The University Assembly meets today at 3 p.m. in the three-court basketball area of the Student Recreation Center to decide whether it will condemn the fast-approaching war in Iraq. Whatever the decision, the event marks the culmination of three months worth of meetings where faculty members and officers of administration have discussed the proper place for a University statement on the war — or if there’s even a forum for one.
Supporters of the anti-war resolution have a huge hurdle to overcome: Getting people to show up. The 2,000 member assembly is such a giant body, it actually disbanded itself in 1995 in favor of a smaller governing group, the University Faculty Senate. It took more than 500 assembly signatures just to merit today’s special session, and a quorum of at least half the assembly plus one — a count of more than 1,050 members — must make an appearance for voting to take place.
University President Dave Frohnmayer will preside at today’s meeting, and his first action will probably be to take a head count. While Frohnmayer was not available for comment, he has consistently said that the University is not the proper place to take a stance on war. But Frohnmayer may find his leadership discredited should the assembly vote to support the anti-war resolution, like it did in 1970 when it voted to oppose the Vietnam War.
Bo Adan, faculty researcher in the College of Education and an original organizer of Concerned Faculty for Peace and Justice when the group was reconstituted in 1990, said he believes the assembly supports the resolution against war — the challenge will be getting the quorum of eligible voters.
“If we have a quorum, we believe we have a good chance of passing the resolution,” he said. “The reason that we know a quorum is going to be called is the calling of a quorum is an attempt to undermine our efforts at this time.”
Campus members of Students for Peace also plan to attend the meeting and lend their support with a petition signed by more than 5,000 to 6,000 University students. Students for Peace member Beth Ayres said if the assembly votes in favor of the resolution, it will send a message to other universities, creating a domino effect.
“A university does have clout on something like this,” she said. “If we can get every university in the country to pass this, it’s heard.”
But not every assembly member supports the resolution. Linguistics and cognitive science Professor Emeritus Tom Givón said while he personally would join anti-war marchers on the street, “hiding behind mama’s skirt” — meaning the University — is a cowardly and dishonest way to voice a political opinion.
“I’m sick and tired of seeing the University politicized, the faculty politicized and the curriculum swayed by political opinion.”
Givón said every time faculty members make political statements, they are “biting the hand that feeds them” and isolating themselves from the community they pretend to represent. He added that just because Oregon State University’s Faculty Senate passed an anti-war resolution in December is not a good enough reason for the University to do the same.
“The fact that someone else jumped off a cliff is not a very good precedent for us jumping off the same cliff,” he said.