Oregon State University Faculty Senate

Meeting of the Faculty Senate
April 10, 2025
3:00 – 5:00 p.m.
LaSells Stewart Center, Construction & Engineering Hall and Zoom

MINUTES

 

A recording of the meeting is available.

Senators Present:

Agricultural Sciences: Busby (remote), Calderon (remote), Cannon(remote), Creason, Elliott, Ellsworth (remote), Gwin (remote), Selina Heppell, Hooven, Beamlak Gugssa (v. Rondon)

Associated Faculty: Aguiar, Alvarez-Cortez (remote), Bruce (remote), Burns, Dorbolo (remote), Elmshaeuser, White Eyes (remote), Fleury, Gillies (remote), Hansen (remote), Hayes (remote), Henry, McCarley, Merrell, Ramos, Riggs, Rooney, Schaffer, Seton (remote)

Business: Baldridge (remote), Hall (remote), Leavitt, Morris, Krista Burke (v. Taplin), Trinidad (remote)

Cascades: Adoretti (remote), Brauner (remote), Orr (remote), Shaw (remote), Smith (remote)

Earth, Ocean, & Atmospheric Sciences: Frank Tepley III (v. Creveling), Crump, de Silva, Dever, Fehrenbacher (remote), Fram (remote)

Education: Dykeman (remote), Wright

Engineering: Apte (remote), Bobba(remote), Calvo-Amodio (remote), Howard, Amy Thomson (v. Mallette) (remote), Mills (remote), Moon (remote), Redfield (remote), Sherry Barrett (v. Rich), Scheel (remote), Wildenschild (remote)

Extension: Arispe (remote), Riggs (remote), Sundquist (remote), Tanner (remote)

Forestry: Panwar (remote), Powers (remote), Robinson (remote), Warren

Hatfield Marine Science Center: Wengrove (remote)

Health: Armington, Bovbjerg (remote), Garcia (remote), Gunter (remote), McGraw (remote), Newsom Riportella

Liberal Arts: Bernardin (remote), Bude (remote), Cramer (remote), Detar (remote), Gurung (remote), Inderbitzin (remote), Long (remote), Plaza, Reason (remote), Tam Ward (v. Sullivan-Vance) (remote), Whitebear

Library: Margaret Mellinger (v. Hussong-Christian)

Pharmacy: Morley (remote)

ROTC: Field (remote)

Science: Christie, Clark (remote), Cozzi (remote), Escher (remote), James (remote), Kerish (remote), Kirk (remote), Minot (remote), Root, Rowe (remote), Walsh (remote)

Student Affairs: Baxter (remote), Chambers (remote), Douglas, Garry (remote), Mott (remote), Wolford (remote)

Veterinary Medicine: Chappell (remote), Hall (remote), Tanenbaum

Senators Absent:

Agricultural Sciences: Cassidy, Scott Heppell, Velez

Associated Faculty: Bird, Walton, Ward

Business: Blackburne

Cascades: No senators absent

Earth, Ocean, & Atmospheric Sciences: No senators absent

Education: No senators absent

Engineering: Conley Jr., Haller, Simon, Tadepalli

Extension: Jones

Forestry: No senators absent

Hatfield Marine Science Center: No senators absent

Health: No senators absent

Liberal Arts: Becker-Blease, Maldonado

Library: No senators absent

Pharmacy: Suchy

ROTC: No senators absent

Science: Carter, Kayes

Student Affairs: No senators absent

Veterinary Medicine: No senators absent

 

Ex-Officio members present: Mike Bailey (remote), Dahl (remote), Devin Miles (v. Du Pont), Gorgen-Doll (remote), Hamblin, Hansen (remote), Mathew, Spitz, Valls

Non-Voting members present: Beachley, Palmer (remote)

