Fall term was busy for the university senate: it began reforms of sexist and racist course evaluations. It launched efficient transfer agreements between community colleges and universities in Oregon. And it voted to support the UO Student Collective following their protest of President Schill.
This term it has even more to do.
This term the senate will be voting on changing the general education requirements, welcoming accomplished faculty with the help of expedited tenure and reducing white supremacy on campus.
Changes in general education requirements
The senate will be voting on a new general education curriculum, or CORE education curriculum, that aims to streamline the first year of study at UO by offering major-specific tracks of study for incoming students.
The senate will introduce the issue at the senate meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 17 and vote on it later in the term.
It will vote on creating legislation to support the issue in the coming weeks, starting what will be a very long process of planning and organizing a successful, new system, senate president Chris Sinclair said.
The university’s accreditors requested for the university to redesign their general education requirements to be more in line with the university mission.
“What the accreditors want is alignment between what we are offering and assessing with the university mission,” Sinclair said.
The CORE education program will streamline the first year of study at the university by offering major specific tracks of study.
For example, if a student came to the university and wanted to major in business, they would take the business-specific track of study. There, they would take all prerequisites for business classes in conjunction with their general education requirements.
If a student was undeclared, they would take a more broad track of study to expose them to more potential majors while still completing their general education requirements.
Establishing expedited tenure for incoming faculty
The senate will vote on the new expidited tenure process  this Wednesday.
Incoming faculty at the university are not guaranteed tenure. The process of granting it to new faculty is long and requires the incoming professors to commit to Oregon without the promise of tenure for six months or often longer, according to Sinclair.
President Schill has the executive power to grant tenure to any faculty member; however, according to Sinclair, the university does not want to abuse or rely on this power.
The new process, proposed to the senate by Boris Botvinnik, a math professor and faculty personnel committee representative, is much shorter and will guarantee tenure to new faculty much sooner.
The new process is aimed to attract acclaimed faculty to the school, according to Sinclair.
Provost Banavar brought up the issue to Sinclair at the beginning of the academic year, and the senate created the task force to address the issue.
Discussion and voting on the second resolution from the Student Collective
The senate will discuss the second resolution from the Student Collective this Wednesday and is scheduled to vote on it later in the term.
The second resolution aims to reduce the prevalence of white supremacy on campus in order to make the university more inclusive.
At the last senate meeting on Nov. 29, the student collective offered their resolution to the senate, asking for support as they faced their student conduct violations and to denounce white supremacy on campus.
The resolution was split into two parts following a motion by senator Keith Frazee. The first outlines the student conduct violations and the second reduces white supremacy on campus.
“I perceived two very important concerns within the previous motion. Both are very important issues, but I felt they each warranted their own full and robust discussion,” Frazee said.
The senate passed the first part of the resolution last November and is bringing forth a new amended part two of the resolution this Wednesday.