[Uosenate] UO Senate Meeting, Wed. June 10th 3-5 pm -- announcement

[Elliot Berkman]

Hi Michael,

Thank you for taking the time to bring me up to speed on some of the history of Black Studies and Ethnic Studies at UO. You probably can tell that I was ignorant of all of this when we began putting together this resolution. 

Clearly, there is a complex and troubling history here. The last thing we want is for this resolution - which is specifically about recognizing and taking steps to dismantle systemic racism at UO - to perpetuate systemic inequity. We welcome amendments and will discuss any that are moved tomorrow. Michael, your comments underscore to me the possibility that any mention or omission of specific departments and programs carries the possibility of triggering unintended consequences stemming from histories of which we are unaware. I encourage us all to be mindful of that possibility as we discuss this resolution tomorrow.

-Ell
 

> On Jun 9, 2020, at 2:57 PM, Michael Hames-Garcia <mhamesg at uoregon.edu> wrote:
> 
> Dear Elliot,
>  
> I have so much to say in response, but not enough time so I apologize for the scattered nature of this reply.
>  
> <<Please accept my apology for the removal of Indigenous, Race, and Ethnic Studies from the resolution. I understand that its omission from the resolution feels like yet another case of devaluation and erasure from our institutional priorities. Of course, that was not the intention. Our rationale for taking out mention of specific programs was twofold. First, we did not feel comfortable calling on a program to take on still more burden without fully consulting the faculty in that program. The rapid evolution of this resolution has precluded us from doing that. We received this feedback from one faculty member who we reached out to for input, "I feel like we’re being asked to sign off on behalf of our communities, programs, and departments without any time to consult with them. For example, while I appreciate the sentiment of support for more hires in IRES, I don’t recall being asked by the senate about how to make IRES classes a requirement or what would work best for us.">>
>  
> Yes, I am aware of Brian’s reply to you. I was blind copied on it. I think you can understand that as a response grounded in the very issues that I discussed in my earlier email. A decision appeared to be made in the earlier draft about our curriculum. However, other parts of the resolution called for increased support for IRES. That was also removed.
>  
> <<Second, while acknowledging the tremendous amount of work that the IRES faculty have done for scholarship and teaching around these issues, including that program only seemed to us to be disrespectful to all the other programs and departments that also do relevant work and teaching. We specifically discussed this issue and vacillated between naming ALL such programs on campus or referring to them collectively while not naming each one individually. We decided on the latter, and this language from the resolution is certainly intended to include not only IRES but all programs and departments that work and teach in these areas: "Identifying and promoting existing scholarship and curricula, such as the Black Studies minor, that illuminate and mitigate structural racism and oppression and their effects on society…">>
>  
> And, with all due respect, truly, for other units that contribute to the study of race, we are, by definition, THE academic department dedicated entirely to it. We are the hub at which those other units you gesture to come together. I don’t think that BLST or CSWS or CMAE or CLLAS will disagree with this statement. That is because of our decades-long record of mutual support and collaboration with all of those other units. Any unit on campus that addresses race also has great respect for IRES. I can guarantee that. It is elsewhere that we are assumed not to have substance.
>  
> <<Michael, you also note that we do name exactly one academic program - the new Black Studies minor that the Senate will vote to approve as part of the curriculum report at the meeting tomorrow. At this particular moment in time, it felt appropriate to us to name the one program we are creating on campus that focuses on the experiences and lives of Black Americans. Additionally, it is notable that the creation of the Black Studies minor stemmed from the 2015 Black Students Task Force demands, which added further weight toward including Black studies in the resolution as a way of highlighting the senate’s action on that list tomorrow.>>
>  
> All of this makes sense, but also continues the mistaken impression that Black Studies has not been done in IRES since 1972 when the late Professor Ed Colman developed the Ethnic Studies Certificate. The insistence kin 2017 on developing a separate program derailed two-years of work on the part of the Ethnic Studies Department to develop a minor in Black Studies in response to the Black Student Demands. After a year of visiting  on the subject, discussion convened among faculty across the university, and a drafted proposal, we were told by CAS to scrap our plans. There is much about that fiasco that I cannot even begin explain here. But suffice it to say that there would have been a Black Studies minor proposal before the Senate two years ago if CAS and the President’s Office had not shut us down and attempted to force something else into being.
