And without reflecting at great length on the remarks of Professor Wright when he concluded his memorial, there were times when our Assembly was a more robust forum for debate and collegial action with each other. That role has been assumed, and I hope assumed successfully, by the University Senate. And certainly the kind and quality of leadership shown both by the Senate Budget Committee and by the Senate itself through this past year is testament to the fact that this tradition of collegiality of wise and informed debate, of co-ownership of our decisions, even though ultimately the decisions as to the university's direction must remain with me and then beyond that the State Board of Higher Education, that has served us well.
Among this reflection, let me start with the Senate Budget Committee, which was well-served by Professor Wayne Westling, Professor David Frank, Professor Nathan Tublitz, and Professor Michael Kellman. All of the others are unfortunately out of the country or otherwise disposed, but Professor Frank is here. They worked together with Provost Moseley in a way very different than any other campus of the seven in the State System of Higher Education and dealt with the issue of faculty salaries. Recognizing that even with the recapitalization of the institution, the amount of money left for faculty salaries was woefully insufficient, given the ground we had to cover to make up and given where we stand with our comparator institutions. On other campuses the percentages of faculty salary increase would be decided by collective bargaining agreement, or by grumbling dissatisfaction or by some small and secret committee. Our approach was different. In our approach the Provost said we will open the books and invite the Senate Budget Committee in good faith to examine every source of income, every stream of revenue, every incidence of costs and we would do our best to determine a collegial way to resolve these issues.
I believe that the process by which that occurred on this campus was itself transformational in terms of the relationship between the Senate and the administration. And I don't pretend that at every juncture that that relationship is a harmonious one--it's hard to think that it could be given the differences in perspective that inevitably are involved in a university of this kind and complexity--we are after all the seventeenth largest city of the state of Oregon if you just count our population, our physical plant and other areas. But certainly the spirit of cooperation which entered those discussions and led to the very fruitful white papers and led to informed choices that members of the faculty and administration could make was remarkable by any measure and was in no way even equaled by the process on any other campus in the State System of Higher Education. And I would wager that if one would look at a similar problem faced by an institution, public or private, that probably none could have risen to a level of sophistication or ultimately mutual trust and respect that resulted from our process.
Professor Frank has alluded to the issue of the tsunami of initiatives which we hope will pass without damage, and if it does we will be well on our way to recovery thanks to the cooperative nature of the relationships that have been established-- relationships that could not have been established without two ingredients. One is trust and the second is extraordinarily hard work. I wish in that respect I could recognize personally all of the members of the Senate Budget Committee but since only David Frank is here I would ask that he step forward. I would like to recognize in some small fashion his contribution as I will that of the others for the extraordinary work of the Senate Budget Committee. The others will receive a similar recognition and my personal thanks as well.
I would also like to salute the work of President Gilkey. It has been my privilege as President to watch the extraordinary evolution of our system of governance from which, at best, I would say was dysfunctional because the Assembly could not even muster a quorum for most of its existence in the years of the early 1990s when I rejoined the faculty as Dean of the Law School. And then I watched the committee on governance chaired by Professor Alpert that helped devise a new scheme by which we might have effective representation, deliberation, and debate within the university to fulfill the spirit of the University's charter.
And it was one of my quiet objectives, but I will now make it public, that I would do everything possible as President to make sure that the system of governance worked and was not in fact marginalized by the administration, even inadvertently. But that also could occur only if there were extraordinary leadership within the University Senate. And for that I am very grateful for all of those since that system of governance was reinstituted. And particularly since he is here, I want to thank President Gilkey for presiding over a year which had a number of extraordinary difficulties. He was able not only to put us on the World Wide Web with startling regularity, he was able to do so on military time--a tradition which his successor, President Earl, I believe does not intend to continue. But that is indeed something in the autonomy of the Senate for its own deliberative processes to decide.
But beyond that, Professor Gilkey operated on a "no surprises" basis. He was punctual and has been extraordinarily responsive to the voices of a wide number of constituencies. He has shown himself to be a true professor in a sense that he is always able and willing to teach and learn and be a colleague whose esteem has only grown in the eyes of his colleagues because of the work he has done with us through the course of this year. No one pretends that that kind of job is easy. It is in many respects a thankless job which one feels has to be ultimately an internal sense of self-worth and accomplishment. But in this case, Peter, I believe that your colleagues here all understand the degree to which you have worked to the benefit of the University of Oregon, for the larger cause that we represent as a university. I would like you to step forward to receive my thanks and a small token of our appreciation.