October 31, 1997
Like the fall gusts that shower campus with colorful leaves, the winds of change and self-transformation that President Dave Frohnmayer called for in his Oct. 15 state-of-the-university address are beginning to waft across campus.
A three-step, year-long study of how the university can transform itself to meet the enormous challenges it faces is well underway. The provost has named members of seven issue definition groups and outlined a timeline for action. The broad-based campus task forces met with Frohnmayer and Provost John Moseley Oct. 30 to begin mapping an ambitious plan that is expected to culminate in concrete proposals by spring.
"As we are all well aware, higher education is in a period of major--some would even say `revolutionary'--change, brought about by a number of largely external issues," Moseley says. "As far as one can tell, this period of change is not ending; indeed many believe that it is accelerating."
Echoing the president's Oct. 15 remarks, Moseley says the most immediate challenge is the continuing disinvestment by the state in higher education. Other factors include enrollment issues, the public perception of higher education, the university's relative funding within the Oregon State System of Higher Education, and recommendations of the Chancellor's Office Solution Team, the Governor's Task Force on Access and the Governor's Task Force on Higher Education and the Economy.
The governor and both task force reports call on higher education to be more student-centered, flexible and responsive to the needs of the state.
"The financial issues and the significant changes in state system organization and budget process likely to result from these challenges mean that UO needs to be better prepared to address critical issues in the very near future, and to have responses in place before the start of fall term 1998," Moseley says.
The provost points out that these challenges also provide opportunities to improve the quality of the university, its ability to serve students and the state, and its standing within the higher education community.
"It is in this spirit that we propose to take a broad-based, in-depth look at these issues and make decisions regarding how the University of Oregon can best respond to the challenges and maximize the opportunities," he says. Throughout this examination, the Dean's Council, the Faculty Advisory Council and the University Senate will provide advice and perspective from the point of view of the campus as a whole.
In the first step of the change process, the 12- to 15-member issue definition groups will spend about three weeks describing and defining each of seven major issues. They will meet Nov. 24 in the Casanova Center`s Pittman Room to present and discuss a "white paper" on their assigned topic which will be available to all.
Group members include one or two Dean's Council members (one of whom is the convener), one or more Faculty Advisory Council and University Senate members, an officer of administration and one or two students from the ASUO executive and from key university committees.
The seven issue definition groups and conveners are:
Each of the solution groups will consist of at least one member of each of the issue definition groups, with other members added or recruited as needed to reach about 12 members apiece. The groups will produce a short "white paper" describing their solutions which they will present for general discussion in January. A web page is planned that would enable anyone to respond with further suggestions.
"The purpose here is to get a broad base of the best thinking of our faculty, students and staff regarding how UO might best respond to the challenges of the future," Moseley says.
The third step, to be accomplished by spring, will consist of a single, relatively small but broadly based executive group that will use the information and suggestions generated in the first two steps to develop a proposal or a series of proposals as to how UO should position itself for the future. The provost says these proposals, to be discussed on campus, are expected to lead to decisions for substantive new directions and improvements for the university.
"Even as we're undertaking this campus study, OSSHE will be responding to the Solution Team and Governor's Task Force reports, and we'll be continuing our administrative discussions with the Chancellor's Office regarding UO funding and other issues," Moseley says. "Results from these activities will be fed back into our internal process as they occur. However, if the University of Oregon is to prosper in the current educational environment, new solutions must be sought and changes made under almost any set of circumstances which appear to be plausible at this time."
CFD dollars do more for community
"Your caring goes a long way" is this year's theme for the State of Oregon Charitable Fund Drive (CFD).
"By ourselves, none of us could, with $5, provide three days of food for a family of five," observes Assistant Vice Provost Nancie Fadeley, UO CFD coordinator. "But $5 contributed through the Charitable Fund Drive to Food for Lane County, a United Way agency, can."
She's quick to note a number of other ways that CFD dollars do good things that many would like to do but cannot do alone:
This year's UO drive aims to raise $140,000 by early November, according to campus chair Frances Dyke, Resource Management. Employees may give by payroll deduction or by cash donation to more than 60 agencies.
For information, consult departmental coordinators or call Fadeley, 6-3013.
Winter course packets due Nov. 3
To have the Copyright Clearance Office do Winter Term course packet permission requests, faculty must submit bibliographic table of contents by Nov. 3. Send materials by Campus Mail, by e-mail to katik@oregon.uoregon.edu or by fax, 6-0895. For information, call 6-5370.
Faculty and staff wanting to cablecast high-quality educational and cultural events have an inside track for reaching TCI Cablevision's 58,000 local subscriber households.
The Instructional Media Center (IMC) now is programming TCI Cable Channel 12, the educational access channel, from 8 p.m. Wednesday to 8 a.m. Thursday.
"This represents a significant new opportunity to reach the community," says Andrew Bonamici, Knight Library.
He encourages those with programming ideas to discuss them with IMC staff. Live productions may be originated from the IMC studios, the EMU Ballroom, Beall Concert Hall, the Chambers Studio in Allen Hall and the Church Browsing Room in the Knight Library.
"Keep in mind that planning for a live event must begin well in advance to ensure availability of staff and facilities," he says.
The Oregon Humanities Center's faculty interview program, "UO Today," highlights the current Channel 12 schedule, airing from 9-9:30 p.m. every Wednesday. Other programming will consist of live and taped UO events--speakers, conferences, concerts and readings, for instance; IMC productions; and Journalism and Communication student productions.
The overnight hours also feature an electronic bulletin board promoting UO events as provided by the Office of Communications.
For information about Channel 12 programming or other IMC video services, call Mike Majdic, 6-1945, e-mail majdic@oregon; or Lynette Boone, 6-1943, e-mail lboone@oregon.