Staff: Caitlin Calascibetta, Susie Sprinson

Guests: Nancy Barbour (remote), Brittany Barker (remote), Steph Bernell (remote), Julianna Betjemann, Vrushali Bokil (remote), Bradley Boovy (remote), Brendan Brucker (remote), Kristina Case (remote), Karren Cholewinski (remote), Jennifer Creech (remote), Brandi Fuhrman (remote), Susan Gardner (remote), Lynn Greenough (remote), Meili Gunawan (remote), Adela Hall (remote), Troy Hall, Carla Harcleroad (remote), Sebastian Heiduschke, Erin Heim (remote), Morgan Henderson, (remote), McKenzie Huber, Nadia Jaramillo (remote), Sun Young Kim (remote), Laurel Kincl (remote), Rebecca Mathern, Katherine McAlvage (remote), Gabriel Merrell (remote), Raul Moreno (remote), Janice Nave-Abele (remote), Valeria Ochoa (remote), Amelie Ollivier (remote), Ashley Peterson (remote), Shalece Rains (remote), Lucia Robelo (remote), Adam Schwartz, Etsuko Sisley, Stacy Spelling (remote), Caryn Stoess (remote), Jarrell Townsend (remote), Ana Warren (remote), Amanda Wright (remote), Steve Wuhs, Katheryn Yetter (remote), Maria Paula Vela Zambrano (remote)

 

Comments from Faculty Senate President

Faculty Senate President Andrew Valls called the Faculty Senate (FS) meeting to order. He reminded attendees of the voting guidelines and participation procedures. He informed attendees of open forum sessions with candidates for the Provost and Executive Vice President position. Final session dates will be confirmed and shared early next week. He also informed attendees that the Committee Interest Form (CIF) has been sent out and that responses are due April 18. Senators were encouraged to share the CIF with their colleagues. Andrew reminded senators that the May and June Faculty Senate meetings will be held in the Multipurpose Room (Room 13) of the Memorial Union.

 

Action Item – Curricular Proposals

Curriculum Council Co-Chair Jim Coakley presented 6 proposals from the Curriculum Council:

  • History and Philosophy of Science Graduate Major – Key #134: There were no questions or comments about the proposal.

Motion to approve proposal to inactivate History and Philosophy of Science Graduate Major – Key #134. The motion passed with 95 votes in favor, 5 in opposition and 5 abstentions.

  • Radiation Health Physics Undergraduate Major – Key #8: There were no questions or comments about the proposal.

Motion to approve proposal to inactivate Radiation Health Physics Undergraduate Major – Key #8. The motion passed with 102 votes in favor, 1 in opposition and 2 abstentions.

  • Yoga Studies and Yoga Teacher Training Certificate – Key #722: There were no questions or comments about the proposal.

Motion to approve proposal to inactivate Yoga Studies and Yoga Teacher Training Certificate – Key #722. The motion passed with 101 votes in favor, 1 in opposition and 3 abstentions.

  • Teaching Undergraduate Major (BS, HBS) – Key #747: A senator from the College of Health noted that this proposal may have necessitated a different level of review as this is more than just a name change. Jim explained that the proposal has two components; the various changes that are ongoing that are reviewed and approved by the Curriculum Council and the name change that has to go to the NWCCU, which must first be approved by the Faculty Senate. Any concerns with underlying changes should be brought to the college representative on the Curriculum Council. A senator from Associated Faculty asked if the major prepares students to teach middle and high school, and a representative from the College of Education clarified that the Elementary Education degree leads to a state license in multiple subjects, but here is a different degree for secondary education.

Motion to approve proposal to rename the Teaching Undergraduate Major (BS, HBS) – Key #747, to Elementary Education Undergraduate Major (BS, HBS). The motion passed with 97 votes in favor, 2 in opposition and 6 abstentions.

  • Honors Associate Undergraduate Major (HBS, HBFA, HBM, HBS) – Key #75: There were no questions or comments about the proposal.

Motion to approve proposal to rename "Honors Associate" in the Honors Undergraduate Major to "Honors Scholar Track B." The motion passed with 95 votes in favor, 6 in opposition and 4 abstentions.

  • Honors Scholar Undergraduate Major (HBA, HBFA, HBM, HBS) – Key #90: There were no questions or comments about the proposal.

Motion to approve proposal to rename "Honors Scholar" in the Honors Undergraduate Major to "Honors Scholar Track A." The motion passed with 95 votes in favor, 6 in opposition and 4 abstentions.

