As the U.S. government marches ever closer toward war in Iraq, University faculty members have steadily gained momentum in their efforts to open a campuswide dialogue on the Middle East. The University Assembly convenes at 3 p.m. today in 180 PLC for an unusual “town-hall” style meeting to discuss the University’s response to a potential war in Iraq.
It’s still unclear what exactly will happen at this special assembly session. The assembly, which is composed of more than 2,000 members, was disbanded in the mid 1990s in favor of a smaller legislative body, the University Faculty Senate. But after a failed attempt to condemn U.S. war efforts in Iraq at a December senate meeting, the group voted in January to call a non-binding meeting of the assembly.
Today’s meeting will take place under the watchful eye of University President Dave Frohnmayer, who has the power to control the course of the meeting as assembly president. The authority is especially significant because the president has consistently maintained that the University should not take a stance on the war in Iraq.
“Each of us has multiple opinions, both within the campus community and elsewhere, to express our views strongly and immediately on the issues at hand,” Frohnmayer said in a Dec. 1 letter to senators. “I object only to the attempt of anyone for any view on such matters to claim that he or she speaks formally in the name of the University or its governing entities.”
Regardless of Frohnmayer’s views, assembly members such as Professor Emeritus Frank Stahl and Professor Julie Novkov have been leading a drive to condemn the war.
Stahl, who introduced the failed December legislation to the senate, has been working with the group Concerned Faculty for Peace and Justice to collect 508 faculty signatures in order to convene an official legislative session of the assembly. Such a meeting would allow the group to speak as the official voice of the University, overruling any other action by the senate or even the president himself.
“If educated people at places like this University don’t speak loud enough, there is no hope for this country,” Stahl said.
Concerned Faculty for Peace and Justice members plan to present a petition, signed by more than 400 faculty members and administrators, condemning the war in Iraq. The group tailored their statement after an identical petition approved by Oregon State University’s Faculty Senate in December.
Spokesman and Professor Daniel Pope said he hopes the effort, and a similar one led by Students for Peace with more than 1,500 signatures attached, should give assembly members something to discuss today.
“We think that these petitions make it clear that a large number of faculty feel very strongly about the issue,” he said. “We believe this is a critical issue on which the University needs to speak out.”
Overflow seating for today’s meeting will be provided in 150 Columbia. Assembly members will have priority in speaking during the session, and a speaker’s signup sheet will be available at 3 p.m. for community members if time allows.