Minutes of the University Assembly
October 15, 1997
177 Lawrence, 3:00 p.m.
 


CALL TO ORDER

President Dave Frohnmayer called the first academic year regular meeting of the University Assembly to order at 3:09 p.m. on Wednesday October 15, 1997 in 177 Lawrence Hall.

APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES

The president asked if there were any corrections to the minutes of the May 21, 1997 University Assembly meeting, and hearing none, a motion to accept the minutes as distributed carried unanimously.

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND COMMUNICATIONS FROM THE FLOOR

President Frohnmayer indicated that the secretary received two memorials for former faculty members who have recently passed away. The president asked for a moment of silence in remembrance of G. Douglas Straton, professor emeritus, religious studies, and William P. Rhoda, professor emeritus, physical education. Memorials for these former colleagues are included as part of these minutes. The secretary further reported that the 1996-97 annual report of the Faculty Advisory Council, was received, the text of which is included as an attachment to these minutes.
 
President Frohnmayer reminded everyone that a reception welcoming new faculty to the university would be held at Collier House immediately following the meeting. He then called upon Ms. Ann Tedards, president of the University Senate, to give a report from the senate.
 
REMARKS FROM UNIVERSITY SENATE PRESIDENT ANN TEDARDS
 

President Tedards reaffirmed the decision to reconstitute the University Senate as the legislative body of the university, saying that the previous full year of operation was a productive one. She anticipates that the new academic year also will be an active one. Already on the November agenda are several motions aimed at streamlining the committee appointment process to make better use of faculty time, and others which propose changes in the committees that oversee undergraduate education and the curriculum. Currently, many senators are serving on seven faculty task forces directed by Provost Moseley's office to identify issues of concern as part of a larger effort to examine the changes facing the university in the immediate future. The senate will act as an overview body during this process.
 
President Tedards concluded her remarks by thanking the former and current senators for their willingness to serve in their legislative capacity. She further invited faculty to communicate readily with their senators and to participate in the transformations that are ahead for the university. Finally, President Tedards implored all faculty members to take seriously their charge to prescribe the courses of study at the university in order that the curriculum and all matters involving the vision of the university meet their own high expectations.

Full text of Remarks from University Senate President Tedards
 
STATE OF THE UNIVERSITY ADDRESS, PRESIDENT DAVE FROHNMAYER

After welcoming everyone back to the start of a new academic year, President Frohnmayer began his remarks by quoting from management expert Peter Drucker, who forecasted that, "Thirty years from now the big university campuses will be relics. Universities won't survive. It's as large a change as when we first got the printed book."

While noting that it was not a particularly upbeat way to begin a state of the university address, the president admitted Drucker's prognosis was not something to casually dismiss, even though the president disagreed with the specifics of the dire forecast. Rather, President Frohnmayer believed it serves as a wake-up call to the dramatic and inescapable changes universities will go through in the near future. He pointed to a global economy making massive shifts toward high technology and service jobs, to Baby Boomer's children "shopping" for their education, and to millions of working adults seeking education to change or further their careers.

Remarkably, huge on-line "virtual" universities are in the planning stages in several states -- California, Minnesota, and Kentucky, for example. Similarly, private corporate venders such as Phoenix University boast of 40,000 students, one quarter of which study strictly on-line. Nevertheless, President Frohnmayer insisted that the transforming experiences that only person-to-person teaching and counseling provide - the life lessons as well as class lessons gained on a university campus - are what makes education real, and a virtual campus can not provide such experiences.
 
But technology can and will help us to do our jobs better. Taken together with all the other changes occurring around us, we are challenged to respond, first by recognizing our strengths and to working from them. President Frohnmayer reminded everyone that we are among the best researchers in the nation, have won awards for our computer network, and offer a "best buy" in higher education nationally. Our recent exhaustive accreditation review commended us for creative responses to state budget reductions, implementing new technologies, optimizing resources and facilitating collaboration through interdisciplinary institutes and centers. But additionally, we need to improve in the areas of faculty performance review, educational program outcome assessment, and increased attention to the effectiveness of our general education program.

