Licensees
continued from page 1
the contract will be drawn up in
March. The committee will invite
selected University trademark li
censees to talk about the contract
in April. The end goal is to have
Frohnmayer review the code of
conduct by mid-May so that it can
be included in the 2000-01 con
tracts that will be sent to licensees
by June 1.
The group of students, faculty
and administrators reviewed the
corporate codes of conduct from
the Human Rights Consortium,
the Fair Labor Association and
the University of California.
The codes covered similar cat
egories such as equity, collective
bargaining, wages and benefits,
forced child labor, women’s
rights, working hours and condi
tions and ethical principles. The
content of each category will be
discussed in future meetings, Mc
Donald said.
“We’re starting a very good dia
logue essential to incorporate in
our code,” said Mitra Anoushira
vani, ASUO vice president and
committee member.
Just over 100 of the University’s
278 trademark licensees have re
sponded to the letter Frohnmayer
sent Dec. 29,1999. Of those, more
than one-third of licensees need
ed more information about what
was required of them.
For example, some of the small
er licensees may attach a Univer
sity trademark to a hat they buy
from a wholesaler, who bought it
from a distributor, who bought it
from an importer. These smaller
businesses said they may have
difficulty disclosing where the hat
comes from originally because
they don’t know.
Bigger licensees provided the
committee with their own codes
of conduct.
Diversity
continued from page 1
sought out for opinion on diversi
ty issues.”
Carnahan’s departure is just the
latest in a series of diverse faculty
who have left the University for
other jobs. In recent years, a hand
ful of nontraditional faculty, from
two to five members, have left the
University for other schools or
businesses, making a predominant
ly white faculty even less diverse.
Of 3,108 University faculty, 2,782
are white, 301 are minorities and 25
declined to respond, according to
the 1998 University Profile. But
these numbers don’t reflect faculty
such as Carnahan who worked in
diverse departments such as the
LGBTA, Women’s Center and the
Women’s Studies Program.
“It doesn’t seem like that many,
but when you look at how few fac
ulty of color we have to start with
it really starts to add up,” ASUO
Recruitment and Retention Coor
dinator Jason Mak said.
The issue became so serious that
in May 1999 Mak and about 75 oth
er protesters staged a sit-in at John
son Hall. They demanded the Uni
versity meet a number of diversity
objectives, including extensive
sensitivity training for faculty and
giving student groups at least $1
million to help meet their diversity
goals. Eugene police arrested 31
protesters. Mak was later appoint
ed to the summer diversity intern
ship program, which was a direct
result of the protest, to study mi
nority recruitment and retention.
Some, such as Associate Law
Professor Robin Morris Collin —
who is the only female African
American faculty member at the
University — say the racial cli
mate on campus is to blame. “It’s
like Germany in the 1930s,” Collin
said. “People are disappearing all
around us and no one asks why.”
Money talks
Some worry the University sim
ply doesn’t have the funds to keep
faculty from leaving for other
schools or other jobs regardless of
their race.
As cost-of-living rates increase,
the University has not increased
faculty salary to compensate. The
University pays its faculty 85.6
percent of what faculty at other
peer universities receive, accord
ing to the 1997-98 Annual Report
on the Economic Status of the Pro
fession by the American Associa
tion of University Professors.
Vice Provost for Academic Af
fairs Lorraine Davis said an exo
dus of good faculty is always a
problem, and it is more of an issue
when they are people of color.
During informal discussions
with faculty before they leave,
however, she said she hears the di
verse reasons from everyone, re
gardless of their race or gender.
“The experience for each indi
vidual is different, and the reasons
for leaving are varied,” Davis said.
“But their reasons aren’t different
from any other faculty member.
It’s related to salary or size of de
partment, for instance.”
Quintard Taylor said he stepped
down as the head of the history de
partment in June 1999 for an en
dowed history chair at the University
of Washington for the same reasons.
“I got an extraordinary offer ...
and a research budget the Univer
sity [of Oregon] couldn’t afford,”
Taylor said.
Robert Pena, former architec
ture professor said he left the Uni
versity at the end of spring term
1999 because he wanted an oppor
tunity to step out of his teaching
role and work at an actual archi
tecture business. He also said the
racial climate on campus had
nothing to do with his decision.
“I liked the University very
much and couldn’t have asked for
more support,” Pena said. “Doors
were open for me here. ”
But Taylor and Pena both agreed
the racial climate on campus will im
prove as soon as the University has
more money to offer faculty of color.
“Part of the problem is that the
University is underfunded by the
state,” Taylor said. “I can say if [the
University’s history department]
had the money, they would hire
more faculty of color. But goodwill
is not enough. We need a commit
ment of resources from the state. ”
Stifling diversity
But students and faculty of col
or do view the departures as a di
versity issue and blame the ethnic
climate on campus for pushing
faculty of color away.
“Part of it obviously is money,
but [the departures] directly speak
to how they are treated in terms of
the worth of their work, ” Mak said.
Despite the Johnson Hall protest
and his suggestions in the summer
interns’ report, Mak said he still
feels faculty of color aren’t staying
because of the way they are-treated.
“Faculty of color get pigeonholed
into all of these different commit
tees because everyone wants them
on their committee, and then they
get burned out,” Mak said.
Attitude adjustment
Breslow said he isn’t sure what
needs to happen to improve di
verse faculty retention.
“How do you change the entire
atmosphere?” Breslow said.
But he said the first step is for the
administration to look at what other
universities are offering their faculty.
“Things need to change in the
highest levels of the administra
tion,” Breslow said. “Why are we
an expert training ground and
then they bum out and leave?”
Mak suggested the University
could find out where it’s lacking if
it conducted formal exit inter
views, which currently don’t hap
pen. Provost John Moseley said
having a formal process wouldn’t
add to the current informal process.
“In every case of any faculty we
want to retain them, and we make a
very strong effort,” Moseley said.
“When we know of someone who
wants to leave, we discuss it with
them, sometimes for well overayear.”
Morris Collin, the associate law
professor, suggested the University
offer other diverse faculty the same
thing she was offered—a job for her
spouse as well, who is an environ
mental studies professor. She
. warned, however, that her sugges
tion could lead to institutional
racism if spouses are not offered jobs
that correspond to their skill level.
“That’s why I stay, but I am look
ing every day,” she said.
Carnahan said while she is dis
couraged by the University’s at
tempts to address students’ needs,
she’s optimistic that the diversity
intern’s programs will keep the is
sue in the spotlight.
Mak said a campus plan for di
versity is currently in the works,
which will nail down specifically
what the University needs to do to
improve diversity and pinpoint
who will be accountable and carry
out the goals that are set.
“Those who control the minds
control the populace,” Mak said.
“This is really about freedom of
thought.”