>  
> The Black Student Task Force initially called for ES 101 to be required of all students. A few students who were unhappy with IRES’s centering of queer and feminist intellectual frameworks derailed that Ad Hoc Committee on ES 101 and what emerged was a demand for a separate Black Studies Program. Over the course of this year, following apologies from Dean Blonigen and President Schill, Black Studies Director Avinnash Tiwari has made efforts to return Black Studies in some way to a closer relationship with IRES (on the model of the Native Studies Program that we developed or the Latinx Studies Minor that we have proposed this year). However, the Black studies faculty in our department—we have at least five tenure-track faculty working in the field of Black studies, probably a majority of the tenure-track Black Studies faculty on campus at this point—are deeply traumatized by mistreatment we have suffered over this issue. One of tenured Black Studies faculty in IRES is considering leaving because of it. Two others got outside offers this year and may not have gone on the market had it not been for the serious disrepect we have endured in recent years over the Black Studies issue.
>  
> By way of contrast, I convened a meeting of faculty and student advisors from across campus last October to begin discussion of a Latinx Studies minor. Our proposal was approved by the Undergraduate Council last week. Eight and a half months from start to finish. We were given no funding to support our effort. (According to Course Leaf, the University committed $180,000 to support the development of the Black Studies minor—not including what IRES spent on bringing speakers from Black Studies program at Cornell University and elsewhere during our 2016 planning efforts.)
>  
> In sum, we had a proposal for a Black Studies Minor fully drafted three years ago. We were not allowed to submit it. As a result, students have had to until now for the minor to be approved by the senate. This university has harmed Black students who could have already pursued a minor. That harm was rooted in the refusal to recognize and defer to the expertise of our department. I have to believe that the ease with which we were delegitimized, punished, and dismissed with regard to an issue as important as the study of Blackness is because we are Black Indigenous People of Color. This is not about one administrator’s decision in this or that moment or about intentions. It is about systemic racism. I cannot overstate the cost to our emotional and physical health and to our relationship with the University from the many collateral effects of these events.
>  
> We will bring this resolution to the floor tomorrow and, in the mean time, continue to welcome suggestions for how it can be improved. We will begin our discussion with the motion as it currently stands on the senate website, here <https://senate.uoregon.edu/2020/06/05/us19-20-18-resolution-against-racism-and-systemic-oppression/>. Should someone bring a motion to amend the resolution to name specific other programs or to make other specific changes (and we have already received suggested edits to other sections of the proposal), we will of course discuss and vote on those.
>  
> I want to close by thanking everyone - senators and others - for voicing your input on this motion. Working on this resolution is not an easy first step, and indeed none of the steps we as an institution will be taking across the coming years will be easy if we do them right. But Elizabeth and I very much appreciate the spirit of collective action that everyone is bringing to this. In the end, we are working toward the same broad goal and everyone we’ve connected with has been eager to do the hard work and do it as well as we can.
> 
> -Ell
>  
> 
> 
> On Jun 9, 2020, at 1:06 PM, Anne 'Michelle' Wood <miche at uoregon.edu <mailto:miche at uoregon.edu>> wrote:
>  
> HI Michael - Thank you for this insight; you raise troubling issues.  My desire is to get something going, and a motion requires debate, but perhaps this is something we should take more time with.  Tomorrow is STEM-boycott; I wish we were making more of an effort to postpone business to another day and to get a document with more wholehearted support.  
> Thanks
> Michelle
> From: Michael Hames-Garcia <mhamesg at uoregon.edu <mailto:mhamesg at uoregon.edu>>
> Sent: Tuesday, June 9, 2020 1:02 PM
> To: Anne 'Michelle' Wood <miche at uoregon.edu <mailto:miche at uoregon.edu>>; Elizabeth Skowron <eskowron at uoregon.edu <mailto:eskowron at uoregon.edu>>; 'uosenate at lists.uoregon.edu <mailto:uosenate at lists.uoregon.edu>' <uosenate at lists.uoregon.edu <mailto:uosenate at lists.uoregon.edu>>
> Subject: Re: [Uosenate] UO Senate Meeting, Wed. June 10th 3-5 pm -- announcement
>  
> Hi Elizabeth and all,
>  
> I want to thank Edward and others for bringing up some of the shortcomings of the resolution. Personally, since I had given input on different parts of the proposal at two different stages, I found myself disappointed with the final product.
>  
> Among my disappointments was the removal of any mention of IRES in the resolution. The IRES Department and its earlier incarnations have been a force for studying and teaching about race, ethnicity, indigeneity, and white supremacy since 1972. It began as a certificate program housed in the English Department. It became an independent program in the social sciences in the 1990s. It became a department a decade ago and now has a PhD program approved to begin admitting students this coming year.
