Excused: V. Cartwright, J. Earl, W.A. Marcus, M. Partch, M. Russo, E. Singer*, C. Sundt, F. Tepfer, J. Wasko, M. Wilson, M. Woollacott

Absent: L. Alpert, K. Aoki, B. Blonigen, R. Graff, M. Myagkov, M. Ravassipour, C. Smith*

CALL TO ORDER

Senate President Greg McLauchlan called the regular meeting of the University Senate to order at 3:10 p.m. in room 240C McKenzie.

APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES

Minutes of the March 12, 2003 meeting were approved as distributed.

STATE OF THE UNIVERSITY

Update on PEBB and PERS Benefits Situation. Ms. Helen Stoop, human resources benefits administrator, reported on the recent meeting of the Public Employee Benefit Board (PEBB). State meetings were held in January and renewel rates were negotiated for benefits year 2004. Considerations included: (a) the cost of medical and dental benefits remaining at status quo; (b) the cost of a midpoint of the status quo option, that is, if cost is 10% more for the same benefits, recommendations and plan changes for 1/2 benefit increase; and (c) 0% increase, that is, change the medical and dental benefits to retain the current premiums. Insurance carriers are submitting plan changes for review. Mylia Wray, PEBB representative, will present the possibilities to the UO Senate at the May meeting and feedback will be submitted to the PEBB Board for discussion. Preliminary premiums for the year 2004 should be known by June 2003.

Switching her comments to issues surrounding the Public Employee Retirement System (PERS), Ms. Stoop noted that there are several bills to re-vamp PERS currently under consideration in the legislature (see the PERS website at http://www.pers.state.or.us/ for text of the various bills). She indicated that to become law, these bills must pass in the House, the State Senate, be signed by the Governor, and likely go through the Oregon Supreme Court to verify their legality. She added that the legislature can overrule the PERS Board and the courts can overrule the legislature. The OUS Governmental Relations office tracks a bill's progress and the Chancellor's Office monitors and provides testimony throughout the process. The UO's Office of Governmental Affairs promotes and protects the legislative issues as they specifically affect the UO. Bill 2001A was signed into law in February 2003, meaning that Tier 1 PERS members hired before 1996 will not have earnings credited to their accounts in excess of the assumed earnings rate of 8%. Once the system's deficit is eliminated and the reserve account has been replenished for a three-year period, earnings in excess of the 8% assumed rate might be reconsidered. Other PERS bills are being expedited for the Supreme Court to determine legality for implementation in 2003. Bill 2005A reduces membership on the PERS Board from 12 to 5 members, allows the Governor to appoint the chair, and requires three Board members to have experience in business management, pension management, and investing. Having been passed by the Senate General Government Committee, bill 2005A is waiting approval from the full Senate.

Another bill passed by the House and awaiting Senate approval implements new mortality tables. These tables include the actuarial factors used to calculate retirement benefits for Tier 1 and Tier 2 employees. If passed, the new tables will be effective July 1, 2003 and will include a "look back" without interest applied to all payment options. This means new actuarial criteria will be applied to an employee's account balance at the date of retirement and the result compared using the June 30, 2003 balance with a benefit calculated from the old factors. The highest benefit will be paid to the retiree. Over time, the look back will no longer be the higher benefit amount. This bill eliminates the need for employees to retire as of June 30, 2003 to avoid a reduced retirement benefit, although continuing to work without an increased benefit is the cause of controversy over the look back feature. Because employees are living an average of 4 years longer than indicated in the older actuarial tables, this bill requires the PERS Board to update the tables every two years beginning January 1, 2005 so money in the retirement fund will cover the longer life spans. The House PERS Committee is reviewing a successor plan for employees hired after July 2003.

During a brief question and answer period, Ms. Stoop fielded questions regarding how and if interest might accumulate in members' accounts, and whether PEBB will continue to issue reports of amounts in members' accounts. Ms. Stoop indicated that the yearly account balance statement would be sent out again this year around May 1st, but would likely not include projected retirement amount calculations since so much of the pertinent information is still under legislative scrutiny and undecided at this point.

