Email from Peter Keyes concerning Procedures for 24 May 06 Senate Meeting

From: Peter Keyes (pkeyes@uoregon.edu)
Date: May 23, 2006 4:29:53 PM PDT
To: senate05-06@lists.uoregon.edu
Subject: Procedures for the Senate meeting

Dear Senators-

Tomorrow will undoubtedly be the best-attended and most contentious Senate meeting of the year. If we are to actually make any headway and and have a productive debate, I think we will have to require a degree of formality and institute some procedures which we haven't followed previously this year. I'd like to alert you to how things will run, and also to ask your assistance on a few matters.

First, we have already heard from a few of you who will not be able to attend the meeting, due to immovable objects such as thesis defenses and perviously-planned trips, but I ask that all the rest of you make every effort to come (and on time, if at all possible). It will be important not just to have a quorum, but to have a broad- based group debate the motion at hand, so that any action that may be taken can be seen as representing the will of the faculty as a whole. I also ask that you stay for the whole meeting. On this one occasion, it would also be helpful if you could try to clear your schedule for after 5:00, to cut us a little slack, if you could. (My wife has agreed that she will pick up our daughter instead of me, in recognition that this is the LAST time the Senate will take over my life.)

Second, please make sure you sign in, take your name card, and sit in a group in the front. (This even applies to you, Nathan). I think that we may have a number of motions, votes, amendments, etc., and having you all sit in one area will make counting the votes much simpler, quicker and more accurate. Since we may have a lot of visitors who don't understand Senate procedures and who might be inclined to add their opinions into votes, I will try to avoid voice votes on all but the most pro-forma motions, and I will bring voting paddles for all the senators; when there is a vote, please just hold up your paddle, which will be be brightly-colored and easier to discern than hands: I have learned my lesson from watching Myles Brand in action. If you have to leave while the meeting is still going on, please make sure you give your paddle to Gwen, so we can keep a running tally on the quorum.

There will certainly be lots of people who will want to talk, so in the interests of fairness and order, we will have a sign-up sheet available before the meeting. This sheet is only for members of the Assembly, who have a right to the floor of the Senate. Senators do not have to sign up to speak - I will recognize any Senators who request the floor before proceeding to the list. We will organize the sheet with columns for "In favor", "Opposed" and "Neutral (but still with something to say)". We will ask people to supply their names and their affiliation, so we may quickly check the list against that of Assembly members.

As per the agenda, there will be a few warm-up items. The President will address the state of the university, and I expect there to be questions regarding Westmoreland, and the recently-downsized estimate of the potential faculty raises next year. Bill Moos will make a brief AD report, if he is not on jury duty. There will be the Spring curriculum report, just to calm people down. There will be a notice of motion for a motion that will be brought to the Senate in the Fall.

We will move to the diversity plan motion, and I will make a brief introductory statement. outlining the history of the plan, drafts and feedback, the various groups involved, and how we got to this point. I will also address the fact that this meeting is not a public hearing, that only members of the Assembly have a right to the floor, but that in the past, if we ran out of assembly members who wished to speak, we suspended the rules and allowed visitors the floor. I will try to emphasize the formal nature of the senate, and the importance of civility and respect. (I may invoke Godwin's Law, and state that if anyone refers to anyone else as a racist or a Stalinist, their side loses a turn.) I will emphasize that the debate is to be on the motion on the floor, not the Decline of the West, or neo-colonialism, or family values. I will also emphasize that if you are going to speak to the motion to adopt the diversity plan, you should have read the diversity plan, so that you will know what you are talking about, versus addressing what you think the diversity plan might be about. I will ask that speakers listen to what previous speakers are saying, and if they are simply going to repeat or second what has already been said, they might defer to the person after them on the list; we are interested in hearings "arguments", not simply counting bodies pro and con.

I will note that speakers will have two minutes, and that I will cut off anyone who reaches the limit, or deviates far from the subject, or violates rules of decorum. I will state that the debate will end at a set time, probably 4:45. (If we reach that point, but the Senate wants to keep going, someone can make a motion that the debate should continue, and the senate can vote on that motion, If not, the default will be to move the question.)

After fulfilling my role as bad president, I will recognize Matt Dennis, who will introduce the motion on behalf of the Executive Committee. I will then recognize President Frohnmayer, who will briefly speak in favor of the Plan, focussing upon why it has come forward. I will then open the floor to questions or statements from Senators, and I ask that you also try to keep within the two minute limit. If there is to be a point of order, I would appreciate it if it came from a Senator, so we can minimize chaos.

Once the Senators have relinquished the floor, we will turn to the vetted list of speakers. We will have a microphone set up in the front on the side, and I will probably be able to place the list on the overhead projector, so listed speakers will be able to see when their names are coming up, and queue up in advance.

When we reach the set time for closing debate, if I don't hear a motion from the Senate to continue the debate, I will bring the question to the floor. There is a some time here so that if there are any last-minute parliamentary maneuvers that I don't understand, I will be able to confer with the parliamentarian, and we can proceed through any motions in correct order.

If we wrap this all up and still have a quorum, we might proceed to the Westmoreland issue expeditiously. You all should have received the proposed motion from Jon Jablonski. This motion has not met the required 10 day notice for motions, but it certainly falls within the provisions in the Senate charter for suspending the rules :

9.1.3.10 If an urgent piece of business has not met the required minimum of 10 days notice, the rules can be suspended, again by a two- thirds vote, to allow the introduction of such business.

So first I would ask for a motion to suspend the rules, which then must be carried by a 2/ vote. If it carries, I will recognize Jon Jablonski, who will introduce the motion, and we can have a debate and vote.

And that should do it.

Thank you for your continued attention to these messages. Unless there is another October Surprise this should be the last email from me before the meeting, but who knows.

See you tomorrow.

Peter

S.P.Q.O.

Peter A. Keyes Associate Professor Department of Architecture President University Senate University of Oregon 541.346.3640 pkeyes@uoregon.edu http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~pkeyes