6/13/2014 update: Senate President Kyr has posted the written version of his remarks to the board on the role of the Senate, faculty and staff service in shared governance, and the Delegation of Authority policy here. The main substantive issue the Senate has with the delegation of authority policy, as submitted by the administration and passed by the board, is that it gives President Gottfredson control over Senate committees. The disputed language is this:
3.4 Committees, Councils and Advisory Groups. The President of the University shall establish and
define the charge of any and all University committees, councils, and advisory groups, except as provided in Board action.
This is a serious challenge to faculty authority, at odds with AAUP recommendations, and will have to be revisited soon.
I will post the report from Dash Paulson on the day 2 of the Trustees meeting later today.
6/12/2014: [UO Matters: Because of the importance of this meeting to the UO community, I hired freelance reporter Dash Paulson to report on it. Mr. Paulson had written several excellent stories as an Emerald reporter, including the first substantive interview with President Gottfredson, in January 2013, here. His summary is below, followed by a detailed report on what happened at the meeting. As usual, things in quotes are quotes, otherwise it’s the gist of the conversation. I have edited Mr. Paulson’s report a little, but have not made any substantive changes. Dash will have another report from day two. The Trustees web page is here, bios here. Diane Dietz has a report in the RG here, and UO’s “Around the O” blog has the official slanted PR flack report online, if you care enough to search for it.]
Report on June 12 session:
Dash Paulson here, providing you a report on today’s meeting of the board of Trustees. Professor Bill Harbaugh asked me if I would be willing to do this job earlier in the week because he had to fly to a convention. I had to think about it. When I enrolled at UO, Richard Lariviere had just taken over as President. His firing two years later devastated his supporters, but for some people like me it opened a window into how this University actually works because I read UO Matters to see what the hell was going on. The blog was irreverent. It was interesting. It was biting and often unforgiving. I’ve grown to disagree with some of Bill’s intimations, but there’s no one else writing about this interior world with the same veracity and dedication as him.
UO Matters has mattered a lot in the affairs of this University over the last 6 years, and I think I can say Bill’s independence remains unquestioned. For those reasons I’m actually pretty stoked to be the first student contributor to this blog.
Report:
The Trustees today were engaged and eager to learn. Ann Curry is particularly vocal and has asked more questions than the rest of the Trustees combined. Chuck Lillis and Allyn Ford seem very conformable; the general feeling is that everyone is trying to learn quickly; everyone seems intent of being good at their new role. President Mike Gottfredson has repeatedly emphasized the board’s new authority and power and Randy Geller has told them they’re responsible for pretty much everything now. Chuck Lillis is a gracious and humorous chair for the board, but prepared to forge ahead with the business of the board. All committee proposals and policies were adopted, mostly unanimously.
One matter of concern was over the recent GTF strike vote. Three grad students spoke during the public comment section. The Trustees were not pleased they weren’t given forewarning of the potential for a strike. The Trustees in general seemed sympathetic to the GTFs and some of them stressed they want to be kept in the loop about GTFF issues and other labor bargaining.
Senate President Kyr spoke about the controversial Delegation of Authority Policy. In March the Trustees agreed, on urging of Kyr and John Bonine (Law), to get input from the faculty and the Senate before adopting this policy. The Senate committee made substantial changes. The administration accepted some of those, and rejected others, before sending a revised proposal to the Board for consideration. Today Kyr showed the remaining differences between the two documents, and asked the board to consider accepting more of the Senate’s language, and to set up a working group with the Senate to work out language regarding Senate control over its own committees and Board participation in labor negotiations.
The latter concern inspired an amendment, which was originally proposed by Kurt Wilcox, voted down, and then Dotters-Katz proposed different language which was adopted:
“Upon request by the chair of the board or a majority of the trustees the president will provide the board with requested information regarding personnel and employment matters, including labor relations and approval of collective bargaining agreements.”
With that language in place, and despite senate president Robert Kyr asking them to delay a vote, the board adopted the policy with the encouragement of Chuck Lillis and President Gottfredson who explained they could go back and change it anytime.
Call to Order (Chair) 8:35 a.m. the board has been called to order
Roll Call (General Counsel): Everyone is present except Professor Susan Gary
Chair Comments, Discussion of Meeting Agenda (Chair)
Chuck Lillis asks that everyone be ready to make swift progress this morning, “We also have the budget for 2015 and it requires action”