2016 President-Elect Candidate (Early Fall Election)

Jon Louis Dorbolo (at OSU since 1987), Professional Faculty, Associate Director of Technology Across the Curriculum, Information Services; Instructor of Philosophy, College of Liberal Arts.

FACULTY SENATE SERVICE: Associated Faculty Senator, 2011-present, 2005-2009; Curriculum Council, 2014-16, 1999-03; Executive Committee, 2012; Library Committee Executive Committee Liaison, 2011-12; Computing Resources Committee, 2011-12, 2006-09 (chair, 2008-09; ex-officio, 2011-12); Distance Education Committee Executive Committee Liaison, 2011-12; Advancement of Teaching Committee, 2010-12; Faculty Panels for Hearing Committees, 2006-10; Microsoft Task Force, 2005.

INFORMATION SERVICES SERVICE: Adaptive Learning Task Force, 2016; Learn@OregonState Advisory Committee, 2015-16; Information Technology Coordinating Committee, 1999-16; and Learn@OregonState Web Presence Taskforce (coordinator).

UNIVERSITY SERVICE: Writing Intensive Curriculum Advisory Board, 2013-16; Learning Innovation Center Planning Committee, 2012-15; Information Services Program Review, 2008; and Graduate Committees.

SEARCH COMMITTEES: College of Science Dean, 2013; and Vice Provost for Information Services, 2009.

Candidate Statement: OSU is my home, the people here are family. My thirty years at OSU have focused on innovation in teaching and faculty development with technology. In 1993 I began the first web course at OSU. I am still teaching that online philosophy course this term. I have worked personally with hundreds of faculty to realize their educational objectives, as I am today. I work with faculty from every college in the University, including Newport and Cascades. I have a trans-university perspective and total-OSU objective. If you raise me up, I will not let you down.

What will be the critical issues for faculty and how can you help move those issues forward?

1. Reinforce faculty and instructors in their teaching and support roles. What we do as teachers and professionals is hard work. Shifts in curriculum, classrooms, and technology compound the challenges. President Ray places emphasis on student success. I assert that student success is a function of faculty support. I will work to identify and advance the teaching and learning mission by increasing teaching and professional faculty support university-wide.

2. Protect faculty salaries and benefits. OSU leadership is changing with an incoming Provost and across the administrative spectrum. The Oregon legislature struggles with budget and characterizes PERS as a problem. We need to hold the line against erosion of faculty compensation and benefits. I will stand that ground for us with staid heart and mind.

3. Promote social justice. We simply have not achieved a community where students, faculty, and staff of color and other diversity feel at home. We can do better. I have worked on equity and diversity issues my entire time at OSU and will work hard as Faculty Senate President to bring these issues to workable solutions.

4. Bring Faculty Senate up to speed with contemporary technology. OSU has made huge strides recently with enterprise technologies. Faculty will gain stronger engagement with governance by leveraging those capabilities. A recent example is the upgraded Faculty Senate website – http://senate.oregonstate.edu – for which I directed TAC staff to collaborate with the Faculty Senate President and staff to accomplish the upgrade. OSU’s technology infrastructure is up-to-speed with the rest of the world for the first time in a decade. I intend to facilitate the evolution of Faculty Senate infrastructure to that standard.

How has your experience prepared you for this position?

The unique attribute that I bring to Faculty Senate President is a perspective encompassing the entire enterprise. As Associate Director of Technology Across the Curriculum (TAC) I work with faculty and staff from every college, Ecampus, and Extension as well as many administrative and support units. 

In directing support for faculty I have attended hundreds of class sessions in many disciplines. I know what strong classroom teaching across the disciplines is by direct experience. I have put that experience to use by producing teacher preparation resources. I am Principle Investigator of a research agenda, The Geometry of Learning, which seeks to understand the effects of physical characteristics of classrooms on students and faculty. Future OSU investment in classroom redesign must be grounded in evidence-based research such as we are now conducting. 

I interact daily with undergraduate and graduate students including first-year experience, first generation, and student athletes. Writing my Dr. Tech column for The Barometer has produced a name-recognition across the student body and every day students stop me to say hello at which point I often take time to converse with them about their aspirations and challenges as learners. I feel immersed in the vital flow of this amazing place at many levels and capable of addressing issues from a panoptic perspective. In all of my professional efforts the focus is university-wide and I believe that this vantage affords me a unique position from which I may effectively represent the OSU faculty as a whole. Holistic governance is my goal and I will consult frequently with individuals and groups to test my effectiveness in making this so, should I be so blessed to serve as your Faculty Senate President.