Note: Complete proceedings of the meeting were recorded and are available at https://senate.oregonstate.edu/april-9-2020-faculty-senate-webcast. This recap contains agenda attachments, votes associated with action items, Information Items and the Roll Call.

  1. ACTION ITEMS  
    1. President Plaza read a statement about this unprecedented and unsettling time. His statement is available online at https://senate.oregonstate.edu/april-9-2020-faculty-senate-webcast.
  1. Approval of Minutes  
    • March 12, 2020
      • Action: Motion to approve the March 12, 2020 meeting recap passed with 70 votes in favor, 0 dissenting votes and 4 abstentions.
  1. Curricular Proposal
    Michele Swift, Curriculum Council Co-chair, presented for approval the below proposal:
    • Marine Studies Degree Proposal, BA/BS #106759
    • The understanding of Senator Spitz, College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences is that some students will live at the coast, but there is no strong language of resident students which appeared in the initial proposal; however, there is vague language for years three and four related to residential students. Response from Marion
      • College of Liberal Arts Associate Dean Marion Rossi, and proposal co-originator responded that the expectation is spelled out in the proposal that all students will have a coastal experience. Perhaps the reason why the language is so soft is that they tried to build in an allowance for those who are interested in the degree, but can’t spend an entire term at the coast, or possibly at all. There is a coastal experience that, for as many students as possible, involves actual time at a coastal location. There is an intent to use the new residential facility at Hatfield Marine Science Center, and to provide opportunities, while allowing for students who would be excluded, to create a virtual experience as is necessary. Residential living is a very important component, and details are being worked out.
      • Associate Director of the Marine Studies Initiative Kristin Milligan, and proposal co-originator, added that there is a section of the proposal that provides a narrative description of the coastal experience requirement, and reiterates that the coastal experience requirement will continue to be built for pathway and residency students in this degree.
    • An online question from Senator Becker, Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences, inquired how this new degree program will be kept distinct from existing programs, and how will it maintain itself as ‘Blue Humanities’ (a term from National Endowment for Humanities). This will be a humanities, arts and liberal arts degree, and not creep significantly into the sciences.
      • Rossi responded that they have had conversations, via an extensive liaison process, with units across campus which resulted in ultimately strengthening the program by making it more distinct and more distinctive. In terms of how the program is structured, by the time all courses, requirements and limitations are factored in, of the 71-76 credit hours required for the degree, a maximum of 15 hours will come from the sciences. There are limitations in each level and area with most being at the lower division with about 8 hours required at the foundations area, so all have a solid background in basic science as it relates to the oceans. At the next level, as core courses are brought in, students have a required 26 hours of the core, and only 3 hours may come from outside of the College of Liberal Arts (CLA). As students build up their areas of specialization and distinction at the upper division level, in addition to a capstone and internship requirement, they have an additional 12 hours of electives – 8 of which must be taken in Liberal Arts. There are 56 hours required for the major. A distinctive element of CLA degrees, as well as this degree, is that there is the CLA Core which is 15-20 hours of CLA courses required for all majors in CLA. These are not specific courses, but specific categories from which students select (i.e. fine arts, humanities, non-Western culture, etc.). There was a concerted effort to ensure that this remains a distinctive Liberal Arts-based degree that emphasizes the arts, humanities, social sciences and looks at the oceans from a very particular lens in terms of the human interaction and the way we think about the seas and oceans in terms of history, policy, arts, culture and its impact in a variety of different human-centered ways.
    • Senator Paasch, Engineering, noted that there were significant concerns outlined in Dean Roberta Marinelli’s letter – were these concerns addressed?
      • Milligan believed that the concerns have been addressed. A request was received from the Curriculum Council to edit the proposal which satisfied those concerns.
      • Rossi indicated that they did their best to make a variety of edits that made the degree stronger and more distinctive. He felt that the process worked the way it should, through the faculty, in ways that made the curriculum stronger.
        • Action: Motion approve the Marine Studies Degree Proposal, BA/BS #106759 passed with 77 votes in favor, 2 dissenting votes and 7 abstentions.
  1. Standing Rules Proposed Revisions
    Faculty Senate President Dwaine Plaza presented for approval proposed Standing Rules revisions for the below Faculty Senate committee
    • Undergraduate Admissions Committee
      • Senator Kaplan, Liberal Arts, was worried that the number of faculty decreased by reducing the membership from 10 to having between 8-10, and four are now faculty.
        • President Plaza responded that many faculty are on 9-month contracts and not available to meet during the summer.
      • Senator Quick, Science, noted that there are not that many college head advisors – does that mean that head advisors are not required? Plaza noted that Quick was correct and the committee found that requiring a head advisor was somewhat constraining. Quick queried whether this could result in having only members with little experience at the institution. Plaza responded that could occur, but it was unlikely.
        • Action: Motion to approve revisions to the Undergraduate Admissions Committee Standing Rules passed with 55 votes in favor, 7 dissenting votes and 11 abstentions.
  1. SPECIAL REPORT
    President Dwaine Plaza will discussed the Preliminary Results of the 2020 Faculty Senate Pulse Survey.
  1. OPEN FORUM
    President Dwaine Plaza will open the meeting to questions or comments from Senators about how they’re doing teaching remotely, or any concerns they may wish to share.
    • There was no time for discussion.
  1. COVID-19 COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT TEAM
    Vice Provost for Student Affairs Dan Larson provided an overview of the major issues on the horizon for OSU for the next three weeks, six weeks and ten weeks.
    • Provost Feser recapped that, as the pandemic emerged, OSU’s first response was focused on communicating with students abroad. Next, a group was set up early on to determine how to respond. The effort was guided by a continuity plan which was based on different levels of the outbreak and proximity to Oregon. The focus was on moving to remote delivery and making grading and academic policy changes. Details of the OSU pledge, and what that means to students, are now being working out. He noted that there is tremendous strain and stress on faculty and students.
      • Plans to respond to financial aspects of COVID-19 are being worked out. The auxiliaries have taken a critical hit. In particular, University Housing and Dining Services has been hit hard because residence halls have only about 600 students on campus, and more students are leaving. Athletics has no activity, and Pac-12 revenues are lower than expected.
    • There are associated cost savings, including: suspending business-related travel, dramatically cutting services and supplies spending and hiring was curtailed. There is no hiring freeze in place, however, OSU will cease all non-critical hiring, and the academic mission will be prioritized.
    • Continuing to monitor what’s occurring in Salem. Have not heard of particular plans for reductions in allocations to higher education – the state will face a significant shortfall. Also monitoring the CARES Act which will bring about $15M to OSU will go directly to students. Total estimated revenue for the spring quarter is about $35M – have not yet refined all expenditure-side savings.
    • Beginning to think about long-term effects. OSU is reasonably well positioned with Ecampus strength.
    • Thanked faculty for their extraordinary effort in pulling together when COVID-19 restrictions began; particularly thanked Faculty Senate, Executive Committee and Dwaine Plaza for his leadership. Welfare of faculty and students are on the minds of administrators as they navigate through the pandemic.
    • The remainder of the report is available online at https://senate.oregonstate.edu/april-9-2020-faculty-senate-webcast.
  1. SPRING TERM TEACHING TOPICS
    Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education Alix Gitelman and Associate Provost and University Registrar Rebecca Mathern fielded questions about the new grade options for faculty, extended grading options for students, summer session considerations, proctoring and remote teaching.
  2. INFORMATION ITEMS
    1. Remote Participation in Faculty Senate Meetings
      Login instructions to participate remotely in Faculty Senate meetings were in the email message sent to Senators. The Zoom session will begin at 2:50 PM on the day of the Senate meeting. Please login with your ONID credentials to the Faculty Senate Chat Room. Senators and proxies must log in with their real names so that attendance can be accurately reflected; if you are a proxy, please indicate the Senator you are representing.

