The UO Board of Trustees has delayed consideration of a proposal that would streamline the way the university reviews and develops its policies.
Interim President Scott Coltrane announced to campus and at the board’s Executive and Audit Committee meeting that he requested the postponement after hearing the concerns of campus faculty.
Board Chair Chuck Lillis agreed to the delay, and asked for reassurance that the university would immediately begin working on a revised process for consideration at the board’s March meeting.
The UO inherited more than 700 policies from the state during the recent governance transition. Combined with existing UO policies, there are now more than 800 in existence that need to be reviewed. A new streamlined process would be used to review the existing policies and for new policies going forward.
Faculty members were concerned that the proposed policy would result in less involvement. Administrators on Monday said the University Senate will, as always, continue to be the policy lead on all academic matter.
In an email, Coltrane said he has heard the concerns and carried faculty’s voice forward to the board.
“We acknowledge that these proposed changes could have been communicated better and that the senate’s leadership could have been more involved sooner in the process,” said Coltrane. “We now have a good opportunity to demonstrate to each other and to our board that we can move forward together. I hope we can put the distrust and negative assumptions behind us, and continue to work through this transition in a way that elevates our university and our shared commitment to academic excellence.”
In the email Coltrane noted that the proposal that would create a Policy Advisory Council to review all policies. It would create a streamlined process to review all policies to be sure they are current and applicable. It would also ensure the Senate has early review of and full purview over all academic policies, and that other content experts are involved in other policy review or development.
Before Coltrane’s announcement, the University Senate called an emergency meeting for Wednesday to consider a motion on shared governance.
Senate President Rob Kyr read Coltrane’s message at the senate meeting, which was received by applause. Coltrane was at a board committee meeting and could not attend.
Senator Michael Dreiling forwarded a motion commending the president and reaffirming their commitment to shared governance.
“We can celebrate this moment of collaboration that stands before us,” Dreiling said.
The UO board will consider the repeal of several dozen inapplicable policies at its full board meeting tomorrow, and is expected to take up the policy process again in March.
—By Jennifer Winters, Public Affairs Communications