[Uosenate] Supreme Court Affirmative Action Decision

[Senate President]

Dear Senators,



I want to welcome our new Senators and thank you all for the service you will provide next year. As you know, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of dismantling affirmative action nationwide. Ensuring the UO has students from diverse backgrounds is an academic issue - not to mention the ethical commitment to keeping public education accessible for everyone. Therefore, I want to commit to you that a key focus of mine next year will be on ameliorating the detrimental effects that ending affirmative action will have on recruiting and retaining diverse faculty, students, and staff.


I am under no illusion that ending affirmative action will not harm UO’s ability to maintain or improve our number of underrepresented faculty, students, and staff. This is not my first rodeo dealing with this vital issue. 1995 I was a freshman at UC Davis when the UC Board of Regents decided to end affirmative action. I was intimately involved in student lead activism at the time, culminating in camping at the student union and in front of the administrative building for a couple of weeks. Fast forward 28 years, and you can see the detrimental effects those decisions had - particularly on the elite UCs.


At any rate, I am confident that UO administrators are working to maintain our commitment to underrepresented students, faculty, and staff. My commitment to the Senate is to work in good faith with administrators and be a resource for them as they maneuver these new challenges and maintain a commitment to our values. The Senate could play a critical role this year in these issues, and I welcome any feedback from you. Please send me an e-mail or a request to meet in person if you would like to be specifically involved in these Senate efforts.



Cordially,



Gerard.


Gerard Francisco Sandoval, PhD

President, University Senate<https://senate.uoregon.edu/>
Professor, School of Planning, Public Policy and Management<https://pppm.uoregon.edu/>
University of Oregon
103 Hendricks Hall
Eugene, OR, 97403-1209
541-346-8432
www.gfsandoval.com<http://www.gfsandoval.com/>

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