 

Action Item – Academic Regulation Revisions

Michele Swift, Academic Regulations Committee Chair, presented two items from the Academic Regulations Committee: revisions to AR 25 and updated introduction language for all Academic Regulations. Michele explained the updates to the introduction, noting that the committee updated the references to the graduate school to reflect the new Office of Graduate Education and added a comment at the end of the introduction to recognize that there are still students completing their general education requirements through the Baccalaureate Core as opposed to the Core Education.

For Academic Regulation (AR) 25, Michele provided an overview of changes made since the March 2025 Faculty Senate meeting. The committee made minor revisions regarding the language for the Bachelor of Arts language requirement. A senator from Associated Faculty commented that the language for Difference, Power and Oppression-Advanced (DPO-A) should be listed as 3-4 credits and listing it as needing to be ‘in the major’ puts it under specific rules that could lead to confusion in the future.

A senator from Liberal Arts noted that she proposed amendments to AR 25 during the March meeting that do not seem to have been considered; she requested that ‘in the major’ be changed to ‘field of study’ to be in alignment with the Learning Outcome, Criteria and Rationale (LOCR) document. She had also requested that indigenous languages be included in the language requirement, similar to ASL. For her first comment, it was noted that ‘field of study’ is not a term that the university typically uses in relation to counting credits.  A senator from the College of Business noted that there were a number of issues that needed to be addressed around this AR motioned for it to be recommitted back to the Academic Regulations Committee. Michele requested some feedback on what edits she should bring back to the Academic Regulations Committee.

Motion to recommit AR 25 back to the Academic Regulations Committee; seconded. The motion failed with 46 votes in favor, 46 in opposition and 15 abstentions.

Senator Whitebear made two motions from the floor to amend AR 25.

Motion to amend AR 25 to include Indigenous languages with ASL under 3D and 3E as well as anywhere ASL shows up; seconded. The motion passed with 91 votes in favor, 4 in opposition and 4 abstentions.

Motion to amend AR 25 to include language that allows DPO-A to be determined by major and count as 3-4 credits; seconded. The motion passed with 85 votes in favor, 7 in opposition and 7 abstentions.

Motion to accept AR 25 as amended. The motion passed with 89 votes in favor, 10 in opposition and 4 abstentions.

Motion to accept the proposed revisions to the AR Introduction. The motion passed with 88 votes in favor, 4 in opposition and 1 abstention.

 

Core Education Report

McKenzie Huber, Director of Core Education, provided an update on Core Education. McKenzie highlighted the committee’s meeting cadence and how many courses they have reviewed. She noted that Beyond OSU and DPO-A categories are still in need of courses to meet programmatic requirements. There were no questions or comments from attendees.

Every Student Graduates and New Student Orientation

Steve Wuhs and Brandi Fuhrman presented on Every Student Graduates and New Student Orientation. Steve invited everyone to register for the Every Student Graduates Student Success Summit on April 22 in the Memorial Union. The target graduation rate is 80% by 2030. There is the additional goal of equalizing graduation rates across different groups of students. Steve shared the Student Success Infrastructure and explained that the idea is to bring people together to strategize about what can be accomplished in the drive towards 80%. Brandi shared five themes that the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) identified while meeting with college administrators: access to funding for student aid and programming; interdependency of college efforts; balancing in-house and university-wide efforts; understanding opportunity gaps; and the desire to hear ideas from others. The idea behind the Student Success Summit is to think differently, work together and try to solve some of these complex issues. Brandi shared the timeline for the summer implementation of the New Student Onboarding process, which goes live on May 5. Brandi explained other features of the onboarding process, including applied and experiential learning and on-campus events for students.

Two senators noted concern that the lack of faculty involvement may cause the program to falter as earlier, similar initiatives have done. A senator encouraged the presenters to consider updating the parental tuition discount policy to align with Every Student Graduates initiatives. The presentation concluded.

 

Faculty Senate Bylaws and Committees

Andrew was unable to present this agenda item due to time constraints.

 

Matters Arising

Due to time constraints, there was no new business.

 

Adjournment

With no further discussion or business before the Faculty Senate, Andrew adjourned the meeting.