The University Assembly will convene sometime between Jan. 21 and Feb. 15 to discuss issues surrounding the war in Iraq, the University Faculty Senate decided Wednesday.
The senate, meeting for the first time in 2003, voted 22-7 to pass a motion introduced by senator and political science Professor Julie Novkov that will convene the Assembly. The motion, which was met with lively debate on the senate floor before its eventual passage, commissions the 2,088 member group of faculty members, administration officials and a handful of students to talk about the war in Iraq.
Under the senate’s charter, the Assembly will not have any legislative power or authority to speak for the University. General senate consensus is that if the body forms a resolution concerning the war in Iraq, it will be a non-binding resolution held by the individuals who sign such a position statement. University President Dave Frohnmayer will serve as chairman for the meeting, and might try to stop the Assembly from forming a resolution even though it’s non-binding.
However, biology Professor Emeritus Frank Stahl is working concurrently to call a session of the Assembly with full legislative power. Any decision the group made in such a meeting would represent the official voice of the University and might carry legal weight as well. But for such a session to take place, Stahl would need to collect 508 signatures from Assembly members who vote for non-student senators, and if he succeeded in that, at least 1,070 Assembly members would need to come to the meeting to make any binding decision under Oregon law.
Senators decided Wednesday that if Stahl was able to collect the necessary signatures, the two separate Assembly meetings — Stahl’s and Novkov’s — would probably be rolled together into one Assembly session with full legislative power.
In other senate business, Frohnmayer addressed the group and spoke briefly about the current direction of the University. Senior Vice President and Provost John Moseley spoke about the steady enrollment increases and higher academic standards for incoming freshmen, ASUO President Rachel Pilliod urged the senate members to educate their peers and students about the Jan. 28 special election and Advocacy Director Tim Black from the Office of Governmental Affairs gave senators an overview of the 2003-04 Oregon legislative session.
— Brook Reinhard
For additional stories relating to the University Assembly, follow this link to Oregon Daily Emerald StoryLinks.