May 8, 2002
To: UO Senate
From: Senate Ad Hoc Committee on Responses to September 11
Re: Report on Committee Activities
A. The
Committeeís Charge
The
Committee was charged with coordinating and facilitating the University's
responses in the form of campus events to help University members and the
greater Eugene Springfield community during a period of national/international
crisis. The Committee's brief included:
1.
Serving as a coordinating group for campus activities regarding
the crisis;
2.
Facilitating the activities/events of campus groups involved in
responding to the crisis;
3.
Working with various campus administrative units to provide
support for students and staff and sponsoring events/workshops/forums etc that
provide educational and/or emotional support for the campus and
Eugene-Springfield communities; and,
4.
Providing support and assistance when appropriate to community
organizations responding to this crisis.
B. Membership
At
the direction of the Senate President the Committee was composed of instructional
faculty, students, and campus administrators. In addition to members from Student Services and the Office
of Student Life, the Director of the Department of Public Safety was also a
member. At-large students were
joined on the Committee by representatives of the Muslim Students Association,
the International Students Association, and the President of the ASUO. In order to reflect the inclusive
nature and mandate of the Committee, all notices issued under its name carried
the following statement:
The University Senate Ad Hoc
Committee serves to coordinate and facilitate informed discussion, from a
variety of perspectives, on the events of September 11th and their
aftermath. The Committee does not take positions on issues of policy,
politics, or ideology. To ensure its neutrality, the Committee will
provide clear identification of the specific sponsorship of campus activities
by the groups that carry them out. In all cases, the content of remarks and
materials relating to these issues are the responsibility of their sponsors,
and do not reflect an official position of the Ad Hoc Committee or the
University of Oregon.
C. Activities
The effort of the Committee
was channeled into two primary tasks.
First, to serve as an information coordinating body for campus-related
activities related to September 11 in order to facilitate and publicize the
activities of other groups and units.
To this end, a web page was created (http://www.uoregon.edu/~sept11/membership.shtml)
with a calendar and information on various events (http://www.uoregon.edu/~sept11/calendar/),
texts of published material written by UO faculty members, (http://www.uoregon.edu/
~sept11/oped/), and a listing of other campus resources such as the
counseling center (http://www.uoregon.edu/~sept11/resources/). Second, in the Winter term the
Committee coordinated a weekly seminar series presented by academic units in
CAS and the professional schools, and throughout the year provided funding for
off-campus speakers hosted by campus sponsors (see appended budget).
Beginning with the teach-in
organized by the Concerned Faculty for Peace and Justice, through the weekly
seminar hosted by the Political Science Department, and the Ad Hoc Committeeís
own series, the Committee has joined with over 2,000 participants in learning
about and discussing the events of September 11. In October the Committee also circulated, under the
signature of the Senate President, a request that the Universityís declaration
on classroom conduct be read in every course offered at the UO. In the intervening period there have
been more than thirty opportunities for students, faculty, and community
members to study the September 11 events and their broader contexts. Furthermore, in that period, faculty
members have formally participated in community events more than fifty times,
ranging from teaching activities in 4J schools to local civic groups, and
appearances in different mass-media forms and markets. In this regard, the Committee has
supported the leadership role offered by the UO in providing information,
analysis, and a meeting place for discussion of these critical events.
D. Financial Accounting
The administration provided
the committee with $5,000 to fund its activities. As of May 1, 2002, the committee has expended $4,300 on
activities associated with its mandate.
Funds were routed through the Office of the Associate VP for Student
Affairs, and spent on staff support, advertising, facilities and services fees,
and honoraria for outside speakers at co-sponsored campus events.
Submitted by David Frank and
Shaul Cohen on behalf of the Committee: