A new vice president of the faculty senate was nominated and approved during the faculty Senate meeting on Wednesday, March 12.
Robert Kyr, a professor of composition and theory in the music school, was chosen from three nominees this afternoon. His election comes 10 months after the usual point, every May, in which the positions of president and vice president are typically approved.
Kyr has served as the president of the senate twice before. In front of a half-filled Lawrence 115, Kyr told the senate that in light of fast-approaching changes to the university in the form of the Board of Trustees and further separation from the Oregon University System, his leadership will help steer the senate in another run.
“We’re really at a crossroads at the university,” Kyr said. “In transition and a period of transformation and I would hope that I could provide the kind of leadership that would help us move through that into a new period of very positive and constructive action that we need.”
Other nominations came down to Christopher Phillips, of the math department, and Randy Sullivan, chemistry. Phillips’s nomination was stricken from votes by the committee and a secret ballot was formed to preserve relationships among faculty peers. Professor Sullivan used his statement to recommend Kyr for this cycle of elections in order to elect Sullivan for vice president in May, under Kyr as president.
“We start acting out of fear. We have to have trust for each other. We have the way of making it happen, when actually none of our constituencies can make it happen without the others,” Sullivan said. “Having said that, I think the best way forward for this body right now is to, in this election, elect Rob Kyr. And then elect me in May.”
Kyr was then elected by the majority via votes written on index cards.
The next faculty senate meeting will be on April 12.