coe-staff: Critical evaluation of faculty service responsibilities

[Randy Kamphaus]

Dear Faculty,

Please see the message below addressed to our department heads. We had a robust discussion about faculty service responsibilities yesterday, and department heads responded with some preliminary, and wise, thoughts about how we might reduce “college-wide” service this coming year. Why reduce service? We need to control service this year, in particular, because our faculty have to a) focus on continuously improving remote instruction in response to COVID-19, b) reinvent our instruction, broadly defined, to meet the long overdue need to become a more anti-racist, inclusive, tolerant, diverse, respectful, and equitable academic institution and community, and c) face the realities of childcare availability, remote K-12 schooling, health risk, and other unprecedented employee challenges .

Our Office of the Provost is leading this effort by taking measures to reduce faculty service responsibilities throughout our university. For example, academic program review will not be conducted this year.

You will note that each academic department has to respond with their plans by October 15. Fortunately, this is a generous deadline, but it is never too soon to begin preparing for it.

Regards,

Randy
C Staff

Dear Department Heads,

We have a late breaking agenda item for our meeting this afternoon (see template attached and message below). Although we have a fall deadline, I would like to begin deliberations about managing service responsibilities soon in the interest of facilitating faculty decision making. I am also copying deans so that they can help facilitate departmental conversations. Finally, I am copying Development and Communications offices to help them consider their requests for faculty service.

The Provost is asking that all non-essential service be postponed over the coming academic year as we continue to navigate the COVID crisis. Recognizing that what is considered essential is in many ways a local decision, we are asking department heads to convene their faculty to discuss essential service for the coming year and to address equitable principles of allocating, including considerations of those faculty with increased caregiver responsibilities, faculty rank, and other professional responsibilities. The following three overarching principles should guide departmental conversations about what is essential and non-essential service:

a. the importance of shared governance;
b. building community/support within departments; and
c. advancement of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

The attached template should be completed following the discussion and sent by department head to school/college dean who will then forwarded to execviceprovost at uoregon.edu<mailto:execviceprovost at uoregon.edu>. The faculty discussions should take place as soon as is practical in fall term, with OtP receiving the completed templates no later than October 15, 2020.

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