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Dear colleagues of the senate,</div>
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I just received the message below from our colleague David Hollenberg. Many other colleagues are asking questions and alarmed by the recent creation of a Task Force for Budget Reduction led by former and current senate leadership. We have only received confirmation
of such a Task Force on August 14 within the Senate Budget Committee (SBC) and it was presented both as a "done deal" and as a more confidential and expeditious setting for the administration to conduct conversations with faculty representatives than the recently
created Senate Budget Committee. </div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Several of us in the</span><span style="font-size: 16px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> SBC and the CAS Caucus
</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">have been voicing concerns at every turn about the difference between informational (top-down) meetings with faculty representatives and a true consultation process of vetting and decision-making. We are hoping to hear
more from President Mason about the works of the task force, especially as some of us have now heard from extra-official channels that the said task force may have been discontinued, making it the shortest-lived task force in our recent history. </span></div>
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Respectfully,</div>
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Pedro</div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Pedro García-Caro</div>
<p dir="ltr" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Associate Professor of Spanish | General Editor,
<span style="color: rgb(0, 120, 212);"><a href="http://journals.oregondigital.org/index.php/peripherica/index" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">Periphºrica: a Journal of Social, Cultural, and Literary History</a></span> | Co-Editor,
<span style="color: rgb(0, 120, 212);"><a href="https://www.aaup.org/reports-publications/journal-academic-freedom" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">Journal of Academic Freedom</a></span> </p>
<p dir="ltr" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Department of Romance Languages | School of Global Studies | (541) 513-8706
</span><span style="font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">|</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> <a href="http://rl.uoregon.edu/profile/pgcaro/" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">http://rl.uoregon.edu/profile/pgcaro/</a></span></p>
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<div id="divRplyFwdMsg" dir="ltr"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><b>From:</b> David Hollenberg <dbh@uoregon.edu><br>
<b>Sent:</b> Thursday, August 28, 2025 09:48<br>
<b>To:</b> Harinder Khalsa <harinder@uoregon.edu>; Pedro Garcia-Caro <pgcaro@uoregon.edu><br>
<b>Subject:</b> disquieted by faculty secret ad hoc committee</span>
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Dear Senators Khalsa and Garcia-Caro,</div>
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It has recently come to my attention that the Senate President has formed a secret, ad hoc committee the the administration claims to have been consulting regarding the elimination of departments and programs. However, my department head was never consulted
by this committee, but has been told that his unit would likely be eleminated. </div>
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That a secret committee which department heads and faculty was unaware seems to me the opposite of transparent consultation. Rather, it seems to reflect an attempt to keep the senate, the department heads, and the faculty unaware that decisions that would dictate
the future of CAS were under way.</div>
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I urge you to act to intervene in this irregular use of the faculty senate, and to urge that the Senate President hault the use of this secret committee for this purpose.</div>
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Sincerely,</div>
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David Hollenberg </div>
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David Hollenberg<br>
Professor of Arabic & Islamic Studies</div>
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Susan Campbell Hall 349</div>
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Senior Research Fellow, UNESCO Crossings Institute <a href="https://unesco.uoregon.edu/" id="OWA4f84e9b4-928b-8cf6-8a39-ccc1e4dbb888" class="OWAAutoLink">
https://unesco.uoregon.edu/</a></div>
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University of Oregon</div>
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