To:  University of Oregon Senate

Meeting of:  March 12, 2003

 

 

Senators:

 

         I am here on behalf of the many faculty members who think that every civil institution, including the UO, needs to speak out against the madness that is driving our country to a war of aggression. 

 

In December, you decided not to consider resolutions against the war in Iraq.  Many of you supported that position by stating that you were unaware of the views of your constituents on such a matter.

 

In response to that position, and in keeping with the UO Senate Charter, 548 faculty members signed a petition calling for an Assembly Meeting to debate and vote on a resolution against the Iraq War.

 

The outcome of that meeting was a clear, if unofficial, outcry against the war.  In other ways as well, Senators have had the opportunity to become aware of the views of the faculty.  In addition, those Senators who, in December, felt unsure of their own views regarding the war have had further opportunities to think about the implications of the war for the future of America and, inevitably, for the University of Oregon. 

 

Background:

 

The legislative power of the Assembly, meeting upon petition of 33% of the Voting Faculty, was written into the Senate Charter in 1995. It was envisioned by the Assembly as a democratic recourse for rectification of Senate mistakes.  The quorum requirement set by the Oregon Public Meetings Law in 1974, combined with the stringent signature requirement, ensured that hard-won Senate actions would not be capriciously undone.

 

For most of the period when the Assembly was the governing body of the University, classes were prohibited on Wednesday from 4-6 pm, enabling all faculty to participate in Assembly meetings.  In more recent years, however, the Assembly had to ignore the quorum requirement in order to operate at all. This problem was related to a strike-breaking manoeuvre, in which hundreds of classified staff were re-defined as "Officers of Administration", thus becoming faculty members.  As a result, the fraction of the membership in attendance fell off -- most of these new Officers did not feel free to take leave from their duties as "office managers", "technicians", "radio sports broadcasters", etc.  Also, the prohibition on Wednesday afternoon classes fell by the wayside, possibly as a consequence of a shortage of University classrooms.

 

Even though the Assembly has taken numerous actions in the absence of a quorum in the past, including the 1995 adoption of the present University Senate Charter, the petitioners were made to understand that Assembly action on an anti-Iraq War resolution could occur only if a quorum of approximately 1050 Assembly Members convened.  (Later, two days before the Meeting, President Frohnmayer informed the petitioners that even a majority vote of a quorum would not pass the resolution -- the "aye" vote required would be an absolute majority of the Assembly Membership.)

 

Thus, it was clear from past experience that this Assembly would need the leadership of its president (Dave Frohnmayer) to carry out its mandated responsibilities to debate and vote on the issue that was passed to them by Senate inaction.  President Frohnmayer failed the Assembly in all respects: he failed to cancel classes and close offices, he failed to make an Audix call encouraging attendance, and he set the meeting for a Friday, when Members who had made prior travel plans would be unlikely to attend.  Under such circumstances a quorum was impossible.

 

In the meanwhile, our Federal Government has proceeded with its plans for invasion, appearing to ignore the widespread opposition from governments and peoples throughout the world. 

 

So, I address you today.  Should the Senate decide, on its own initiative, to revisit an anti-Iraq War resolution, its constituents, who have fully demonstrated their position on the question of this War and on the importance of an institutional stance against it, would be deeply grateful.

 

A petition signed by 383 members of the Voting Faculty specifically urges you to take that stance.

 

Respectfully,

 

 

 

Franklin W. Stahl

Emeritus Professor of Biology