October 15, 1999
This summer, 10 student interns were chosen by the UO administration and ASUO leadership to work on a variety of diversity-related issues, under the direction of a steering committee of faculty, staff and students.
Representing diversity themselves in their ethnicity, academic majors, class levels and UO leadership experiences, these students studied the campus and prepared recommendations for strengthening and adding to existing diversity efforts.
Their efforts, combined with new academic appointments and focused diversity initiatives in the curriculum, in ASUO’s staff and programs, and in student services, is adding new energy to meeting a challenge faced by universities nationwide: Creating a campus environment that is as diverse as the society around it; that encourages free speech; and that is at the same time "welcoming and safe for every student, every staff member, every professor," as President Dave Frohnmayer stated in his Oct. 6 State of the University address.
"This is not an objective easy to reach and nurture," Frohnmayer added.
Currently the UO student body includes a slightly higher proportion of students of color than the proportion of people of color in the state of Oregon as a whole (without including international students in the analysis). The state lags behind national averages. Close to $1 million is being devoted this year to scholarships targeted toward further building diversity in the student body.
In addition, during the five academic years between 1995-96 and 1998-99 (the most recent year with good data), more than one in five new tenured and tenure-track hires at the UO were faculty of color–26 new faculty of color out of 121 total hires over that period.
The university’s long-term emphasis on diversity in its administrative services and student groups as well as in its student and faculty recruitment and academic programs recently yielded these results:
• The work of a reconfigured Student Affairs office, under the direction of new Dean of Students Anne Leavitt, adds support to initiatives in Multicultural Affairs, where director Carla Gary joined the staff last year, and in Student Life, where a position held by Troy Franklin focuses on multiethnic student programs.
• ASUO student government’s executive staff includes a multicultural advocate and associate, a nontraditional student advocate and an international student advocate.
• New faculty member Patricia J. Penn Hilden will direct the university’s Ethnic Studies program, and the recently developed undergraduate major in Judaic studies brings further diversity to the university’s curriculum.
The work of the summer diversity interns builds on this foundation.
• They held discussions with scores of campus members, gathered information on the present state of diversity on campus and supplemented their discussions with research about efforts on other campuses.
• They produced a diversity video that already has been seen widely on campus.
• They reviewed diversity issues with UO department heads at a retreat this summer.
• They initiated planning for a web page that will summarize UO efforts and guide users to plans and resources.
• They are concluding their work by writing a report of observations and recommendations that campus leaders, faculty and staff will review.
"But perhaps the most important thing they accomplished," Frohnmayer said Oct. 6 of the interns, "was helping to remind us all on campus that we have students, faculty and staff members who, because of their skin color, or sexual identity, or beliefs, are somehow made to feel apart….
"Ours is certainly not a campus marked by overt racism. But there is a level of interaction in which casual remarks and assumptions, more thoughtless than overt, can and do cause searing pain."
As long as that situation exists, Frohnmayer said, there is more work to do. And he pledged that the UO campus would continue to make progress.
In the 18 months since the university’s new Student Loan Program debuted, its success is already undeniable.
Implemented in March 1998 as an additional means to help students pay their bills while attending school and earning their degrees, the program has helped 398 students–44 percent of them seniors–with loans totaling $2,265,900. Of those borrowers, 62 had completed their studies and graduated through the end of spring term last year–52 with bachelor’s degrees, seven with master’s degrees and three with doctorates.
"We are delighted that student borrowers seem pleased with the option this program offers and we’re glad we can be of assistance," says student loans manager Jim Heiss, Business Affairs.
The program helps students "blocked" from registering for classes because they owe the university money by converting their debt to student loans that let them resume their studies.
"After 25 years at the UO I have been aware of way too many instances where students and their parents simply ran out of resources and options to finance the completion of their studies," Heiss says. "Many of these students never returned to finish their degree. We hoped to decrease that number, and our experience so far indicates we and the students have succeeded!"
Leighann Franson is just one of the students who understands the merits of the new loan program first hand. Two years ago she was forced to drop out of school and work to pay her bills. Today, with the help of the loan program, she has graduated and moved on to a job.
"The university exists to help students," says Franson, a Summer 1999 graduate in magazine journalism. "Sometimes all the money issues take away from that fact, but this new loan program is one step closer to the true meaning of helping students and furthering education."
The Student Loan Program helps the university as well as students. By keeping students enrolled who otherwise would have stopped out or dropped out, the program generated an estimated $1.3 million in tuition and fee income for the 1998-99 school year.
