Faculty Meeting: Capital Campaign, Imbalance of Workload, and DEI Discussed

Discussions of last Tuesday, January 23’s faculty meeting centered around a current capital campaign, efforts to undo the imbalance of workload that some faculty members experience, as well as the state of DEI efforts in academic institutions today.

First on the docket was the President's report, which began with talk of the recent Portland ice storm, and a thanks to Facilities for their diligent and speedy work fixing issues around campus. Next, Bilger brought up a new suggestion form that Committee on Academic Policy Planning (CAPP) had instated for faculty to share their opinions. According to Bilger, their priorities lie within staff engagement, workplace flexibility, communication, etc., and it was reported that more information about this will be communicated to all faculty in a later meeting. Following this, the departure of Vice President for College Relations & Planning Hugh Porter was brought up. Bilger confirmed that she was forming a search committee in order to find his replacement.

With celebrations of the new year having just happened, Bilger closed out the President’s report with a reflection on the state of the world in 2023, as well as a prediction on what 2024 may bring; “We will be tested in many ways… what is happening in the Middle East is tragic… what is happening in the presidential elections… I have never seen a time that is more difficult in higher ed… I know there are members of this community who want to hear things and want me to say things, but I've never found it more hard. I continue to seek the right path forward. I understand that there will be impatience… it is deliberate for me to not make promises I can't keep. I have my own views and my own feelings, but that is not what I am called upon at this time.”

Following this, Vice President for College Relations & Planning Porter spoke. According to him, the latest capital campaign is off to a great start. Donors have been identified, as well as access to academic programs through financial aid. He continued, “Staffing is reliant on major gifts; we have recruited two major people on major gifts.”

As this report came to a close, Professor Sameer ud Dowla Khan from the Linguistics department spoke on Bilger's prior comments about the conflict in the Middle East: “It is sad to hear that there is no comment that can come because you feel that any comment would be controversial. As of this week, every single university has been destroyed in Gaza, by the Israeli government. 94 university professors and their families have been targeted…If almost 100 professors can be killed like that in just a couple months and it is too controversial…I am really sad for what means for what our college stands for.” In response, Bilger stated that faculty can draft responses to bring to the floor of faculty meetings if they want.

Following this, Kathy Oleson, Dean of Faculty, spoke about a new committee with a new acronym: FLAAP, which stands for Faculty-Led Assessment of the Academic Program. Their update consisted of highlighting their recent successes of the semester so far; “What has FLAAP done? Well, it has eliminated course information sheets, systemized collection, and dissemination of group-related student learning outcomes (via course approval process, academic catalog, and syllabuses), improved focus and support for climate and student success elements of the decennial review, and assessed advising.” The final announcement of this portion of the Dean’s report was that individuals can now give the Academic Success Committee feedback, in order to improve equality and accessibility of information about the academic program for students, and data for faculty-led assessment.

The crux of the report centered on the report by the Committee on Academic Policy Planning, in which Dean of Faculty Kathy Oleson spoke. The first motion was a course for approval, entitled; Epidemics, Ethics, and the Quest for Community, which was undisputedly approved by all faculty members. Next up was the tenure track allocation process, which has been updated for allocation by the end of March. An issue that has been talked about for the past few faculty meetings is the imbalance of workload throughout the college, and this was confirmed to be something that the workload subcommittee has been working on as of this faculty meeting. One of the first things they did was ask for input from committees across campus to make the structure better; specifically advising and senior thesis advising. As a result of these inputs, CAPP came up with a solution described as, just a “bandaid fix” for now, professors with high enough thesis loads can request a course drop, leading to more of a balanced workload. Further, Oleson emphasized that rooting out the causes of the imbalance of workload and focusing on how to increase the quality of meaningfully engaging with each other will lead to permanent fixes.  

Finally, Oleson reported on CAPP’s thoughts on distribution requirements; “We think that the distribution requirements should be reflecting values instead of trying to track enrollment…second, we should be anticipating problems before implementing any changes. Comments from the AdHoc committee were welcomed, but no one commented. Following this, thinking about revising the allocation process was brought up; both models for tenure track and visiting allocations, and this is because the college is committed to not growing at this time.” This part of the report was closed out with a goal for CAPP; “By the next faculty meeting, we hope to prevent revisions to the visiting allocation process

Next up to the stand was Paul Silverstein with the CAT (Committee on Advancement and Tenure) report. He reported that senior colleagues were up for evaluation at the college, and urged faculty members to write letters for their colleagues. “We are trying to figure out ways to do better…we always welcome feedback!” He said that questions centering around; How do we promote and support faculty development? And, what do we mean by scholarship? He then closed out his report that more information regarding CAT information will be available during the upcoming February 12 meeting. 

To close out the meeting, Phyllis Esposito, Vice President and Dean for Institutional Diversity reported on the state of DEI work across the nation, and within Reed. “As I looked at the New York Times, it said that DEI work is under threat…Despite these challenging times, I'm glad to be here at Reed.” She furthered her address, saying that OID has a willingness to partner and collaborate. “As OID reaches out… let's connect to find our path forward” Conversations have been focused, centering around; “How do we bring together community and create spaces?...” A lot of work is going to be done with healing and storytelling. Finally, Esposito closed out the meeting on an important note; "We are forgetting to hear each other…We have what we need in the room.”