         The preferred login method is to sign in using the Zoom App. If you are logging in using a browser, Chrome is the recommended choice. Users that cannot be authenticated through DUO will not be able to join the meeting. If you experience problems logging in during the meeting, please contact Vickie Nunnemaker at [email protected] or Caitlin Calascibetta at [email protected].

          Non-Senators are welcome to participate but, due to recent Zoombombing incidents, the login instructions are not being published. If you wish to remotely participate in the meeting, please send an email requesting to participate, including your name and unit (please, no abbreviations) to either [email protected] or [email protected].

  1. Small Group Sessions with President Ray
    President Ray and the Faculty Senate Executive Committee will continue the long-standing tradition of sponsoring small group faculty conversations (academic, research and professional faculty). Each conversation will be facilitated by a Faculty Senate Executive Committee member and will consist of up to 12 faculty. These conversations, via Zoom, provide President Ray with an opportunity to receive candid feedback from faculty and an occasion for idea and information exchange. You may register online to attend one of the below sessions:

April 16 – 2:00-3:30 PM
April 22 – 1:00-2:15 PM
May 20 – 2:00-3:30 PM

  1. Program Changes Approved by the Curriculum Council
    are program changes approved by the Curriculum Council during March 2020. These changes are not required to be approved by the Faculty Senate and are included for information only.
  1. Vacancies
    Please notify the Faculty Senate Office if a sabbatical, leave or retirement will prevent completion of your term as either a Senator or Faculty Senate committee/council member. If you are away more than one term, exclusive of summer term, a replacement is required. This information will assist us in identifying a replacement.