In pointing to some comments emanating from the accreditation review, the president noted several other things that make our university strong: a sense of community, a sense of pride, and a spirit that says we can work together to solve common problems. In this vein, President Frohnmayer honored a group of emeritus faculty who demonstrated this sense of caring, commitment, and university community by their actions. Three individuals donated homes (Yoko McClain; Ted and Mary Stern), and one individual (Marion Dean Ross) left 1.2 million dollars to the university in his will. The president reaffirmed that the strength of the university is its people: our faculty, our staff, and our students.

President Frohnmayer reported that he was pleased that the legislature had made some strides in providing funds for faculty salary increases and that some funds were found to offer the beginnings of acceptable increases for classified staff. Nevertheless, we are not where we need to be regarding salaries and he pledged to continue his battle for adequate support for all employees.

Carrying this theme further, the president reiterated his frustration with the state system's formulas for collecting and distributing revenues for funding higher education. He added that a draft report of the Governor's Task Force on Higher Education and Economy is due out shortly, which recommends reform of the budget allocation process. For example, a shift to a "learner-centered" model where universities kept their own tuition dollars would encourage a focus on attracting and serving students.

The impending Governor's Task Force Report reinforces the immediacy of preparing for the challenges presented by swift moving changes in technology, economic, demographic and political forces. Consequently, the provost's office is directing a three-stage process to define and respond to these challenges over the next couple months. First, Issue Definition Groups will collect data regarding enrollment, budget, educational quality, new technology, public perception and support, roles of faculty, staff, and students in institutional change, and the university's relationship with the system and the state. Next, several brainstorming Solution Groups will generate responses to the issues identified. Finally, those ideas with the greatest promise for success will be implemented.

President Frohnmayer concluded his remarks by reminding everyone that the Oregon Model is one that starts with people. His vision of the university moving toward the next century is one in which we have flexibility and autonomy to efficiently meet the needs of students and the state; in which the funding model provides greater stability; in which creative energies are unleashed in concert; and in which the faculty, staff, and students work together creatively and with innovation in their teaching and research efforts for both traditional and nontraditional students. Finally, the president concluded that with everyone's help and guidance, this vision will be achieved the Oregon way - together.

Full text of President Frohnmayer's address

NEW BUSINESS

Vice Provost for Academic Affairs Lorraine Davis was called on to introduce the deans of the various schools and colleges who, in turn, introduced new tenured and tenure-track faculty members. Vice Provost Davis indicated that 129 new faculty were hired during the past year, 32 of which are on tenure lines. She remarked that one of the pleasures of her job is to review the credentials of new faculty members, and she continues to be impressed with the outstanding quality of our current and new faculty. Also included in the introductions were Duncan McDonald who left his position as dean of the School of Journalism and Communications to become the new vice president for development, and Rennard Strickland who is the new dean of the School of Law. (A listing of the new tenure related faculty members can be found linked to the University Assembly Web Page listing* of these minutes.)

ADJOURNMENT

The meeting was adjourned at 4:20 p.m. with everyone invited to the reception at Collier House.
 
Gwen Steigelman
Secretary of the Faculty

The University Assembly Web Page address is: http://www.uoregon.edu/~assembly/assembly.html
 
ATTACHMENTS

Faculty Advisory Council Final Report 1996-97


Committee Members:

Carl Bybee, Journalism & Communications; Paul Engelking, Chemistry; Maradel Gale, Planning, Public Policy & Management; Paul Goldman, Educational Leadership, Technology & Administration (Chair); Elaine Green, Student; Jeff Hurwit, Art History; Linda Kintz, English; Susan Plass, International Affairs; Mike Posner, Psychology; Ann Tedards, Music (Senate Representative); Marjorie Woollacott, Exercise & Movement Science

Major Issues for the FAC

The FAC met weekly during 1996-97, generally with President Frohnmayer, Vice President/Provost Moseley, and Vice-Provost Davis. The FAC also scheduled two faculty-only meetings each quarter. We note that five members of the FAC were also members of the University Senate, including Senate President Bybee, Senators, Engelking, Hurwit, and Kintz, and Vice President Tedards who served as the Senate's designated representative. We also note that members Elaine Green (Assoc. Dean and Student Conduct Coordinator) and Susan Plass (Asst. Vice Provost and co-chair of the Accreditation Task Force) were closely involved in some of the year's key issues.