EMU child care centers accredited
When it comes to caring for the children of UO families, the Erb Memorial Union Child Care and Development Centers are among the nation`s best.
Recently granted accreditation by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), the EMU facilities are among six centers in Eugene--and just 32 of nearly 1,200 centers in Oregon--that meet the accreditation criteria. Less than 5 percent of young children's programs nationwide achieve this level of recognition.
"We have been providing high-quality services for kids and families for more than 27 years," says Dennis Reynolds, EMU child care coordinator. "Now, recognition by an objective outside organization gives us an official seal of approval."
Seven programs make up the EMU centers. Located in the EMU, at Westmoreland family housing and on Moss Street, they serve toddlers, preschoolers, and pre-kindergarten and kindergarten children.
"It may sound like bragging to say we are a darned good program but now it's official. I am extremely proud of the outstanding staff and the scores of dedicated students who do such fine work for the kids and their families," Reynolds says. "In addition, the student government leaders who have given us the funds to provide this excellent service at a cost that makes it accessible to student families are also deserving of praise."
NAEYC accreditation is a rigorous voluntary process by which early-childhood programs demonstrate that they consistently meet national standards of excellence. Child care centers, Head Start programs, preschools and kindergartens are eligible to seek accreditation.
Programs seeking accreditation undergo an intensive self-study, collecting information from parents, teachers, administrators and classroom observations. They receive an on-site visit by trained evaluators. A national panel of early-childhood experts independently reviews all this information before granting accreditation.
For more EMU centers information, call 6-4384.
NO-SCHOOL, SNOW-DAY CHILD CARE
On-campus care for school-aged children of faculty, staff and students will be offered this fall and winter at the Vivian Olum Child Development Center. On Eugene District 4-J no-school days, care for children in kindergarten through fifth grade will be available from 7:30 a.m.-6 p.m. When local schools close due to inclement weather and the UO campus remains open, parents of children 6-11 years old whose parents pre-register them in early December for winter term may spend from 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. on no-school snow days at the Olum center. Cost for each program is $22 per day or $11 per day for currently enrolled Olum center families. For information and forms, visit the Olum center, 1650 Columbia, or Human Resources, 463 Oregon Hall.
In the spotlight
Jennifer Freyd, Psychology, has received a 1997 Distinguished Publication Award from the Association for Women in Psychology for her book, Betrayal Trauma: The Logic of Forgetting Childhood Abuse (Harvard University Press, 1996). She has been invited to discuss her research during the group's March 1998 conference in Baltimore.
Edward Price, Geography emeritus, received the Gilbert Grosvenor Distinguished Geographic Education Honor from the Association of American Geographers. The award, presented at the annual meeting in Texas last spring, recognized Prize for excellence in teaching and mentoring.
Regina Psaki, Romance Languages, is president of the Society for Medieval Feminist Scholarship until 1999. The society's Medieval Feminist Newsletter now is published at the Center for the Study of Women in Society.
Terry Hummer, Creative Writing, is a finalist for the Hazel Hall Award for Poetry for his volume, Walt Whitman in Hell (Louisiana State University Press). Winners of the 11th annual Oregon Book Awards will be announced during a Nov. 6 ceremony in Portland.
Linda King, Human Resources, chairs the College and University Personnel Association's national Committee on Governmental Relations.
Merv Loya, Law, is president-elect of the 700-attorney Lane County Bar Association.
Bruce Mason, EMU Outdoor Program, is president of the McKenzie River Trust, a local land conservancy organization. He also is a partner in the McKenzie Watershed Council, an interagency planning group for the river basin.
In Print/On Display
Kenneth Helphand, Landscape Architecture, is the author of "Defiant Gardens" in the April-June 1997 issue (Vol. 17:2) of The Journal of Garden History.
Richard Bear, Library, has published an edition of George Gascoigne's The Steele Glas & the complaynt of Philomene (1576) at http://darkwing.uoregon.\edu/~rbear/steel/steel.html. He also is editor of CultureWork: A Periodic Broadside for Arts and Culture Workers, published by the Institute for Community Arts Studies and by Arts and Administration. Volume 1, No. 1 (May 1997) is online at http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~aad/culturework/culturework.html.
Juan Epple, Romance Languages, is the subject of an international homage volume just published in his native Chile. The book, a collection of essays by scholars and writers from Europe, Latin America and the United States, honor's Epple's work as a scholar, teacher and writer.
On the podium/stage
During September, Alan Stavitsky, Journalism and Communication, presented a workshop on journalism ethics for Yleisradio, the Finnish national radio broadcasting service, and spoke at Tampere University in Finland.
Christine Sundt, AAA Library, organized a Sept. 27 "town meeting" in Portland on "Copyright Law in the Digital World: Fair Use, Education and Libraries after CONFU (The Conference on Fair Use)." Deborah Carver, Library, moderated a session during the meeting. Sundt co-chairs an intellectual property rights committee of the College Art Association.
Peter Briggs, International Education and Exchange, joined with Margaret Pusch of Yarmouth, Me., to present "What's New at INS?: IIRAIRA and its Impact (Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigration Responsibility Act of 1996) at a July 14 session of the Community Colleges for International Development summer conference in Portland.
In memoriam
CLARIFICATION: Jeffrey S. Luke, Planning, Public Policy and Management adjunct, was 46 years old when he died Oct. 14 in Eugene.
Donald E. Wimber, Biology emeritus, died Oct. 22 in Sidney, Australia, of a heart attack. A member of the UO faculty since 1963, Wimber, 67, was a graduate of San Diego State College and Claremont Graduate School. He did award-winning work on the genetics of orchid hybridizing and also was a runner. The family plans a Eugene memorial service, and a memorial fund is being established.