         If you are unsure when your Senator or committee/council term ends, you may check the Senator membership list or the Committees & Councils site.

  1. 2020 Faculty Senate Meetings
    Please reserve the following dates for Faculty Senate meetings for the remainder of the academic year: May 14 and June 11 – all meetings are scheduled to begin at 3:00 PM. Due to the COVID-19 crisis, until further notice, Faculty Senate meetings will be via Zoom – Zoom login instructions were in the email.

         As a reminder, Senators are responsible for finding a proxy to represent them when unable to attend.

          Non-Senators are welcome to participate but, due to recent Zoom bombing incidents, the login instructions are not being published. If you wish to remotely participate in the meeting, please send an email requesting to participate, including your name and unit (please, no abbreviations) to either [email protected] or [email protected].

  1. REPORT FROM THE FACULTY SENATE PRESIDENT
    Dwaine Plaza
  1. NEW BUSINESS
    • There was no new business

 

Meeting recap provided by Vickie Nunnemaker, Faculty Senate staff.

 

All participants attended remotely
Members Present:
Agricultural Sciences: Burkholder, Dugger, Etherington, Godwin, Gwin, Lambrinos, Moyer, Sanchez, Tullos, Turpin
Associated Faculty: Alexis, Buckley, Bunnage, Cholewinski, Fleming, Gaines, Gillies, Greenough, Hayes, Real, Riney, Rose, Signs, Silbernagel, Trelstad
Business: Bourne, Huff, Paterson, Scott, Stornelli, Swift, Villalobos
Cascades: Dahl, McCalpine, Reuter, Witzke
Earth, Ocean, & Atmospheric Sciences: Becker, Colwell, Dever, Ruggiero, Spitz, Watkins-Brandt


Education: Thompson
Engineering: Fronk, Grimm, Jovanovic, MacCarty, Paasch, Porter, Wong
Extension: Arispe, Davis, Hein
Forestry: Creighton, Huber
Hatfield Marine Science Center: Miller
Liberal Arts: Becker Blease, Boovy, Edwards, Emerson, Inderbitzin, Kaplan, Maes, Mize, Rodgers, Shaw, Sheehan, Shirazi, Warner
Library: Lorente
Pharmacy: Olstad, Zumach
Public Health & Human Sciences: Bray, Ceraso, Hoffman, MacTavish, Mendez-Luck
ROTC: N/A
Science: Bokil, Bruslind, Gable, Jansen, Kayes, Mason, Petsche, Quick, Thomann, van Zee
Student Affairs: Alvarez-Cortez, Atebe, Bowling, Sanchez, Smith, Whitebear
Veterinary Medicine: No senators present

 

Members Absent:
Agricultural Sciences: Hayes, Moore, Sherman
Associated Faculty: Aguilar, Davis-White Eyes, Viggiani, Yee
Business: No senators absent
Cascades: No senators absent
Earth, Ocean, & Atmospheric Sciences: No senators absent
Education: Golya
Engineering: Blunck, Jensen, Nembhard
Extension: No senators absent
Forestry: No senators absent
Hatfield Marine Science Center: No senators absent
Liberal Arts: Hamblin, Lauer
Library: No senators absent
Pharmacy: No senators absent
Public Health & Human Sciences: Bovbjerg, Khanna
ROTC: N/A
Science: No senators absent
Student Affairs: Harris
Veterinary Medicine: Ackermann, Holder, Medlock

Ex-Officio members present:
Bernell, Bogley, Carson, Feser, Heppell, Plaza, Ray, Riggs, Waite

Non-Voting members present:
Bailey, Beachley

Guests:
John Barth, Tam Belknap, Stephanie Bernell, Brandan Brucker, Capalbo, Daniel Fernando Lopez Cevallos, Patrick Chappell, Itchung Cheung, Kim Cholewinski, Christina Ann DeWitt, Vicki Ebbeck, Alix Gitelman, Lisbeth Goddik, Elizabeth Grubb, Mike Jefferis, Robyn Jones, Dan Larson, Jeff Luck, Rebecca Mathern, Katherine McAlvage, Kristen Milligan, Deb Mott, Janet Nishihara, Nana Osei-Kofi, Robynn Pease, Randall Rosenberger, Marion Rossi, Robbin Sim, 1-541-440-1586, 1-541-228-4833, 1-541-829-0302, 1-541-829-1237