President’s Weekly Message: Will Faculty Member on new PSU Board Have the Vote? -August 09, 2013

Governor Kitzhaber and President Wiewel have to hear from us this week that the PSU Faculty member appointed to PSU's new Governing Board MUST be able to vote!  The PSU Faculty Senate supported President Wiewel's push for an independent board for PSU on the understanding that a faculty member would be a voting member of that board.  PSU-AAUP did not oppose the legislation creating an independent board for PSU, believing that faculty, students and staff would be represented on that board.

The version of the legislation that ultimately passed gives the Governor the ability to decide whether or not faculty members on the Board will have the vote when he appoints them.  Governor Kitzhaber will announce the faculty appointment to the Board on August 19th.

The State Board of Higher Education has always included two voting faculty members, most recently including the president of the faculty union at Western Oregon University, Emily Plec.  According to all accounts, voting faculty members of the State Board of Higher Education have served constructively and well over the Board's history.

President Wiewel now says that he's "comfortable" with the faculty board member having the vote, but is not asking for a voting faculty member.  That's better than last week and the past year, when President Wiewel was saying that he was "agnostic" about whether the faculty member would have the vote.

It'll be up to Governor Kitzhaber to decide if the faculty board member will vote.  Please e-mail him this week to say that it's critical that a faculty member of PSU's new board not be marginalized by an appointment as a non-voting member!    Nobody knows better than the PSU faculty what's really going on at PSU.

Then e-mail President Wiewel and let him know that the PSU faculty member on the new PSU Board should have the vote!  As President of the Faculty, we expect him to champion our role in shared governance, recognizing our expertise in education and conditions on campus.

Please drop me a note and let me know that you were able to send these e-mails, or include me as a "blind carbon copy."

Best!

Mary King
President, PSU-AAUP