The conflict of interest in intimate relationships and student conduct code, the university fiscal situation and legislative affairs, the productivity plan, and University governance dominated discussions during much of the year. From October to March, the FAC spent two to three hours per month discussing the conflict of interest policy, responding to drafts, campus reactions and commentaries, and weighing the implications of alternative language. The final version accepted by the President and published for comment reflected these sessions and the FAC's long discussions and collective consensus. The FAC also discussed the proposed changes in the student conduct code, contributing to final language. These discussions were facilitated by the Student Conduct Coordinator, Elaine Green.

The administration regularly briefed the FAC on the University fiscal situation, the potential, and later actual, consequences of Measure 47, UO and OSSHE legislative strategies, the progress of the legislative session, and changes and potential changes in the UO relationship with the state system. The President, Provost, and Vice-Provost attempted to keep the FAC current with rapidly changing developments and to use the committee as a sounding board for possible political and organizational strategies.

A third major recurring issue was the university productivity plan, its philosophy, administration, and especially its consequences for departments, faculty, and quality of education at UO. The administration provided a great deal of current budgetary and student credit hour information, giving the FAC a detailed picture of the context of the university budget and the extent of its dependence on increasing student numbers, the credit load each student takes, and retention. Nonetheless, discussion reflected faculty unease about the productivity plan. Special sources of concern were the sense that some colleges and departments had not been treated fairly by the productivity plan and the perils of balancing curricular priorities with budgetary concerns. The FAC stressed the importance of being mission-driven rather than budget-driven even in these difficult times.

A final recurring issue was University governance. The FAC noted three significant events that have changed the context of faculty involvement in governance: restructuring of the Senate as a governing body, delegation of more authority to Deans, and, most important, curriculum review has come to have more significance than curricular generation (still the province of the Curriculum Committee). The lack of faculty input/review of potential program cuts resulting from ten-year department reviews and/or failure to meet productivity targets remains a significant FAC concern.

The FAC discussed and advised Administration a large range of other issues on an ad-hoc and occasional basis. Specific topics included the question of how the President should address controversial issues (a generic issue but one that in which discussions were sparked by the Gardenburger boycott), process and procedures for the CAS Acting Dean and the Faculty Secretary positions, policy on the Knight Chairs and the Presidential Chair, appointment of the faculty representatives the UO Foundation, naming of the Paul Olum Atrium, the University Environmental Policy, and discussing themes for President's State of the University, Convocation, and Investiture remarks.

The FAC also reviewed, commented on, and made minor contributions to the Draft Accreditation Report. This discussion was led by FAC member Susan Plass who co-chaired the Accreditation Task Force, a committee that also included FAC member Engelking. FAC members attended the opening and closing Accreditation Visit meetings. In order to provide informed input on emerging issues, the FAC received a series of detailed briefings: Joanne Hugi, George Shipman, and Peter Swan on problems and policies regarding electronic networking, Anne Leavitt on ongoing and proposed recruitment/retention strategies, and from Curt Lind on new ideas for generating revenue/providing service through external programs such as Continuing Education. As part of the FAC's efforts to become more informed, we requested and now receive minutes of the Council of Deans meetings and of the Administrative Council.

Potential future issues

The FAC suggests two general courses of action for the next year, both for the committee itself, but more importantly for campus-wide discussion. Faculty, administrators, and students need to understand more about the changing American university generally and the changing University of Oregon specifically. The evolving UO mission is not clear to all internal stakeholders, and it is likely that most faculty have not fully grasped the dimensions of the short-term and long term fiscal threats (and implications for their behavior). At the same time, administrators have not been successful in addressing faculty (and student) disillusionment and discouragement. We suggest that the Fall Convocation address these issues head on and that additional convocations be held each quarter to continue the discussions. Ideally classes could be canceled for at least some of the convocation to encourage both faculty and student participation.

The second recommendation is that the FAC, the Senate, or some other representative body undertakes a full evaluation of administrative changes that have taken place during the past five years. Specific changes include the devolution of increased authority to college deans, changes in the Provost's office affecting the Graduate School and Research and Sponsored Programs, the reorganization of the CAS Dean's Office. A related issue is the 10 year departmental review, how it is administered, and how it may be affecting department budgets and program directions at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.

