Speech to the University Assembly at

University Convocation, October 25, 2004

Remarks by W. Andrew Marcus

President, University Senate

I am here today to welcome you on behalf of the University Senate, which is the elected body representing students, staff and faculty at the University of Oregon

While I want to welcome ALL of you to the university, I want to place special emphasis on welcoming faculty to this assembly, and especially those of you who are new faculty. I myself am a relatively recent addition to the university, having been here just two years. As such, I can both empathize with the transition that you are making as new faculty, and reflect on special qualities at Oregon you may find set it apart from your experiences at other institutions.

Like all major public, liberal arts universities, we focus our work lives on the triumvirate of teaching, scholarship, and service – no surprise to you I am sure. And like other top level AAU institutions of higher education we have brilliant faculty, even smarter students and, of course, no parking. How then to we differ from Brand X?

The answer, I believe, is quite simple - “community.”

I have to say this has been a surprise to me. After all, I taught at four other pubic universities and thought I had the collegiate experience down pat. But that was not to be the case. Whether it be:

o watching the Associated Students of the University of Oregon work with administration and faculty to register over 7600 new voters in the past four weeks...

o collaborating with other faculty, administrators, and senior undergraduates to offer freshman seminars…

o sitting down in the President’s Task Force on Athletics with the Athletic Director, coaches, students and faculty to “break bread” – if you will - over contentious issues regarding the role of intercollegiate athletics in the modern liberal arts university – and reaching consensus after a year and a half of sometimes emotion charged meeting, or…

o simply talking to colleagues in the hallway

I have encountered a remarkable spirit of community and shared endeavor.

As faculty, I ask you be attuned to this sense of shared mission amidst diverse perspectives. It is something to be cherished, nourished, and protected.

o It comes from how you (we) interact personally as an individual with students, colleagues;

o It comes from the remarkable ethic of outreach and service that permeates this university;

o But perhaps most of all, for faculty, it comes from the commitment to participation in shared governance.

“Shared governance” – such a dry term – refers to the work going on behind the scenes. This work is carried out by the 4 Senate Committees, 28 University Standing Committees, the 16 Administrative Advisory Groups, and the 8 Externally Mandated Boards, short-term task forces, ad hoc committees, working groups, and college-level and department-level committees. Policies, recommendations, and actions coming from these committees provide the framework for all aspects of university life, ranging from ensuring our commitment to diversity to overseeing curriculum changes. But just as most of us don’t think very consciously about the structure of the buildings we are in – I believe most of us are not conscious of how much work is being done on our behalf by these many groups.

As new faculty or new staff, I ask that you consider how you might contribute to these committees and to this sense of shared community. This is all the more critical in present times, when fiscal constraints and the need for rapid change are pushing Oregon – and all public universities – into uncharted waters.

o How do we maintain diversity at all levels, when escalating costs place limits on access to the academy?

o How should we interact with the private sector to replace lost public revenues?

o Should curricula respond to a workplace that changes by the day?

These decisions, and many more, are upon us now. And decisions we make now will reverberate far into the future. By your participation, you can therefore mold the future at Oregon for many years to come. Never has there been a time when it is more critical to have the diversity of your thoughts, experiences, and imagination at work on behalf of our university. Please join us in this endeavor.

Lastly, words are words, and talk is cheap - and you may think it easy for me to stand up here and praise the university. But actions say far more. What you will find at Oregon is an action that – to my mind -overwhelms any other indicator of how deeply we believe in the quality of this institution. That action is the sending of our daughters, our sons, our loved ones, to this very institution, despite the fact that they had a host of universities from which to choose. My eldest daughter, for example, is a sophomore here. To my utter amazement, and even more to hers, she is now a major in my department.

As I look across the stage and out at the floor, I see many other faculty and administrative parents whose loved ones are attending or have graduated from Oregon. We are all proud of our children and their accomplishments. But we also proud that we work in an institution which we regard so highly that we entrust to its care the people most precious to us.

To this special place called the University of Oregon, I bid you welcome. Welcome!

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