The loan program also has an outstanding payback rate. Of the nearly $2.3 million that has been loaned, student borrowers, whose loans run 10 years, have repaid $258,038, and 35 loans have been paid in full.
"Our hope for the future is that we continue to be a viable financing alternative to students who are focused on finishing their degree requirements," Heiss says. "We hope that our graduates are happy and successful in their lives after leaving the UO and feel like they got their money’s worth for the time and dollars they invested in their education."
–Hillary Knox, Communications Intern
Enrollment is limited to 10 faculty members for a writing workshop for teachers in all disciplines. The workshop, set from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 6, is part of a UO initiative to improve student writing skills. Materials and lunch will be provided. Return a completed application to John Gage, English, by Monday, Oct. 18. Selected participants will be notified by Oct. 27. Following the workshop, participants will be asked to submit development proposals for which funding will be available.
A new Alzheimer’s disease caregivers support group for members of the campus community will meet from noon to 1 p.m. on the second Thursday of each month through June in EMU Century Room A. The first meeting of this confidential group, facilitated by the Cascade/Coast Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association, will be on Nov. 11. No preregistration is needed, and new members are always welcome. Call 6-2962 or 345-8392.
Application packets for 2000 Summer Research Awards are now available. Submission deadline is Nov. 29. For packets, visit <darkwing. uoregon.edu/~rfd/srapage.htm>, send e-mail to <kariwk@oregon>, visit Research and Faculty Development in 125 Chapman or call 6-3196.
The 1999-2000 Resource Guide to Training and Development Opportunities for Faculty and Staff is now available through Human Resources. It offers comprehensive information about courses and workshops offered through Human Resources and other offices. Also included is information about the UO staff development policy, staff fee rates for courses, use of the Employee Benefit Fund and the pilot voucher program for software applications training through New Horizons Learning Centers. The guide has been sent to campus offices and administrators. To request a paper copy, call 6-3159 or visit the online version at <darkwing.uoregon.edu/~humanres/train99.htm>.
Observed holidays for OPEU classified employees this fall include:
Veterans Day Thursday, Nov. 11
Thanksgiving Thursday, Nov. 25
Day after Thanksgiving Friday, Nov. 26
Christmas Holiday Friday, Dec. 24
New Year’s Holiday Friday, Dec. 31
Officers of administration and faculty receive all of these holidays except Veterans Day. Employees represented by GCIU should check their collective bargaining agreement for holiday provisions.
At the UO kickoff for the 1999 State of Oregon Charitable Fund Drive (CFD), Coach Ernie Kent rallied the players who are leading the effort to raise $180,000 by Thanksgiving for nonprofits dedicated to making Oregon a better place.
Those players are department coordinators who are now distributing pledge cards and information about the good works of seven CFD federations.
Rally activities on Oct. 13 also included rave reviews from CFD coordinators who joined President Dave Frohnmayer the previous week in a site visit to the new building housing FOOD for Lane County. In 1998, that agency collected and distributed more than three million tons of food to hungry people helped by dozens of other CFD programs. With its expanded facilities, FOOD for Lane County will be able to distribute many more tons this year and in the years to come.
"I know what it’s like to struggle day-to-day at sub-poverty level," says Pam Fields, International Affairs. "That visit made me realize how much we’ve progressed in being able to help people."
Martha Pitts, Admissions, who chairs this year’s campus drive, urged others to invite CFD agency speakers to tell about their work, or to sign up for site visits to CFD programs, including wetlands restorations projects, the Relief Nursery, solar-powered homes, the Easter Seal Pool, a rare plant preserve or the HIV Alliance.
Campus CFD coordinator Nancie Fadeley, Provost’s Office, says she hopes that all UO employees will give early consideration to their department coordinator’s requests for CFD participation. For more information, call Fadeley, 6-3013, or your unit’s CFD coordinator.
Student Affairs, under the supervision of Vice President Dan Williams, Administration, has been going through a reorganization that aims to focus more attention on this key segment of campus life.
The latest evidence of these organizational changes is the appointment of Anne Lochridge Leavitt as the university’s new associate vice president for student affairs and dean of students.
"Anne Leavitt brings years of experience, strong training and terrific insight to this important position that will help coordinate the services offered to students and increase communication between departments," says Williams. "Her appointment is a major element in the reorganization which is intended to bring more focus on student affairs issues in several areas."
