Members of a UO Senate task force presented a list of more than 20 recommendations for addressing sexual violence and misconduct on campus at a packed meeting Wednesday.

In a report that followed more than three months of work, the Senate Task Force to Address Sexual Violence and Survivor Support called for a range of action, from establishing a central office to coordinate sexual and gender violence to requiring more Title IX training. Other recommendations included mandatory sexual assault prevention classes, expanded women’s self-defense training, a review of mandatory reporting rules and confidentiality for reports to the university ombudsperson.

The report, delivered by task force co-chair Carol Stabile, was part of a busy agenda for the senate, which also heard reports on the presidential search by search committee chair Connie Ballmer and on strategic planning and competitive excellence by interim UO President Scott Coltrane and acting Provost Frances Bronet.

The task force report is divided into three sections, laying out recommendations for critical policy changes, prevention and education and administrative changes. Some called for immediate action and others for further examination before making final decisions.

“We all know that the problem of campus sexual violence is not a new one,” Stabile said. “But national attention to the problem inspired by campus activists, scholars, lawyers, politicians and the leadership provided by the White House has broken the silence and secrecy on which sexual violence thrives.”

The recommendation on creating a new office to coordinate sexual and gender violence responses was particularly important, Stabile said. The office could reduce confusion resulting from the decentralized nature of response programs now and do more to make substantive changes in campus attitudes about sexual violence, she said.

“Unfortunately, sexual violence is part of the culture of many universities in the United States,” Stabile said. “Preventing sexual violence will involve changing the culture of the university at all levels.”

Coltrane thanked the task force for its recommendations and commended members for their work. He said he will review them carefully, along with a report from an outside review panel and other internal reports.

“We will want to look at this report in consort with the President’s Review Panel, the code of conduct review, the efforts of the Division of Student Life and others,” he said after the meeting. “Many of these require resources, and we will need to look at that carefully to prioritize and focus our efforts. But we have to tackle this, and we will tackle it on multiple levels.”

Coltrane later reviewed the university’s plans to boost the UO’s competitive excellence ― strategic initiatives to boost student access and success, faculty hiring and research and new and upgraded facilities.

He outlined both the UO’s strengths ― a productive and engaged faculty, talented students, a new governance structure and strong donor base ― and its challenges, which largely center on funding. Moving the university forward, and upward, on a number of key measures will be a top priority in the coming year and into the future, he said.

“We have some challenges; we know what we need to measure,” he said. “How do we think about moving forward? We’re looking at competitive excellence in everything that we do.”

In addition to the $2 billion fundraising goal recently announced, he said the UO will work with the state’s other public universities to lobby the Oregon Legislature for increased funding to reverse at least some of the disinvestment that has taken place over the past two decades.  A plan to seek an additional $755 million for all the state’s higher education institutions, both community colleges and universities, would go a long way toward helping the UO meet some of its funding goals, he said.

“We need the state to reinvest,” Coltrane said. “This is an investment they can make in the future of Oregon. This is an investment they can make in the economy.”

View the competitive excellence presentation here.

Earlier in the meeting, Ballmer gave an update on the search for a new permanent UO president. She said much work is still in the initial stages, but comments are being sought from across campus and the community of UO supporters on the qualities the next president should have.

A new search advisory committee, which will assist the search committee in gathering comments and suggestions, was convened just before the senate meeting, she said. Public forums are being planned in Eugene and Portland, and an online survey is available to make it easier for people to comment.

A variety of information, including the names of committee members and forum dates, is available here. Ballmer stressed that the search does not have a fixed end date and will continue until it finds the right match.

“We do not have a need to find somebody by a certain date,” she said. “If we do not have a great person, we will keep looking.”

―By Greg Bolt, Public Affairs Communications