coe-fac: Request for Volunteers: COE Faculty Advisory Council

[Shaun Haskins]

Dear COE Faculty:

At our faculty-staff meeting in May, I indicated my desire to increase the participation of faculty in the day-to-day governance of the College in some key areas. Specifically, I find that we have had few mechanisms in the past to gather faculty input on communications to external policy and regulatory entities, and that I often wish I had a more direct connection to the will of the faculty when considering mundane matters concerning the direction of the college. I recently met with a group of volunteers from the faculty and staff and am pleased to announce that together we built a model that I believe will get us on the right path. The other participants in this conversation were:

Mark Horney, CATE
Richelle Krotts, Office of the Dean
Deanna Linville, CPHS
Deb Olson, SPECS
Alison Schmitke, EDST

Before asking for volunteers, let me take a moment to provide some more details on what we decided.

First, our collective sense was that this group should not be overly large in order to make it easier to meet routinely throughout the academic year. I have settled on 6 as a starting number.

Second, we agreed that this group should be convened on an ad hoc basis for its first two years, to provide me and the members latitude to determine what the long-term charge, structure and mode of operation for this group should be before we attempt to codify it in our internal governance policies.

Third, it was clear from our discussions that because the issues this group will tackle are overwhelmingly (but not exclusively) academic in nature, the composition should be primarily (but not exclusively) faculty from our academic departments. I believe 4 instructional faculty, 1 research faculty and 1 clinical/outreach faculty member should provide a good starting point. Further, because the purpose of the group is to offer a sense of collective faculty wisdom in addition to personal perspectives, only faculty in their second or later year of employment with the College and with an appointment at .75 FTE or higher will be eligible to serve. My hope is that the faculty selected for this committee will represent a broad range of instructional activities across our undergraduate, masters and doctoral programs.

Fourth, I have a secondary objective in convening this group. I hope to provide additional opportunities for professional development of our faculty in the area of leadership, and I believe service on a body like this one will offer meaningful exposure to and engagement with the issues and concerns of department heads, associate deans, and deans in the management of an academic enterprise like ours.  In order to maximize these opportunities for all faculty, as well as to provide some continuity, my plan is to have a mix of one-year and two-year appointments in this body.

Finally, let me emphasize the importance of this service to my job as well as to the college as a whole. Participation on this body will be a real commitment, and I expect that we will meet biweekly for as long as ninety minutes per session. Given those expectations, consistent attendance and a high level of participation will be baseline expectations of service. I do not want anyone to be surprised by the demands I plan to make of this group both as we negotiate its ultimate role and moving forward in service to the college.

If you are interested in serving, please contact Shaun Haskins (haskins at uoregon.edu<mailto:haskins at uoregon.edu>) to submit your name for consideration before the close of business on September 28, 2015.

Thank you,

Randy
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