coe-staff: Senate Report

[Gina Biancarosa]

Dear colleagues,
I write to apprise you of several motions and resolutions that have passed in the Senate this year that will affect us all in many ways. Although the update is somewhat long, I encourage you to at least skim through the below to be sure that you are up to speed on Senate governance regarding teaching/curricular, research, faculty titles, new graduate programs, and service.
Best,
Gina

First, several teaching and curriculum motions have passed that will affect important policies.

  1.  The new undergraduate Course Attendance and Engagement Policy (https://senate.uoregon.edu/senate-motions/us2122-21-course-attendance-and-engagement-policy) no longer requires excuses for absences, but does require explicit guidelines in syllabi regarding how absences will be handled. I encourage all undergraduate instructors to familiarize themselves with the new policy and let me know if you have any questions.
  2.  The University Incomplete Policy (https://senate.uoregon.edu/senate-motions/us2122-22-revised-incomplete-policy) has also been revised. It still allows a great deal of instructor discretion in approving incompletes. The most significant change in my eyes is that when you enter an I for the Incomplete, you will now also need to enter the grade earned to date. In the past, unresolved incompletes automatically reverted to an F, but under the new policy unresolved incompletes would revert to the grade earned to date (which need not be a failing grade). I encourage ALL instructional faculty to read the policy and let me know if you have questions.
  3.  The Senate's charge for the Graduate Council (https://senate.uoregon.edu/sites/senate1.uoregon.edu/files/2022-02/Grad%20Council%20Charge%20Redlined%20for%20Senate.pdf) has been updated to reflect the conversion of the Graduate School to the Division of Graduate Studies. The Senate also took this opportunity to clarify the charge beyond its advisory role to the Division as explicitly entailing full oversight of graduate education at UO. Most pertinent to ongoing revisions to our programs in the COE is the charge to review and vote on (i) new graduate programs, (ii) revisions to degree requirements for existing programs, and (iii) all other changes to existing graduate programs.
  4.  The New System for Evaluating Teaching (https://senate.uoregon.edu/senate-motions/us2122-06-new-system-evaluation-teaching) has been approved in one of the more contentious votes in the Senate this year: 28 yeses, 9 no's, and 4 abstentions. This vote means the new system is now fully approved by all relevant bodies at UO, that all future teaching evaluations must hew to the Four Standards of Professional, Inclusive, Engaged, and Research-informed Teaching (https://teaching.uoregon.edu/resources/teaching-excellence). The Provost's office is supposed to provide training as we transition and the TEP office can support the COE and our constituent sub-units in adapting our rubrics and providing sample rubrics and reviews.

Second, related to our research endeavors, the Senate approved a revised Proprietary Research policy (https://senate.uoregon.edu/sites/senate1.uoregon.edu/files/2021-11/Proprietary%20Research_Revised%20Policy.pdf) that allows for faculty to conduct proprietary research under specific conditions that were not previously allowed. Pre-approved classes of research include projects involving cultural resources and property (including but not limited to land, names, symbols, stories, medicines, and language), standardized test development, and several others.

Third, the Senate has resolved to use gender-neutral titles by default for retired faculty (Professor(s) Emerit) in place of the gendered titles used historically (Emeritus, Emerita, etc.). Individual faculty may use whichever form of the title they choose and ask others to do so. We are one of the first universities to take this step toward gender inclusiveness in our formal titles.

Fourth, the Senate approved three new graduate programs:

  1.  An MS in Immersive Media Communication in the SOJC
  2.  A PhD in Data Driven Music in the SOMD
  3.  An MS in Applied Behavior Analysis in our very own COE

Finally, the Senate resolved to take three steps toward improving the assignment and assessment of faculty service (https://senate.uoregon.edu/senate-motions/us2122-23-creation-service-dashboard-department-policies-and-requirement-minimum) by:

  1.  Creating a service dashboard where each statutory faculty member will enter all of their institutional and external service.
  2.  By the end of spring 2023, units will elaborate their policies to explicitly define service expectations, procedures by which service is distributed, and how service is evaluated. The Senate will provide norms and best practices for units to consider by the end of fall term 2022.
  3.  Creating university-wide floor(s) for minimum service, with expectations graded by rank. While there will be a mechanism for exceptions, "it will no longer be possible for Tenure-Track Faculty to meet expectations in the area of service without dedicating at least 10% of FTE (44 hours per term) and for Career instructional faculty at least 5% of FTE (22 hours per term) to institutional service, whether to the department, school/college, and/or university. The other component of the service expectation could be met via additional institutional service, service to the profession, and/or public/community service."


________________________________
[COE logo]
Gina Biancarosa, EdD | Professor
Ann Swindells Chair in Education
Special Education and Clinical Sciences
Center on Teaching and Learning
ginab at uoregon.edu<mailto:ginab at uoregon.edu> | 541-346-2883 | HEDCO 354
1215 University of Oregon | Eugene, OR 97403-5277


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