November 14, 2019

Dear colleagues,

Below is a summary of the All Leadership Team (ALT) meeting, which took place on Wednesday, November 12.

Members in attendance: Andra Brichacek, Josh Buetow, Chris Chavez, Pat Curtin, Donna Davis (virtually), Andrew DeVigal (virtually), Maria Fisher-Boothe, Scott Maier, Todd Milbourn, Juan-Carlos Molleda (moderator), Sung Park, Leslie Steeves, Gretchen Soderlund, and Angie Whittington (notetaker)

Guest(s): Ellen Peters

Observer(s): Gabriela Martinez

Dear colleagues,

Below is a summary of the All Leadership Team (ALT) meeting, which took place on Wednesday, November 12.

Members in attendance: Andra Brichacek, Josh Buetow, Chris Chavez, Pat Curtin, Donna Davis (virtually), Andrew DeVigal (virtually), Maria Fisher-Boothe, Scott Maier, Todd Milbourn, Juan-Carlos Molleda (moderator), Sung Park, Leslie Steeves, Gretchen Soderlund, and Angie Whittington (notetaker)

Guest(s): Ellen Peters

Observer(s): Gabriela Martinez

• Incentivizing Eugene faculty teaching in Portland – Donna Davis proposed counting one class in Portland as 1.5 classes. Others argued that we cannot spare an essentially .5 release for Eugene classes. It was alternatively suggested that faculty teaching in Portland be paid a stipend for course overload. Next Steps: Josh recommended a course assessment of core Portland classes that should be taught by Eugene-based faculty. Options to incentivize Eugene-based faculty participation in Portland-based professional master’s programs will be further explored and presented to the faculty for consideration.

• Speaker nominations – Andra Brichacek explained that we have time and resources to do something special with the Ruhl Lecture this year to amplify the commemoration of the 20th Anniversary of the Payne Award for Ethics in Journalism. Next steps: The Journalism area ideally will own the event and discuss it. Tim, Juan-Carlos, and Andra will attend the next journalism sequence meeting. We will seek speakers with connections to SOJC networks. The preference will be to find someone who is relevant to students. The communications team will continue to handle logistics, but ideally the event would be endorsed by the journalism sequence. A call for nominations will be sent out soon.

• MSCT Associate Program – Ellen Peters. The MCST team will open applications for an Associate Program on Friday, November 15. The goal is to foster deeper faculty involvement and cross collaboration among disciplines. Ellen also explained the center’s winter-spring programs and activities (attached). She briefly discussed the rationale and process for the potential name change for MCST. The primary mission of the center is research and teaching in science communication, and the proposed new name will reflect this. Next steps: We will communicate clearly that the mission of the center has not changed. Consultation about the name change will require broader conversations with the President and Provost office because this is a presidential initiative. The MCST team will present at the faculty staff meeting on Friday.

• Action Plan Update – Open forum
Scott appreciated that multiple issues from the climate survey and retreat have been addressed. He supported creating a mobile newsroom. He also said the idea of an optional seven-course teaching load for career faculty raises questions, but he is glad to see the conversation started. Juan-Carlos reported that the ‘Oregon Story’ project is still under collaborative discussion and requires significant funds. Andrew suggested leveraging Snowden or OPB networks to build the project. Next steps: We need to converse further about the implications of reducing course loads. Josh, Juan-Carlos, and others will do an analysis in preparation for the quarterly financial meeting with Central Administration on December 20. Josh and Juan-Carlos will report back to the ALT and faculty and staff in January.

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November 7, 2019

Dear colleagues,

Here is a summary of the meeting I had with associate deans (Executive Leadership Team) on Monday.

• Overview on What’s Information? Conference – Janet Wasko. Document attached. Janet is working on funding, facilities, reception, and is open to suggestions about possible keynote speakers for the event. Doctoral students that are excited to work with this conference. We would like to include this with the 25th Anniversary of the PhD celebration as a way to “continue celebrating”. Janet was invited to present the update to the ELT because we don’t want the conference to be a missed opportunity, and we would like to be more involved in the planning and execution. The provost office has approved of the event and sponsored it at a 4k level.
• Career Faculty hiring discussion – Pat Curtin. We talked about making sure current and future career faculty searches are managed similar to research faculty searches. In addition, we talked about pressing needs to explore hiring career faculty (if E&G budget permits) to fill the gap in television/broadcast instruction, as well as alleviate the pressure of class size in Media Studies. Nothing will be moved forward without consultation with the faculty. The academic vision exercise during the next faculty and staff meeting, as well as the potential IHP proposals will be used as part of the needed analysis on this ongoing teaching capacity and curriculum-need challenge.

• Summary of event in PDX – Regina Lawrence: Communicating about White Nationalism: Challenges & Opportunities for Media. Nearly everyone attended who RSVP’d. The full attendance spoke to how important this topic is. We are working with four potential partnering institutions and the next meeting with them will take place on Thursday.
• Immersive Media Psychology position – Regina Lawrence. Search Committee: Regina Lawrence (chair), Donna Davis, Dave Markowitz, Waseq Ramen (PhD student), & Autumn Schafer. We have received 52 applications, eight semi-finalists, first round of Skype interviews has taken place (second round was happening this afternoon). The university asked the committee to be proactive in reaching out to networks and expanding the applicant pool to more diverse candidates. We would like to bring the candidates not only to Portland but also to Eugene, which is going to be extra challenging. The committee hopes to be able to announce finalists at the Nov. 15th faculty meeting.

• Strategic/ Action plan update – Juan-Carlos. Damian provided recommendations and offered some online resources for the continuation of the strategic planning process. Juan-Carlos consolidated the SWOT analysis resulted from the fall retreat, as well as a great deal of feedback from leadership teams. The second half of the next faculty and staff meeting will be devoted to a discussion on the SOJC academic vision. The Dean’s Office is working with potential moderators, providing insights both from previous dean’s updates, as well as a draft template under development by the Office of the Provost, which includes coordination with communication and development efforts. The dean will craft and send to all an update on the action plan, which includes a more systematic way to handle Dean’s Funds and other SOJC resources.

I would like to remind you that meetings of the ELT and ALT (All Leadership Team, associate deans, area heads, and directors) are open to all. For future reference, the Communication Team will upload summary/minutes of meetings and Dean’s Updates and relevant official announcements on the Dean’s Page of the SOJC site.