>  
> As a hub for research and teaching on these issues, its faculty have been massively overtaxed. At the same time, we have acted as a support network for faculty of color across campus (not only in CAS). Our faculty have participated in searches for administrators and for faculty in a number of departments, but have met with candidates during their visits in vastly more cases. (I, personally, have been on search committees in Education Studies, English, Cinema Studies, and Political Science, as well as searches for the CAS Dean, the University President, and the Chief Civil Rights Officer). Every one of the President’s Ad Hoc Committees set up after the Black Student Protests in 2013 had an Ethnic Studies professor on it. Similarly, Ethnic Studies faculty provided expertise serving on committees for the Black Studies Cluster Hires, took time to meet with candidates during their visits, and organized a welcome picnic when they arrived. This last was one of many informal social events and formal receptions that the Department has organized in an effort to retain faculty of color at the University of Oregon going back to the 1990s. When then-Vice Provost Russ Tomlin was going to eliminate an African Americanist history line in the History Department some time back, it was the Ethnic Studies faculty who met with Russ en masse to successfully advocate for the position. When history professor Peggy Pascoe passed away, it was Ethnic Studies that organized an annual event in her memory. At least three members of our department were involved centrally at one time or another in the change of the University’s multicultural requirement to the new Difference, Identity, and Agency requirement.
>  
> I could go on, but I am sure you get the point. Without the labor and expertise of IRES faculty over the past two decades, the University of Oregon would be far worse off on issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion. We are by definition the location on campus where “scholarship and curricula . . . that illuminate and mitigate structural racism and oppression and their effects on society” is located. We currently have three black-identified tenure-track faculty members (two of whom are tenured) in a department of eleven faculty. Even where work on race and racism is done far from the Social Sciences Division, we have structural links that support those faculty. Our graduate faculty draws from PPPM, Education, WGSS, Sociology, History, English, Cinema Studies, Anthropology, SOJC, Political Science, Romance Languages, and Theater Arts.
>  
> To make IRES invisible at this time (while singling out the Black Studies Minor, which doesn’t technically exist yet) repeats the mistakes that senior administrators made (and have since personally apologized for) a few years ago in attempting to build a Black Studies Program apart from IRES. Without IRES courses, there couldn’t be a Black Studies Minor.
>  
> This invisibility also repeats an ongoing pattern of misrecognition, disappearance, and marginalization of our department that extends back at least to the Deanship of Wendy Larson, who infamously told us that Ethnic Studies could not become a department because we are not a “discipline.” After a student campaign and our own lobbying of Russ Tomlin and then-Provost Linda Brady, a committee was formed to evaluate our suitability to be a department. In order to provide cover so that it did not appear that Dean Larson had “caved” to our demands, both Women’s and Gender Studies and International Studies were also taken up and departmentalize. Neither of those units had asked to departmentalize much less campaigned extensively for years to achieve the status.
>  
> Ten years ago, we were moved to “temporary space” in Esslinger Hall because we had outgrown the space we were borrowing from History in McKenzie Hall. Within two years of moving to Esslinger, we were moved off campus to the Alder Building (which no student can find). Thus, at the same that the University was extracting huge quantities of surplus labor from our faculty and staff, we were literally shoved off campus. We have now outgrown the space in Alder and there is no move into an on-campus space in sight (despite construction cranes everywhere).
>  
> There is only so much disrespect faculty of color can take. Our faculty have won major national awards for their scholarship. We have faculty in our small department who have won both the Ersted Award and the Herman Award for Distinguished Teaching. I think that a majority of our faculty have won Martin Luther Kind Awards. We have won these honors despite the overwhelming service the University has demanded of us. Perhaps most shocking of all, in the 15 years that I have been at the University of Oregon only four faculty of color have left the department (one to UC Irvine, one to UC Berkeley, one to the University of Hawaii, and one to Yale University). At the same time, we recruited Guggenheim Fellow Laura Pulido from USC and have never been turned down by our top choice candidate in a job search. We have managed to create a functional academic department that is the definition of excellence in every way and is a magnate for faculty of color researching race and racism. Meanwhile, everywhere else on campus, white faculty blame the lack of diversity in Eugene for their inability to recruit and retain faculty of color.
>  
> We have accomplished all of this despite an unrelenting lack of respect for our scholarship, teaching, and service at this University. It is constantly assumed that what we do can be replicated as an added week or two in some other class. I cannot think of another discipline that is so often trivialized.
>  
> I cannot support a Senate resolution that continues to devalue and marginalize the work that I do and the Department that I helped build.
