Interinstitutional Faculty Senate
Oregon Health & Science University
Portland, OR
April 5, 2008
Present (Senators): Joel Alexander, WOU; Lee Ayers, SOU; Peter Gilkey, UO; Solveig Holmquist, WOU; Kirsten Lampi, OHSU; Kathie Lasater, OHSU; Lani Roberts, OSU; Craig Wollner, PSU; Jane Perri, OIT; Janet Crum, OHSU; Jeff Johnson, EOU; Kate Hunter-Jaworski, OSU; Joanne Sorte, OSU; Mina Carson, OSU; Robert Mercer PSU.
Present (Others): Dalton Miller Jones (Board representative, PSU).
Ayers called the meeting to order at 8:33 AM.
Sustainability initiative (continued from Friday night)
Ayers needs to report to the Board at their next meeting on our involvement in the sustainability issue. We can do some brainstorming at this meeting. Within about a year and a half, OIT will generate all its own power. PSU has been including sustainability issues in their classes for several years. OSU has a program called Writing Across the Curriculum. Could they do Sustainability Across the Curriculum? Does this mean itÕs included in every class or every department? At SOU, these kinds of themes are integrated into any course classified as general education. For other classes, itÕs up to the department. UO mathematics department includes writing in their proof and exposition classes.
Report on Board Meeting (Ayers and Miller-Jones)
Ayers has heard continuously from the Board: they are pushing back when the state says there is no money. If you want us to do what weÕre currently doing, we need funding. It has to affect students to make an impression on state funders.
Do we still have a legislative liaison out of the chancellorÕs office? Neil Bryant performs this function.
Discussion about format of IFS meetings and plans for next meeting at EOU: Historically have listened to speakers on Friday and had discussions on Saturday. Would we like to do that at our next meeting? Or would we rather have speakers like we had this time, e.g. from the board or chancellorÕs office? Ayers hoped we could have some of the influence the board wants to give us. She encouraged us to attend the coffee before the next meeting. It is helpful to have parts of the agenda in the hands of people who are here the whole time on Friday, because it gives us flexibility. Inviting people to have a conversation with us changes the dynamic. For our next meeting, could we invite someone from a school district, someone to talk about issues in rural areas, or someone from the local community college to talk about issues they face in that area? Could we have someone from the board, other than the chancellor, talk about the faculty perspective? Could we get Pernsteiner for more than half an hour? HeÕs willing to stay late, so maybe we could adjust our agenda accordingly. We like having a legislator at the meeting, because we may need them in the future, and theyÕll know us. Also, legislators are friends with other legislators and may share information from us with influential legislators. Could we set up some individual meetings with legislators between the coffee and the IFS meeting? Competition with Idaho and Washington schools might be a good topic for EOU meeting. That discussion would also be relevant to SOU, since theyÕre so close to California.
The majority of students at our institutions are from surrounding counties. If you want to change that, youÕll be taking students from someone elseÕs territory.
Back to the board meeting: Dalton reported that the board announced that the Irish-American Higher Education Research Organization is putting on a conference in September, here in Portland.
The OSU senators gave their campus report early, because it relates to funding and out-of-state tuition issues being discussed. OSU has partnered with a company to recruit students from Pakistan and __ (?). OSU is hoping to create a prep school. Many of these students are from new money families in Asia. They are often better-prepared than Oregon students, and they will be competing for spots in professional programs that are already full. Oregon students will lose places in these schools as a result. OSU is looking for new money from out-of-state tuition and sees these students as a new revenue source. Many OSU students are place-bound, so this initiative will limit opportunities for Oregon students.
Discussion:
á We donÕt have a problem recruiting international students, but whatÕs different is using a business to do this type of recruiting, which gives it a different feel. These companies fall outside the regulations that govern universities. OSU faculty are concerned because the company has a limited track record and none in the US.
á We already have problems with access and affordability, and weÕre making those problems worse. The OHSU President Robertson mentioned in December that preference is given to Oregon applicants to OHSU. Why canÕt other schools do the same? There is a disconnect with upper administration, which is focused on financial issues.
á The issue of access is a good one for the legislature. Our current funding woes are leading our public institutions to recruit out-of-state students for the additional revenue, thereby limiting opportunities for Oregon students. This is a good message for the legislature. Maybe we should invite a legislator and some others involved in this area for a discussion.
á There arenÕt enough US-born engineers and technical people.
An extensive, passionate discussion followed re: what to do to address funding issues:
á Miller-Jones said that we need to collect examples of loss of access caused by limited funding and share those with the legislature. Can we show the effect on outcome measures? The Òpoor meÓ argument doesnÕt work. Dalton asked that Peter create a place on the IFS web site for talking points to use when contacting legislators, etc. Fact and passion stories close the deal; student stories were very effective last time.