MEMORIALS

George Douglas Straton

Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies


George Douglas Straton was born March 19, 1916 in Norfolk, Virginia, the youngest child of a prominent Baptist clergyman. He was reared in New York City and later in Muncie, Indiana.

Straton received his A. B. degree from Harvard University in 1938 and then attended the Yale Divinity School for one year, moving to the Andover Newton Theological School in Newton, Massachusetts, where he received his Bachelor of Divinity degree in 1941. He was then ordained a clergyman in the American Baptist Church. (Later he moved his affiliation to the United Church of Christ.) After a one-year stint as professor of philosophy and religion at Colby Junior College in New London, New Hampshire, he became a chaplain in the United States army and served in Europe with the 102nd Infantry Division, where he received the Bronze Star in recognition of his having given aid to troops in the front lines during the Battle of the Bulge. He was made Divisional Chaplain during a part of 1945.

Returning home after the war, he entered the joint doctoral program in religion at Columbia University and Union Theological Seminary and in 1948 took a position as Instructor of Religion at the College of Wooster in Ohio, working at the same time to finish his dissertation. He completed writing "The Personality of God, a Study of Theistic Personalism in Reaction to Non-theistic Idealisms" and received his Ph.D. degree from Columbia in 1950. He then took a position as Professor of Philosophy at Central College in Pella, Iowa, and later a position as Associate Professor of Religion and Dean of the Chapel at Colorado College, where he was when he accepted the invitation to join our faculty as Associate Professor of Religion and Head of the Department of Religious Studies in 1959. At that time the department head was the only faculty member in the department.

As then Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and now President Emeritus Robert D. Clark explained in his remarks at the memorial service for Doug this past March, Clark made a very careful analysis of Doug’s academic background and scholarly attainments before appointing him because he wanted to be sure that the University of Oregon would establish a solid academic tradition in the study of religion and not have the kind of department—as he so gently put it—that "some of our land-grant institutions" had established.

During the 1960's, with the rapid growth in our student body and with expanded interest among students in the study of region, Doug was able to persuade the administration progressively to add three positions to the department, and he then proposed a religious studies major. The major was approved and went into effect in the fall of 1971.

While that process was under way, Doug was promoted to professor (1970); he rotated out of the departmental headship in 1975 and retired in 1981, continuing to teach two courses a year for five years. He said many times that he did the best teaching of his career during this time. An earlier revelation may, however, belie that opinion. In an interview in the March 18, 1978, issue of TV Guide, actress Lindsay Wagner (the Bionic Woman) explained that she had been a student here before giving up higher education. Her reason for leaving was that she "wasn’t interested in what they taught or the way they taught it. Except for a course I took in Eastern religious thought" (p. 16). A check of records in the registrar’s office showed that she was referring to a course taught by Doug in winter and spring terms 1967.

During his tenure here, while teaching always too-large classes with no graduate teaching assistants and while successfully building a viable department, Doug continued his study and writing and published a number of scholarly articles. Like many faculty, he looked forward to relief from departmental administrative responsibilities as an opportunity to finish a book. Unlike some, however, he actually did it and his Theistic Faith for Our Time. An Introduction to the Process Philosophies of Royce and Whitehead appeared from University Press of America in 1979. At the time of his death another book-length manuscript, "And God Laughed When the Birds Came Forth from the Dinosaurs. Essays on the Idea and Knowledge of God," was under consideration by a publisher and remains so. Doug was included in Who’s Who in Religion from 1989 on.

The titles of Doug Straton’s dissertation, of his published book, and of his final manuscript make his main academic interest clear. He was a philosophical theologian convinced that personality lay at the heart of divinity. He rejected, however, an anthropomorphic concept of God and was early attracted to Whitehead’s notion that God is that which "prehends" all that occurs in process. This process Doug then wedded to scientific theories of evolution, seeing evolution as goal-oriented process directed by the non-anthropomorphic God who nevertheless is most adequately defined by personality. Doug was so intent on understanding evolution that, in his career, he audited courses on evolution here in the geology department. On his deathbed he would not countenance a family proposal to move a model ship out his bedroom, since it was the Beagle (Darwin's ship on his Galápagos voyage).