>  
> Respectfully,
>  
> Michael
>  
>  
> --
> Dr. Michael Hames-García
> (pronouns: he–him or they–them)
> Professor of Indigenous, Race, and Ethnic Studies at the University of Oregon
> Vice President for Equity & Diversity of the United Academics of the University of Oregon (UAUO) (our faculty union)
> Vice President of the Oregon chapter of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT-OR)
> https://michaelhamesgarcia.com/ <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/michaelhamesgarcia.com/__;!!C5qS4YX3!X_yUJIkbCtxbiowkNXd0WnnMy0NfsRL-wDgtPeI3KwkQ84CYNfwYB4f5k9D_awcBGA$>
>  
> DREAMER ALLY: I support all students regardless of status or identity.
>  
> DISCLAIMER: This account is maintained for professional communications. Unless otherwise indicated, the content and opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of nor are they endorsed by the University of Oregon or the Oregon University System.
>  
>  
> From: <uosenate-bounces at lists.uoregon.edu <mailto:uosenate-bounces at lists.uoregon.edu>> on behalf of Anne 'Michelle' Wood <miche at uoregon.edu <mailto:miche at uoregon.edu>>
> Date: Tuesday, June 9, 2020 at 7:11 AM
> To: Elizabeth Skowron <eskowron at uoregon.edu <mailto:eskowron at uoregon.edu>>, "'uosenate at lists.uoregon.edu <mailto:uosenate at lists.uoregon.edu>'" <uosenate at lists.uoregon.edu <mailto:uosenate at lists.uoregon.edu>>
> Subject: Re: [Uosenate] UO Senate Meeting, Wed. June 10th 3-5 pm -- announcement
>  
> HI Elizabeth, I am happy to co-sponsor the bill. It may need tweaking, but there are going to be quite a few steps on this journey and this gets us going.   Thanks
> Anne "Michelle" Wood
>  
> From: uosenate-bounces at lists.uoregon.edu <mailto:uosenate-bounces at lists.uoregon.edu> <uosenate-bounces at lists.uoregon.edu <mailto:uosenate-bounces at lists.uoregon.edu>> on behalf of Jay Butler <jbutler7 at uoregon.edu <mailto:jbutler7 at uoregon.edu>>
> Sent: Monday, June 8, 2020 4:05 PM
> To: Elizabeth Skowron <eskowron at uoregon.edu <mailto:eskowron at uoregon.edu>>; 'uosenate at lists.uoregon.edu <mailto:uosenate at lists.uoregon.edu>' <uosenate at lists.uoregon.edu <mailto:uosenate at lists.uoregon.edu>>
> Subject: Re: [Uosenate] UO Senate Meeting, Wed. June 10th 3-5 pm -- announcement
>  
> Thanks for the update, Elizabeth. The article/quote you included is quite on point. As I emailed you last week to add my name as a co-sponsor to the proposed resolution, and then today, contemplating skipping the meeting in solidarity with #shutdownacademia, your email helped me see the true reason of what our collective mission is. I will most definitely be attending Wednesday’s senate meeting.
> Thank you,
>  
> Jay Butler
> Business Affairs Office, Payroll
> UO Senate, Classified Senator
> UO Senate, Senate Executive Committee
> Environmental Issues Committee
> VPFA Diversity Committee
> University of Oregon
> jbutler7 at uoregon.edu <mailto:jbutler7 at uoregon.edu>
> T | 541.346.1126
> F | 541.346.1109
> Pronouns: he/him/his
>  
> P    Please consider the environment before printing this email.
>  
> From: uosenate-bounces at lists.uoregon.edu <mailto:uosenate-bounces at lists.uoregon.edu> <uosenate-bounces at lists.uoregon.edu <mailto:uosenate-bounces at lists.uoregon.edu>> On Behalf Of Elizabeth Skowron
> Sent: Monday, June 8, 2020 3:46 PM
> To: 'uosenate at lists.uoregon.edu <mailto:uosenate at lists.uoregon.edu>' <uosenate at lists.uoregon.edu <mailto:uosenate at lists.uoregon.edu>>
> Subject: [Uosenate] UO Senate Meeting, Wed. June 10th 3-5 pm -- announcement
>  
> Dear Colleagues in the University Senate,
>  
> Please find a copy of the June 10th Senate Meeting below.  I want to share that I’d given some thought to cancelling the meeting in light of the requests circulating to #shutdownacademia on Wed for the day, https://www.shutdownstem.com/ <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.shutdownstem.com/__;!!C5qS4YX3!Vla1JQotz5fhMG-FtvSi3LCksJitRVqp3oZaRBRtNCbR9JNS2yztYRzI2Erq88dN$>.  We have heard from a few senators who have emailed to share that they may not attend the senate meeting in support of this call. These are important collective actions and each needs to do what they believe are the best actions for themselves.  
>  
> I have decided as senate president to proceed with a modified senate meeting on Wed.  I believe that each of the items retained on the agenda are—more or less so—in keeping with efforts to take action against racism and systemic oppression.