UO Lobby Day in Salem. Interinstitutional Faculty Senate (IFS) Representative Peter Gilkey reported that the IFS met recently with a number of legislators in Salem to discuss the current budget crisis facing the state, in general, and higher education in particular. State Senator Decker explained the budget cuts are so severe there is not enough support from either side of the aisle to pass the budget or revenue enhancements at this point. The May 15, 2003 revenue forecast numbers will be used to determine a new budget. Each OUS university was asked to submit budget scenarios reflecting 2% to 10% greater cuts than the current Governor's budget, which is anticipated to require an additional 4% in cuts. OUS fears that a possible 10% increase in budget cuts could result in the loss of 12,000 students across the system and a projected loss of 43.2 million in tuition dollars. The legislature intends to finish the higher education hearings and postpone the budget action until May 2003, although the Projected Bonding Authority and the Higher Education Efficiency Act continue to progress through the system. Senate President McLauchlan, Vice President Lowell Bowditch, and UO senators Stephanie Midkiff, library, and Julie Novkov, political science, met with six members of the State Senate and House to discuss the Higher Education Efficiency Act. This act would give the UO greater autonomy from the state in terms of policies, planning, budgeting, tuition setting, and bonding. Autonomy in the area of tuition can translate into greater support for middle and lower class students. There are many potential equity benefits to having greater autonomy. Support for the act is positive, and other than minor adjustments, no major obstacles are anticipated.

Update from Provost Moseley. The provost remarked briefly that legislative Bill 437, concerning the New Partnership with Oregon, has passed out of committee, and if not "over amended", will be a great gain for the university. However, it will be a real struggle to keep the bill "as is" without the Department of Administrative Services as well as other elements making substantive changes in it. The concern is to maintain enough of the bill to accomplish what was originally intended. Provost Moseley addressed the tuition issue and corrected the increase percentage to 19% to 20% as opposed to what had been reported as an 24% to 25% tuition increase at the UO. The original figure did not take into account the discounted class options offered at the UO.

PANEL DISCUSSION: Diversity at the University of Oregon ­ How are we doing?

President McLauchlan introduced Provost John Moseley, Penny Daugherty, Director of Affirmative Action, Carla Gary, Director of Multicultural Affairs, and Professor Jayna Brown, English and Ethnic Studies, as panel members for a discussion on diversity progress at the UO. Provost Moseley began by highlighting initiatives in the area of diversity the campus has undertaken.

• The Center on Diversity and Community (CODAC) was established in 2001. There is good leadership and it looks optimistic for accomplishing its goals, although funding issues are being addressed.
• The Center for Indigenous Cultural Survival was established in 2001.
• A search is underway for a new position, Vice Provost for Institutional Equity and Diversity.
• The President's Council on Race was formed to assist President Frohnmayer in setting up his administration and is an ongoing council.
• The Minority Faculty Recruitment Program was designed and implemented by the President's Council on Race.
• The Ethnic Studies Program was formed.
• Implementation of initiatives and recommendations stemming from student work groups and the report of consultant Elson Floyd, president of the University of Missouri.
• A campus climate assessment was conducted by Dr. Susan Rankin, Pennsylvania State University, with follow-up analysis and recommendations.
• The Bias Response Team was established.
• Information was obtained from the Community Value Statement and other, smaller scale implementations are in effect.

Director of Affirmative Action Penny Daugherty said the OUS Diversity Report (to which the provost referred earlier) shows some progress at the UO. In 10 years, the representation of Asian/Pacific Americans at the UO has increased from 3.1% to 5.5% and Hispanic/Latino from 2.2% to 3.3%. There has been a modest gain for Native American Indians and a decrease in African Americans from 1.1% to .9%. Ms. Daugherty went on to note that the goals of the Affirmative Action Office are largely concerned with employment so that representation in the various university employment groups reflect at least the same degree of diversity as is available in the national or regional employment groups from which we recruit new employees. For example, in the 11 different tenure track faculty job groups at the UO, the most current figures available show women are underutilized in 6 groups and people of color in 5 of those groups; in the 11 fixed-term faculty job groups, women are underutilization in 2 groups and people of color in 3. Ms. Daugherty said that diverse representation is improving at the UO although it is far from where it should be.

Ms. Daugherty emphasized the necessity of faculty and administrative commitment to diversity to increase minority representation on campus. She remarked that commitment must start with outreach and recruitment, and suggested that faculty must begin building bridges to attract minority faculty members before a search begins. Outreach efforts should be aggressive and creative, involving print media, electronic media, scholarly and professional organizations, and women's and minority interest groups or caucuses. A search procedure must involve critical thinking regarding the way excellence is defined and whether it inadvertently eliminates qualified applicants without strong backgrounds but with strong scholarship. Existing search paradigms must be reconsidered and selection criteria must be redefined. All new hires, particularly women and persons of color, should be assisted as much as possible with personal transition into the university. Pairing up new hires with established faculty and campus resources will assist in avoiding issues that may interfere with the transition process and that can help establish strong bonds with the university.