Doug’s theology dominated his life, and away from the University he was deeply involved both in activities at the First Congregational Church and in a variety of social causes. He was a strong opponent of racial injustice and advocate of helping the unfortunate (to the extent of donning rubber gloves and cleaning the bathrooms at his church when it served as a place for homeless people to overnight). He was among the first group of petitioners seeking to have the cross removed from Skinner’s Butte Park; and he regularly wrote to his elected representatives at all levels supporting social-welfare legislation of all types and opposing its opposite. This activism went along with Doug’s pride at being a faculty member at this university, and he always wrote on department letterhead. He was irate when a later department head pointed out to him that it was university policy not to write such letters on letterhead, lest they be construed as representing official university positions, an impression that university employees are supposed to avoid. "But I want them to know that I am a professor at this university," he replied.

In addition to these accomplishments Doug Straton was a loving husband and a devoted father to one daughter and three sons. He died at home in Eugene, the victim of Lou Gehrig’s disease, on 26 February 1997, just short of his 81st birthday.


 
Respectfully submitted,
Jack T. Sanders
Professor of Religious Studies (ret.)
 

William P. Rhoda Professor Emeritus of Physical Education


William P. Rhoda was born during World War I (1915), participated in Word War II (1941-1945), and died at the age of 82 near the end of the 20th century (1997). In his youth he lived though one of the worst economic depressions in the modern era while he attended the local schools in Reading, Pennsylvania. Later he matriculated at Pennsylvania State College, which is more commonly known today as Penn State. While there he was a member of the boxing and football teams and earned a Bachelors of Science degree in physical education (1939). Before and after graduation at Penn State, he was awarded a certificate of excellence.

It was also in 1941 that Bill enlisted in the United States Army. He served as an infantry officer while in Africa and Italy and on more than one occasion was less than the distance of a cannon ball or a bullet shot away from the enemy’s guns. He was discharged from the Army in 1945 but re-enlisted in the reserves until 1953 when he was honorably discharged on the 31st day of December 1953.

At the conclusion of the war, Bill and his wife Jean decided that he should continue his education. Consequently, Bill, his wife and two small children moved from Reading, Pennsylvania to Eugene, Oregon where he enrolled as a graduate student in the School of Health and Physical Education. In 1948, he completed the requirements for a Master’s of Science Degree and was promptly hired as an instructor in physical education. He started teaching in the service course and undergraduate programs. In 1951, he was promoted to assistant professor and granted indefinite tenure in 1952. During the next quarter of a century, as enrollment increased, Bill was assigned to organize and administer the priorities regarding the use of facilities for all instructional, recreational and intramural programs. In addition he was to make all facilities readily available for recreational use of the campus community. Another major entity to which Bill was assigned was to work closely with the institutional planning groups such as the Office of Planning and Research, the Campus Planning Committee and with the University’s professional architectural planning consultants.

In 1962 Bill was promoted to professor and in 1972 became associate dean of the College of Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance. He continued to work in the foregoing areas along with teaching graduate courses and advising graduate students in their master’s and doctoral programs.

Bill was a member of the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance—a research consortium. Twice he was elected national president of Phi Epsilon Kappa, which is a National Physical Education Society. He was given the distinguished service award from both the local chapter and the national office. As recently as six months ago he was still attending meetings of the Alumni Chapter of P.E.K. Bill was also a founding member of the Western College Physical Education Society, which was organized in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1955.

Bill's pleasant smile, soft-spoken voice and mild manners will be sorely missed by his friends, colleagues, and students. In a quiet, unassuming way he left a legacy of devotion, friendliness and loyalty to the students that he taught and coached. All who know him will miss him. Bill was also an avid hunter and fisherman who loved to be outdoors in the cool crisp mornings of eastern Oregon fixing breakfast before the hunt. His companions on these outings will always remember his wry wit and lively conversations. Upon retirement Bill was granted the title of Professor Emeritus in physical education on the 31st of January 1980. Survivors include his wife, two sons and one daughter all of whom he loved dearly.


 
Respectively submitted,
John W. Borchardt
Associate Professor Emeritus, Physical Education