Sponsored by Julie Novkov, political science University Senate meeting January 15, 2003 Passed (hand vote 22 in favor, 7 opposed)
Moved that: Pursuant to the authority vested in the Senate by the Senate Enabling Legislation, paragraph 6, section 3, the University Senate hereby calls for the convention of the University Assembly. The Senate hereby directs the Assembly to discuss the impending threat of military action in Iraq. The Assembly shall meet as soon as it can reasonably be convened, but not before January 21, 2003 or after February 15, 2003.
Financial impact: NONE
Justification: At the December senate meeting, we discussed a resolution sponsored by Professor Frank Stahl against the war in Iraq. The senate concluded that debating such a resolution was beyond the scope of its authority under the charter. Many senators expressed concern about representing the political views of their colleagues and about voting as an institution to take a position on an issue that does not have its primary, direct impact on the campus of the University of Oregon.
Several senators nonetheless indicated that they believed this issue to be significant and worth consideration by the university community as a whole. This motion seeks to open an appropriate venue for such a discussion. A discussion of the war in Iraq in a full university assembly meeting has the advantage of allowing all interested faculty members to represent their own, and only their own interests and viewpoints. A formal assembly meeting would be more significant as an institutional event than the upcoming forum to be sponsored by the University Senate.
As a point of clarification, an assembly meeting convened through this procedure would not result in the convention of an assembly empowered to exercise any legislative authority. No formal resolution could come from such a meeting without resorting to the procedure detailed in the Senate charter section six, paragraph six. An assembly convened by the Senate could nonetheless choose to take any individual or group-based actions that the participants found to be appropriate, including the drafting of a letter of protest by members of the university community.
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