á The Oregon Student Association issued a report called, ÒEducation vs. Incarceration.Ó We spend more on incarceration than education. Head Start is going into womenÕs prisons in Oregon. Violent offenders are visible, but so much of what we do every day is invisible. How do we get our message to voters? We have lost the sense of belonging to a community.
á How do we get beyond asking the same question year after year and actually do something? What has been most effective over the years is to work with the chancellorÕs office. We do better when the pros give us a script. We need talking points. OSU contingent will meet with Frank Morris re: possible strategies.
á Should we invite governmental relations people in addition to or instead of legislators? Both. Need to keep our documents to a page if they go to legislators. Maybe we could regularly send out one-page pieces to our legislators. We could use these to share our success stories, show them what their money is buying.
á Could we meet with leaders in rural communities? We could discuss how we could partner with them, because many of them are very vulnerable due to loss of federal timber funds.
Back to DaltonÕs Board report: The Committee on Participation and Completion focused on minorities. As he traveled around the state, he saw tragedies in rural communities, so he included them in the committeeÕs charge also. The communities appreciated recognition from the Board and the BoardÕs interest in hearing their experiences. They held symposia to include a broad spectrum of participants.
The Oregon Student Association represents about 100,000 students. Their priorities are: increase need based aid, expand student parent child care, improve regional and community college funding, Òtuition equityÓ (allowing children of undocumented workers to qualify for in-state tuition), increasing presence of students of color. There will be a policy option package to highlight the importance of regional universities. The OSA are an ally, and wee need to acknowledge and support them on each of our campuses.
Governance Committee (run by Paul Kelly) deals with issues of reorganizing regional campuses and issues related to higher ed in Portland. It intersects with FrancesconeÕs group, which is acting like a standing committee. They have an RFP to investigate whether there is benefit in consolidating some business services for regional campuses. Ayers will share it with us. Is anyone from IFS participating in this group? Johnson volunteered but has not heard from the group. Ayers will follow up with Pernsteiner to see if faculty can be included in this and other working groups. Comment: We are complaining about the consolidation effort, but her provost has said that any savings from the consolidation will go into instruction. Are we going to complain about any change?
Dalton will send additional comments about the board meeting for posting on the IFS site.
Revisiting the Closed Session Issue
Ayers indicated that closed sessions may not be legal, and she is not comfortable asking people to leave our meetings. Wollner: We are a public body. One of the tests is, Do we take minutes? If we do, then we have to have open meetings. Johnson thinks IFS needs to reverse itself and say publicly to Bob, Dalton, and others that they are welcome here, not just legally entitled to be here. Several senators expressed concern that those who favored this change had valid reasons for doing so. Could we have executive sessions? According to Johnson, there are three things allow executive sessions under Oregon law:
á Personnel issues
á Property transactions
á Pending litigation
Discussion:
á If youÕre uncomfortable sharing something in an open IFS meeting, perhaps itÕs better left unsaid, perhaps it isnÕt IFS business.
á Could we have new member orientation so that new IFS members have some context. We used to have new members come to the December meeting to be introduced.
á Our relationship with the Board and the chancellorÕs office is a precious thing, a two-way street that was not always the case.
Gilkey moved to rescind motions IFS0801 and IFS0802 passed at the February, 2008, meeting. Wollner seconded. The motion was unanimously approved. Ayers will explain the discussion to Turner and Miller-Jones.
According to the IFS bylaws, a change to the bylaws must be proposed at one meeting and voted on at the next, and it requires a 2/3 majority vote. Someone said that a change this far-reaching would have required a bylaws change.
Campus Reports
OSU: OSU is initiating a program to bridge academics and athletics, celebrating the student aspects of student athletes. Athletics has made some great efforts to raise the academic performance of athletes. OSU is revamping their baccalaureate core (i.e. general education courses). They are also making lots of improvements to facilities, signage, etc. Their Teaching Learning Center is offering training to faculty. They have a new dean of the Honors College.
OIT: OIT is still searching for a president and have hired a headhunter, but the process will probably take a year. The OIT Management Department will be accredited by IACBE this weekend. OIT is focusing on international recruitment, with faculty and administrators recruiting in China. They are investigating better ways to evaluate faculty, including using Idea Center for student evaluations. To cut costs, they may do evaluations less frequently, e.g. evaluating faculty every other term (fall and spring one year, winter the next) or evaluating one-third of the faculty each term. OIT is constructing a new wing for their health science building, scheduled to open winter term 2009. Their enrollment is down generally, but the health science numbers are up.