Leavitt, a long-time UO administrator who most recently was associate vice provost in Student Academic Affairs, will provide direct supervision in Student Life, the University Counseling Center, the University Health Center and Student Judicial Affairs. In addition, she will chair the newly created Student Affairs Council which aims to bring greater focus to issues concerning students’ needs and the staff and faculty responsible for student welfare and the student experience.
Members of the council include the directors of Student Life, University Counseling Center and University Health Center, and the senior student affairs staff member from University Housing, Erb Memorial Union, Intercollegiate Athletics and Physical Activity and Recreational Services.
"The creation of the council represents a very significant change," says Administration Associate Vice President Jan Oliver. "It will provide us better opportunities to solve problems together and discuss new ideas together."
In addition, Leavitt will join the president’s senior executive staff meetings where she will have the opportunity to better influence institutional policy and communicate issues concerning the quality of the student experience to the university’s senior administration and faculty.
"This reorganization is a lot about communication, mutual sharing and dialogue across and within departments about issues that involve the campus as a community," Oliver says. "We expect to build a healthier community on this campus where good work is not done in isolation."
–Erica Pereira, Communications Student
David Crumb, Music, is a 1999-2000 American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers Award recipient. The cash award reflects ASCAP’s continuing commitment to assist and encourage writers of serious music.
James Boren, English, is the first recipient of the Arts and Sciences Distinguished Educator Award which includes a $10,000 prize. The award recognizes senior faculty for the excellence, distinctiveness and scope of their career-long records as educators.
Linda F. Ettinger, Arts and Administration, is the recipient of a planning grant from the Northwest Academic Computing Consortium (NWACC). Ettinger’s project, the Arts Management Research Clearinghouse, is designed to foster communication about research and curriculum among member academic institutions that comprise the Association of Arts Administration Educators. The primary focus of the project is the development of a web site to be unveiled at the association’s conference June 23—24, 2000, on the UO campus.
Albert Leong, Russian and East European Studies, received an IREX short-term travel grant for archival and field research in Moscow during August for a book project, Captive Muses: Artists-Prisoners in Soviet Kolyma, 1932—1953. He conducted interviews with Kolyma Gulag survivors, worked in numerous archives and consulted with poet Semyon Vilensky, publisher and president of the Vozvrashchenie Historical-Literary Society.
Scott Barkhurst, Music, is beginning his second term as president of Eugene’s Very Little Theatre.
Raymond F. Mikesell, Economics emeritus, was awarded an honorary degree by the president of the University of Cordoba during an Aug. 4 economic conference in Argentina.
Janie Sweeney joined Business Affairs on Aug. 23 as cashier supervisor. She succeeds Carolyn Hoyer who retired at the end of August.
Janet Wentworth, Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity, has retired as ombud officer.
Gary Oster joined Human Resources on Sept. 1 as network manager. He has network administration experience from the private and public sectors, most recently with Holt International.
Harry Wolcott, Anthropology emeritus, published Ethnography: A Way of Seeing (AltaMira Press, June 1999), the final book in a quartet he has written dealing with aspects of qualitative method and ethnographic research.
Joan Walker, Human Resources, is the author of a story published in the second edition of Chicken Soup for the Dog and Cat Lover’s Soul.
Cynthia Vakareliyska, Linguistics, presented a paper in Bulgarian on "A Reassessment of the Menology to the Banica Gospel: New Data from a Sister Manuscript," at the 6th Joint Meeting of Bulgarian and North American scholars, on June 2 in Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria. She headed the western delegation to the conference as president of the international Bulgarian Studies Association (BSA). In May, she was re-elected BSA president for a second two-year term.
Tess Catalano, Religious Studies, died Oct. 6. A graduate of the University of Iowa, Catalano, 39, also was a licensed massage therapist who taught massage therapy at Lane Community College. A singer, composer, writer and human rights activist, she was a member of the Soromundi Lesbian Chorus of Eugene. A campus memorial service is being planned. Memorial contributions may be made to the Tess Catalano Scholarship Fund in care of the Musgrove Family Mortuary in Eugene.
Wallace "Mack" Ruff, Landscape Architecture emeritus, was killed Oct. 8 in Papua New Guinea where he spent most of his time in recent years and was teaching at the University of Technology. Ruff, 87, joined the UO faculty in 1952 and retired in 1976, then moved to the nation north of Australia with his late wife Ruth. He became prominent throughout the Northwest as both a teacher and practicing landscape architect, but he also spent much of his career and all of his retirement studying and documenting South Pacific art and culture. A traditional tribal ceremony was planned for Oct. 18 in Papua New Guinea, with a memorial service tentatively set for Nov. 6 in Eugene.