Articles by newsletter

No major walkouts or other shenanigans. In other words, we actually got down to business. With a healthy budget to lean on, UAUO (myself and President Chris Sinclair) collaborated with the President’s office to make the final push for the Public University Support Fund (PUSF; $900m) and the Oregon Opportunity Grants (OOG; $200m), among other things (see below), and we got what we asked for. It took several sessions and a lot of conversations, but we finally got through the Part-Time Faculty Health Care bill. Senate Bill 551 guarantees faculty who teach part-time across multiple institutions will now be covered…

When I arrived at the University of Oregon in 2009 I didn’t know what a Provost was. I had never been in a departmental meeting. I didn’t know that service was part of the job, or even what service entailed. I didn’t understand the concept of shared governance, or why a university has or needs a Senate.

The most interesting results of our recent survey on the process and prospect of breaking CAS into smaller schools came from the narrative comments. We have scheduled a meeting with President Schill to share both the concerns and hopes of our members regarding this potential, major re-organization of the university. We report on the major themes that arose in the narrative comments and the aggregated unit data of the responders. Concerns Less support for/value of Humanities and undervalued departments 35 Less collaboration/integration 28 More centralized admin/resources, less faculty voice 27 Moves away from traditional university/Liberal Arts structure and mission 16…

On June 11 the English Department presented Provost Jayanth Banavar and Exec. Vice Provost Scott Pratt a comprehensive proposal for improved salary and working conditions for the career faculty in the Composition Program. This presentation arose after English devoted their entire April department meeting to deliver the same requests to the three Deans of the College of Arts & Sciences (Tykeson Dean of Arts and Sciences Andrew Marcus, Divisional Dean of Humanities Karen Ford, and Dean of Faculty Operations Bruce Blonigen). In both meetings, TTF and Career Faculty spoke together to address longstanding problems concerning salary, course load, contracts, and…

The College of Education (COE) has recently been presented with relatively significant budget cut targets by the Provost’s office.  The COE faculty are eager to find ways to maintain the excellence of our programs while also achieving the prescribed fiscal goals.  Unfortunately, we are not being given the information that would make such collaborative problem solving possible.  Frustration levels are high. In response to this situation, UA stewards in COE recently hosted a meeting of college faculty with UA Executive Director David Cecil.  25 faculty attended, and 28 others sent regrets along with lists of their concerns.  The concerns expressed…

This year, a broad coalition of Oregon Democrats, Republicans, health care advocates and providers, and healthcare companies passed a landmark Medicaid funding package. Unfortunately, some want to turn back this progress and have gathered signatures to repeal this critical funding. Currently, 95% of Oregonians, including all children, have health coverage. Voting Yes on Measure 101 protects healthcare for 350,000 Oregonians who rely on the Oregon Health Plan for their insurance, including 66,000 children. Measure 101 stipulates that hospitals, insurance companies, and other healthcare providers pay a small, temporary assessment which is then matched by the Federal government. This crucial funding…