Professor Jayna Brown, ethnic studies and English, addressed concerns regarding implementation of affirmative action objectives. Having been with the university for three years, Professor Brown participated in many searches and found the processing for affirmative action is not being implemented as intended, and there is much resistance to change. In response, the Faculty and Staff of Color Coalition was formed and is in the process of creating a mission statement.

Ms. Brown reiterated her isolated feeling in being the only African American tenure track employee at most meetings, and emphasized it is not an encouraging factor in promoting diverse faculty to remain at the UO. She suggested cluster hiring to bringing on board a diverse collegial group of people that can interact and create a congenial environment. When asked about the coalition in relationship to CODAC, Ms. Brown reiterated that the coalition's efforts are toward faculty retention, recruitment, and curriculum reform, and is not meant to supplant any other group. Consideration must be made at the department level as to what the priority is in who is hired. Ms. Brown also noted that there are some attitude problems at the UO that discourage diversity. She suggested, too, that strategies for hires have to happen at all levels, junior through senior positions.

Ms. Carla Gary, multicultural affairs, said being one of the few faculty members of color is a tremendous responsibility. The investment in diversity must come from all faculty members; the issue of recruitment, hiring and retention of faculty is everyone's problem. Traditions and "chilly" work environments must be examined on a departmental level where the people in the departments focus on how to make needed changes. Minority candidates make decisions about where they want to work based what they want to do and who is there doing things that are important to them. Faculty have a hand in engaging people by helping form the climate of their department. Ms. Gary also remarked that treating people the same is not treating them fairly because one cannot look for the same things in different people. She suggested that it is incumbent upon faculty to look at themselves and make connections with professional associations and former classmates that are teaching all over the country and to engage them in attracting prospective PhDs. Sabbaticals and leaves of absence also are opportunities to bring people of color in to get to know the campus and the community.

During a discussion period, a question was asked if sexual orientation was part of the process for increasing campus diversity. Ms. Daugherty commented that diversity, including sexual orientation, is a larger issue than "typical" affirmative action issues. She noted that from an affirmative action perspective, the five federally protected groups are women, Blacks, Hispanics, Native Americans, and Asians. Increasing the population of these group members is a goal of the university. Ms. Brown agreed that there is a need to increase the number of people of color so they will have more options in their interactions with others. Mr. Garcia, ethnic studies, questioned the statistics cited by Provost Moseley earlier indicating that progress had been made during the past decade to increase faculty diversity. Provost Moseley explained that different minority identification categories on different censuses came about as people requested alternative ways to identify themselves. The multiracial category, for example, does not exist on many questionnaires. He indicated that in 1992 the UO had 589 tenure track faculty members who identified themselves as white, non-Hispanic, and in 2002 the number was 564. Overall, the tenure related faculty grew from 645 to 691 members during the same time period, indicating a net growth in the minority categories. Acknowledging the figures are not yet where they should be, the provost pointed out that the Minority Faculty Recruitment Program is working, and the number of minority faculty has doubled on campus since the inception of the program. Nevertheless, Mr. Garcia expressed frustration at the slow progression of change, suggesting that inadequate positive changed is used to camouflage the need for additional change. Provost Moseley reiterated his commitment to the diversity issues and agreed to look again at the statistics and check for any duplication. The debate on census accuracy of minority faculty members was unresolved, but the discussion concluded with a desire for more visible diversity on campus..

OPEN FORUM AND ANNOUNCEMENTS FROM THE FLOOR

The secretary reminded everyone that the nomination process for election to university level committees and the senate was underway, but was lacking in candidates for a number of open positions. Information regarding which positions need candidates and the eligibility requirements can be found on the senate's web page via the nominations link.

President McLauchlan announced that 22 senate members requested the Iraq resolution be readdressed by the senate. However, such a request must come from a majority of the senate, which would require 24 members making the request. Hence, the issue was not put on the agenda.

NEW BUSINESS

Distinguished Service Award Committee Report. The senate went into Executive Session from 4:55 p.m. to 5:10 for action on this report.

ADJOURNMENT

With the lateness of the hour and business concluded, President McLauchlan adjourned the meeting at 5:10 p.m.

Gwen Steigelman Secretary