The diversity action plan, the revised student conduct code and policies regarding externally funded research on campus, such as military research, top the University Senate’s agenda this academic year.
The University Senate is a body of faculty and staff representatives from all University academic departments and other areas of campus that meets monthly. It held its first meeting of the academic year Wednesday afternoon.
A major topic of discussion this academic year is the diversity plan, University Senate President and associate professor of architecture Peter Keyes said. The diversity plan, released by the University in May, is undergoing review and revision by the Diversity Executive Working Group, which is composed of faculty and staff members. A revised plan should be released “in the near future” and will be subject to wider discussion by the University community, Keyes said.
“This is really going to be a draft again,” Keyes said.
When the original draft was released it “instantly became a source of a lot of controversy both on campus and off campus,” Keyes said.
The draft called for diversity training workshops for faculty members and suggested promotions be based on “cultural competency,” causing many professors to write to University President Dave Frohnmayer, denouncing the plan as “Orwellian” and “frightening.”
A University Senate ad hoc committee reviewed the plan in May and discussed possibilities for changes in the way the plan is put together. The committee will be involved in the review of the new draft as it comes closer to fruition, Keyes said.
Keyes emphasized the need to focus on the principles behind the diversity plan rather than just the details.
Another topic on the Senate’s plate is the Student Conduct Code. The conduct code has been in a “slow but steady” revision process for about 10 years and is nearing completion, Keyes said. Final revisions should be presented to the Senate in January.
In the past, Senators had been given copies of revised policies at the beginning of a meeting, “then you’re supposed to look it over quickly and have an intelligent conversation and vote on it in 20 minutes, and it just didn’t work,” Keyes said.
But a vote on the new conduct code will not take place until March, Keyes said, giving Senators plenty of time to review it and form educated opinions.
Military research has sparked debate on campus and a Senate ad hoc committee will form to examine the issue and seek out major concerns, Keyes said.
University Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies Rich Linton has already expressed his support for such a committee, Keyes said.
Senate Vice President and finance instructor Jeanne Wagenknecht briefed Senators on the Oregon University System’s new policy regarding sexual harassment, saying “we’re ready to sort of put this issue to bed, for lack of a better metaphor.” The policy mandates that, among other things, faculty members who are in romantic relationships with students they supervise must report the relationship immediately; arrangements can then be made to remove the student from their supervision.
University Senior Vice President and Provost John Moseley briefed the Senate and said the funding crisis that has plagued Oregon universities is showing signs of letting up.
“We’ve been in a budget hole and the state’s been digging the hole deeper and deeper,” Moseley said. But the state has “stopped digging” and may be putting some dirt back into the hole, he said.

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