continue to be used widely in teaching, both in beginning biology courses and in advanced classes. Harry is gone, but his facility, for he is the one that built and developed it, and its trained personnel carry on and will advance the work of all of us.
In honor of Harrison Howard, President Brand has announced the naming of "Harry's" lab as the ÃÃHarrison M. Howard Bio Optical FacilityÄÄ. It will be marked with a plaque donated by some of his associates.
Harry, we all miss you.
Mr. President, I request that this memorial be made a part of the official and permanent minutes of this meeting and that copies of this memorial be sent to the immediate family by the Secretary of the Faculty. Sanford Tepfer Professor Emeritus Department of Biology