Senate: Presentation of statistics details reasons for Five-Year Diversity Plan
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appointed the diversity working
group in June to pen a new draft.
Martinez said none of the issues
being addressed in the plan are new
to the University, and it’s crucial for
the University to recognize those is
sues and work to become more
open about them. He said the rapid
ly-changing racial demographics of
the state and entire country make it
all the more necessary to urgently
address those issues.
“Even the term ‘diversity’ is often
not very well defined. ‘Who’s includ
ed? — Who’s allowed to be diverse?’ is
a question we’re not many times sure
about,” Martinez said.
Diversity is much more than just
race, ethnicity and gender — it’s sexu
al orientation, life experiences, social
class and much more, Martinez said.
Many people are reticent about di
versity issues, he said, and don’t un
derstand that they’re something with
which everyone should be involved.
“This is not an issue that certain
people on this campus have the mar
ket cornered on,” Martinez said. “We
all have a voice to give to this. ”
The data Martinez presented
showed the increasing Oregon pop
ulation, breaking it down by the fol
lowing groups: White, Latino,
black, Asian/Pacific Islander and
American Indian.
All groups are increasing, but the
non-white groups are increasing at a
much faster rate than whites.
“We are in a time of massive change
in Oregon,” Martinez said.
Martinez showed the high school
graduation rate for each race, high
lighting the discrepancy between the
number of high school graduates and
the number who enroll at a university.
He then showed graduation rates for
each race. Graduation rates for minori
ty groups were drastically lower than
the rates for whites and showed no
considerable increase. Martinez also
had data relating to only the
University, showing the same thing.
This is why the need to address
diversity is so crucial, Martinez said.
Students must be prepared for the
world around them, and if the minori
ty population is increasing but enroll
ment rates and graduation rates are
still drastically lower and dispropor
tionate to the population, something is
wrong, he said.
Martinez discussed the process the
working group went through when
writing the draft and shared the
group’s goals for the plan. The first
was to develop a culturally responsive
community, which he said means the
same as the term ‘cultural competen
cy’ that was in the first draft and criti
cized for being vague if not impossible
to define.
Community activist Zachary Vis
hanoff asked Martinez to discuss how
selling Westmoreland Apartments —
where 87 international students hold
leases —might go against the Univer
sity’s fundamental ideas of diversity,
but Martinez said it’s difficult to con
nect such a complex issue to data
about student experiences on campus.
Westmoreland update
President Frohnmayer updated the
senate on the Westmoreland sale pri
or to Martinez’s presentation. A task
group has formed to address the
needs of international students living
at Westmoreland, and two other
groups are addressing how to help
students whose children attend the
Westmoreland Childcare Center and
how to help students financially in
their search for new housing.
Beginning in January, the groups
will be surveying each student at
Westmoreland about their individual
needs, Frohnmayer said. The finan
cial aid office is currently working to
obtain updated financial information
for each tenant, he said. He empha
sized that until a buyer has been
chosen it’s difficult to pinpoint specif
ic needs of tenants because it’s not
known what will become of the
404-unit apartment complex after
it’s sold.
“We have no firm way to estimate
those numbers of persons who might
be displaced in addition to those who
would vacate the premises through
normal turnover,” Frohnmayer said.
“We will make plans on an individu
alized basis so that we don’t have to
resort to guesswork, but I think that
you know that there is some difficul
ty before we have a firm proposed
buyer to know exactly what the na
ture of displacement — if any —
might be.”
Frohnmayer also defended the de
cision to sell Westmoreland and the
reasoning behind it.
“This is not a cold, calculated, hard,
bottom-line, business decision,”
he said.
The University is aware of the con
sequences of selling the apartments,
and “we will deal with them as best
and humanely as we possibly can,”
Frohnmayer said.
“I wish to assure you that we
make our decisions on the basis of
the future best interest of the Uni
versity’s students and faculty, and
we will continue to pursue that
objective,” he said.
The search for a provost
The search for a new senior vice
president and provost to replace John
Moseley, who will retire in June, is
nearing completion, Frohnmayer said.
The search committee has met with
the three candidates, and all have giv
en public presentations about their
plans for the University and the state
of higher education.
Many who attended the presenta
tions submitted their views about the
candidates in writing.
“I will pledge to you that I read
every single one of them,” Frohnmayer
said. “That was hours of reading.”
Frohnmayer said he is confident he
and the new senior vice president and
provost will work exceptionally
well together.
“As some of you may know, the way
the management style of Dave Frohn
mayer works, it’s basically two in a
box,” Frohnmayer said. “The provost
and the president must be alter-egos. ”
He said the selection should be
announced soon.
The motions
The motion to close campus for
meetings of the University Assembly
passed with one dissenter.
The University Assembly includes
every faculty member. It used to be the
governing body for the University until
the University Senate was formed in
the mid-1990s, and classes weren’t
allowed to be scheduled during the as
sembly’s monthly meeting in order to
facilitate attendance.
Biology professor emeritus Frank
Stahl spoke in favor of the motion
and said the assembly is mandated
to meet with full legislative power,
and it doesn’t have that power with
out a quorum. The University
hasn’t been able to close for meet
ings of the assembly since the
senate formed, and Stahl said that
discourages faculty from attending
the meetings because many are
teaching class or are busy with
other duties.
“If the University closes, these peo
ple will be enfranchised,” Stahl said.
Stahl said it was concluded during
the last academic year that closing the
school for such a meeting would cost
between $6,000 and $8,000. Closing is
obviously expensive, but having to
continue scheduling assemblies be
cause the last didn’t have enough at
tendees to meet quorum is even more
costly and inconvenient, Stahl said.
Assembly meetings are rare, but
the assembly is the supreme gov
erning body of the University and
needs to have quorum to be
effective, Stahl said.
Renee Irvin, an assistant profes
sor in planning, public policy and
management, asked whether meet
ings could be held via the Internet
because “shutting down the Univer
sity strikes me as rather archaic,”
but Stahl said it’s not possible.
Senator Mike Pangburn of the col
lege of business asked what would
happen if a test had been scheduled
for the day of the assembly meeting,
but others stressed that assembly
meetings require 30-day notice and
that it should be permissible for profes
sors to reschedule class activities.
The motion calling for public
hearings about U.S. Department of
Defense funding passed unani
mously, though Biology professor
Michelle Wood warned against
pushing to eliminate such funding
because it would be instigated by
political views and could set a
precedent that could be used to
question other sources of funding.
During the final minutes of the
meeting, senator Jon Jablonski in
troduced a motion calling for the
University to waive any fees to ful
fill a recent public records request to
the University from the Westmore
land Tenants Council. The request
asked for all documents relating to
the financial state of Westmoreland
Apartments as well as, among oth
er things, documents that mention
the decision to sell the property.
Randy Geller, director of policy and
legal affairs for the University, respond
ed to the request by saying the cost for
producing such a large amount of
records could be substantial.
The motion to waive the fees
passed unanimously.
Also at the meeting, University
General Counsel Melinda Grier up
dated the senate about the Patriot
Act’s presence on campus, saying
she had received no inquires from
the federal government that cite the
act and ask for student information.
Contact the news editor at
mcuniff@ daily emerald, com
Tim Bobosky | Photo editor
Charles Martinez,
associate
professor,
educational
leadership for the
College of
Education, talks
about the Five Year
Diversity Plan at
the University
Senate meeting
Wednesday
afternoon.
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