>  
> ·         we will be considering and voting on the attached resolution, which we have prepared at the behest of a student advocacy group, and in consulting with many individuals on campus
> ·         we will be honoring several colleagues who have been nominated and selected for awards for excellence in shared governance and other leadership and service contributions to the UO, including several colleagues of color
> ·         we will voting on a new senate VP, and be accepting a number of courses and program mods necessary for such mods and courses to be offered in the coming fall term, including new courses on UO Difference, Race, and Inequality and
> o   Approval of an undergraduate minor in Black Studies. Effective Fall 2020
> o   Changing the name of the Doctor of Philosophy in Ethnic Studies and a Master of Arts in Ethnic Studies to a Doctor of Philosophy in Indigenous, Race and Ethnic Studies and a Master of Arts in Indigenous, Race and Ethnic Studies (effective Fall 2021)
>  
> Last week I seriously contemplated whether or not to proceed with the senate meeting.  I came across this article in the NYT which I found helpful: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/05/opinion/whites-anti-blackness-protests.html <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.nytimes.com/2020/06/05/opinion/whites-anti-blackness-protests.html__;!!C5qS4YX3!X_5uigh8C44wDQNWT5LbT9IeQwapKZViYAU0dQTh-UYJHyiWixD2PQ00R6d0PWAbdHs$>. 
>  
> My book is coming out in a few months, and I don’t know if I’m going to be alive to see it, because I’m a black man.
>  
> On Monday evening my agent, a liberal white woman in her 30s, sent an email informing me that she was postponing our important meeting with my editor the next day. The agency representing my book was observing a Blackout Day “to honor George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and the countless other black men and women who have been unjustifiably brutalized and killed.”
>  
> The company planned to “take this time to reflect and think about long-term actions we can take both as individuals and as an organization to address the systemic racism that persists in our business and communities,” she added.
>  
> To paraphrase, my agent was pushing back a meeting necessary for the completion and timely release of my book — which is about how black people can apply the lessons we derive from traumatic experiences to our careers — so that white people could reflect on how to help black people. I countered, insisting that our meeting take place as scheduled because black people’s lives are in danger, and I shouldn’t have to sacrifice momentum on a book written for black people because white people are performing empathy.
>  
> This helped me personally to make the decision to hold this week’s meeting.  I hope that many of you are able to join as well. I’m available to talk further if you wish…feel free to reach out via email or phone.
>  
> Thank you,
>  
> Elizabeth
>  
>  
> Senate Meeting Agenda – June 10, 2020
> 
> Location: Zoom (Please find link below the agenda)
> 3:00 – 5:00 P.M.
> 3:00 P.M.  Call to Order
> Introductory Remarks; Senate President Elizabeth Skowron
> Remarks; Senate Vice President & President-Elect Elliot Berkman
> 3:10 P.M. Approval of the Minutes
> May 13, 2020
> 3:15 P.M. State of the University
> President Michael Schill
> 3:30 P.M. New Business
> US19/20-18: Resolution Against Racism and Systemic Oppression
> Election: Senate VP & President-Elect for 2020-2021
> Spring 2020 Curriculum Report; Frances White, Chair of UOCC
> US19/20-16: Resolution to Adopt an Open Access Scholarship Policy <https://senate.uoregon.edu/2020/05/13/us19-20-16-resolution-to-adopt-an-open-access-scholarship-policy/>; David Condon (Psychology), Margaret Sereno (Psychology) (deferred to Fall, 2020)
> 4:10 P.M. Awards
> Shared Governance Award: Sierra Dawson, Jennifer Espinola, Chris Esparza; Intro by Elizabeth Skowron & Jessica Cronce
> Classified Staff Award: Cimmeron Gillespie, Intro by Steve Mital and Robyn Hathcock; and Char Fentress, Intro by Allie Heaman
> Wayne Westling Award: Kassia Dellabough, College of Design; Intro by Kristin Grieger
> OA Award: Herlinda (Linda) Leon; Intro by Amalia Gladhart
> 4:58 P.M. Open Discussion
> 4:59 P.M. Other Business
> 5:00 P.M. Adjourn
> Topic: University Senate – June Mtg
> Time: Jun 10, 2020 03:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)
> Join Zoom Meeting
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>  
>  
>  
>  
>  
>  
> Elizabeth A. Skowron, Ph.D.
> Professor, Department of Psychology
> Center for Translational Neuroscience
> UO Senate President
> University of Oregon
> Eugene, OR 97403
> http://ctn.uoregon.edu/ <http://ctn.uoregon.edu/>
> Tel. 541-346-9329
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