The following are President Gottfredson’s prepared remarks for presentation to the University Senate on Wednesday, January 15, 2014. The text is not a verbatim transcript of remarks presented.

Good afternoon. I hope the new year and the new term are starting off well for you.

There is a lot of change taking place at the university right now. As you well know, we are in a period of transition: We’ve had a number of recent changes in leadership, and continue with several key searches. We are in the process of reviewing our academic plan, laying a solid foundation for the formation of fundraising campaign goals and strategies.

We are in the process of implementing our new governing board, working with our trustees to establish an entirely new structure for managing the operations of the university. With that comes the task of separating from the state system, working with the existing state board and the new Higher Education Coordinating Commission — the HECC — to address each detail of an incredibly complex set of agreements.

I’d like to take a few minutes this afternoon to provide you with a brief update on some of these matters, to provide information and context for some of the transitions taking place.

I hope that many of you have had the opportunity to participate in the first of the provost’s academic planning discussions, which began with a presentation by Scott Coltrane and Brad Shelton on Benchmarks and Metrics. There is valuable perspective to be gained by systematically benchmarking key data against that of comparator institutions. The benchmarks that have been developed are helping us assess our position in relation to our AAU peers according to a variety of relevant metrics. We will continue to refine and share this information as new data become available.

The knowledge gained will help us in the process of Setting Priorities, which is the topic of the next pair of discussions, scheduled for later this month and early next month.  Those conversations will be followed by discussions on Implementation Strategies. The benchmarking sessions were well attended, with good questions and responses to the presentation, and I hope you will participate in this dialog — as faculty and staff, your input regarding the academic priorities and direction of the university is essential, and these forums are significant to the progress of this dialog.

Our new trustees will gather on campus next week for their first board meeting all together as one body — the various members participated in orientation sessions earlier in Portland and here in Eugene. In this two-day meeting, they will lay the foundation for their structure as a governing board as they approve bylaws, elect officers, make committee appointment, and formalize their responsibilities. They will learn more about their authorities and how we as a university will interact with the new Higher Education Coordinating Commission. Agendas and information will be posted on the Board of Trustees website soon.

This is a critical time of development and information gathering, a time to ramp up their first-hand knowledge and understanding of the University of Oregon, so they are ready to successfully provide governance to the institution, which begins on July first. I’m excited to begin working with the board, and I continue to be very impressed by the caliber of talent and expertise these trustees bring to the table on the UO’s behalf.

Governance functions were one significant component of the functions provided by the State Board of Higher Education in the past. However, it also provided coordinating and shared administrative functions.

With the new Board of Trustees assuming governing responsibilities on July 1, administrative functions that were previously shared among all seven universities in the system will no longer be provided by the chancellor’s office. The UO will be taking some of these administrative functions in house: treasury functions, tax reporting, internal audits, and some other back-office activities.

Other administrative functions that have historically been provided by the chancellor’s office, including certain elements of labor relations, benefits, and risk management, will be provided by a new Shared Services Enterprise that is a collaboration between all seven campuses.

The Shared Services Enterprise was developed by a presidents’ task force this past fall. The basic idea is that the universities will develop a voluntary, opt-in model of sharing certain administrative functions when it is more cost effective to do so. The services will be “hosted” by individual campuses in order to keep the administrative costs as low as possible.

Download the Transition Cost Analysis issue brief.

We look forward to collaborating with the other institutions where it will help us to save money for the University.

As Oregon’s three big public universities assume institutional governance, operational oversight of the four technical and regional universities must be addressed as well. The State Board of Higher Education has convened a University Governance Work Group to discuss the optimal governance options for these institutions. The group is composed primarily of the presidents of the four technical and regional universities and their staffs.

This group has asked each institution to provide a five-year business plan that includes options for governance. The group will consider the reports from the institutions, and together with consulting assistance from the Association of Governing Boards will present some policy recommendations to the State Board and the appropriate legislative committees this spring.

UO leadership is monitoring this work group closely, and I will report to this group if any recommendations come forward that may impact the academic matters of the university.

I’m sure many of you attended the presentation by the first of our candidates for the position of Senior Vice President and Provost. As you know, the other finalists will be visiting campus for interviews and making presentations over the next several weeks. Background information for each candidate will be posted to my website the week prior to their visit, and you’ll find information there as well about how to provide your feedback to the search committee, which is chaired by Professor Alec Murphy.

We are very close to a final decision in the University Ombudsperson search, and as soon as we have a commitment I will make an announcement regarding that position.

Law School Dean Michael Moffitt is chairing the search for our next Dean of the College of Education, and Vice Provost Barbara Altmann is chairing the search for the new Dean of Libraries. Those searches are moving ahead and we will bring you updates as we prepare to bring candidates on campus.

Finally, I want to share my position regarding the proposed boycott of Israeli academic institutions, which several academic organizations have endorsed. I have joined with many of our peers at AAU and APLU institutions in issuing a statement in opposition to the idea of an academic boycott. My position is informed by my belief that academic freedom is the cornerstone of our research, teaching, and service to society as a public university, and that an academic boycott violates this fundamental principle. While I personally, and the university as an institution, fully support the right of individuals to express and advocate for their own views, I disagree with any effort that undermines academic collaboration in the pursuit of research, teaching, and scholarship. The full statement, which I’ve paraphrased here, is available on my website.

Thank you.