EOU: They survived the ÒSouthern experienceÓ and have interims in most senior administrative posts. They expect searches this year for two dean positions and expect to start a presidential search in the fall. They plan to extend the interim provost for a year beyond that to allow the new president to be involved in the provost search. Program closures: First iteration of the plan would have eliminated the math major. The major was restored but lost an FTE. They lost German and geology minors. Faculty had input into the process. The cut was 10% of the universityÕs operating budget, but the university is intact. Are faculty on the job market? A number of junior faculty went on the market, but Johnson doesnÕt think any will be leaving.
OHSU: The School of Nursing has hired a new dean, Michael Bleigh from the University of Kansas. He will arrive around the beginning of July. He favors a systems approach and was described as a Ònouveau academicÓ. The School of Nursing is moving forward with a program on the WOU campus, which will launch in September. Since the OCNE program with community colleges began, the School of Nursing has seen applicant pool drop from 4x to 3x the number of available spots. The School of Nursing has received approval for 24 bachelor slots on the OHSU campus, plus 64 slots for their accelerated program for people who already have a bachelorÕs degree. These students complete five terms instead of nine. The WOU students have at least a year of required prerequisites, followed by 3 years in the nursing curriculum. There is a huge demand for the accelerated baccalaureate program. Finding qualified faculty is the limiting factor for all the nursing programs.
Does OHSU have concerns about new osteopathic medical school being built by Good Samaritan in Lebanon? The need for medical education is greater than OHSU can accommodate alone, but there is some concern.
WSU-Vancouver has a graduate nursing program, but no medical or dental school yet.
OHSU is in the process of recruiting and hiring a new library director. Four finalists have been chosen. They will be interviewed on campus in late April and early May.
SOU: SOU hired a new provost, but he cannot take the position for health reasons. Because the search had been closed out, they have to start a new search. They have an interim dean for the College of Arts and Sciences. Because of the restructuring, there are some changes on the Faculty Senate. They now have non-faculty sitting on the Senate, because some people are no longer faculty. The Senate is redoing bylaws, etc., as a result of these changes.
Numbers for fall are down. They currently have 3700 FTE, but their enrollment has been as high as 5500 in the past. Morale is better than it has been. They are in recovery, moving forward. They are trying to get more funds for recruitment and retention. What is causing their declining enrollment? Public perception of the university and more part-time students. WOU is getting more applicants since they increased their rejection rates, raising GPA requirements, etc. SOU no longer excludes based solely on SAT scores. 20% of their students receive ADA services.
UO: UO has moved to an entirely web-based course evaluation system. Access to grades is blocked for two weeks if a student does not fill out an evaluation. They have a University Senate rather than a Faculty Senate, which includes librarians and students as voting representatives. They have just added classified staff voting representatives. This weekend the UO will grant degrees to some students affected by the Japanese internment in World War II. These degrees were authorized by HB2823, which grew out of a UO University Senate motion. The Mathematics Department has made a number of offers to job candidates, all of which were declined, at least one due to low salary. Comments/discussion:
á Many OSU searches fail for the same reason.
á Does UO have failed administrative searches too? Yes.
á The more high-level administrators hired, the less money available for faculty positions.
á Institutions with large discrepancies between faculty and administrator salaries have poor rates of faculty satisfaction.
WOU: WOU has hired two new administrators—Paul Moredock, VP for University Advancement (i.e. fundraising) and Kent Neely, new provost coming from Southern Illinois University. Enrollment is up to over 5000. Diversity is up. Thirty-five faculty hires are underway, almost all on track to be successful. 2 positions—criminal justice and business—have been canceled. Holmquist announced that she will be leaving the IFS due to expanded professional commitments. The next meeting will be her last, and she would like to bring the new WOU senator to the LaGrande meeting. Several senators encouraged her to bring the new person to the next meeting.
PSU: PSU has three finalists for president. The first campus visit will be this week, and the other two are coming next week. The candidates are: an urban planner and provost at the University of Baltimore; an administrator for the National Science Foundation; and the president of Texas A&M. They are concerned that they may lose candidates because of the current economic situation.
Planning for EOU meeting
The following were suggested for the meeting:
á A local legislator
á EOUÕs legislative liaison
á Someone to discuss ÒpoachingÓ students across state lines.
á What can we learn from the Eastern experience that will affect all of us? We could suggest that EOUÕs president address that in her presentation.
Ayers will pass on any info she gets from the chancellor re: sustainability. She encouraged us to begin thinking about this issue.
Jane Perri distributed a summary of institutional learning objectives. She will e-mail a more complete version.
Meeting adjourned at 12:02 PM.