Tag Archives: Navigating website

2016-17, Blog

Navigating the New Senate Pages

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Welcome to the new University of Oregon Senate pages! We have archived the old Senate pages in their totality, and additional  archived information can be found on the Senate Archives page.

We had two goals in mind for the new page:

First was to organize the overwhelming amount of data on committees, meetings, motions and the individuals who make the Senate work.  We did this by building a new database—basically a spreadsheet with a number of tables and links recording relationships between the entries in the various tables.  This database exists not only to keep Senate leadership, staff and committees organized, but also to serve that data to the public via these pages.  Currently there are four main pages which access the database:

  • Committees A-Z: This page has a list of Senate standing committees as well as ad hoc Senate committees, Administrative Advisory Groups and other committees which impact the governance of the University of Oregon.  You can expand each committee entry to see the committee charge, who is currently on that committee as well as upcoming meetings and attachments.
  • Committee Members: Here you will find a list of all members of the University community that are serving on committees.  You can expand each record to see a complete list of the committee service being performed by the member.
  • Calendar: We store events in the database along with, when applicable, links to associated committees and/or attachments.  Clicking on an event in the calendar will give you additional information for that event.
  • Motions: Currently the motions table in the database (and hence on the Motions page) contains the complete text and associated documents for motions discussed in the Senate for the last couple of years.  We will be adding older motions (and new ones too!) as time progresses.  In the meantime, old motions can be found via links on the Senate Archives page.

Most data displayed from the database can be starred by clicking on the bullet next to the entry.  Starred entries can be viewed by clicking on the star in the main menu from almost any page.  You can also find your starred entries (if you have any) on the Starred page.

The second major goal for the new web pages was to provide a platform where members of the University of Oregon community can comment on the work of the Senate, or engage in topical conversation about our university.  This page was built using WordPress as a content management system.  This system is basically a blogging platform, and we have the ability to enable comments for almost any content visible on the site.  For the most part, we expect the conversation to be accessible either from the featured content on the front page (the six major tiles you see when you land on the page) and under the Blog tab.  To make comments you will log in with your DuckID, and your name will displayed with any comments you make.  Please be respectful.

If you have any questions or suggestions for improvement (or simply notice a mistake in the data served from the database) you can leave a comment on the Suggestions post.

2016-17, Announcement, Blog

A note from Senate President Harbaugh

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Welcome to the new academic year and the Senate’s new website.

The Senate’s first meeting will be 3-5PM Wednesday October 5th, and we will meet every two weeks for fall quarter. Our normal meeting place will be in the EMU’s new Crater Lake Room, though the place for our first meeting is TBA.

The website is the work of Senate VP Chris Sinclair, Senate Executive Coordinator Betina Lynn, and Senate Program Assistant Kurt Wilcox. Past websites are archived here. We have designed the new website to increase transparency by making it easier to see what the Senate and our committees are doing, and to increase communication by adding blog comments that will allow for input and discussion by faculty, staff, OA’s, and students. It’s a work in progress and we welcome input – please try adding your suggestions about the website here.

The UO Senate has constitutional responsibility for academic matters, which derives from the Oregon legislation that chartered the University in 1853, as reaffirmed by President Lariviere in UO’s 2011 constitution, and more recently by President Schill. As Senate President I’m committed to working with the UO administration and the UO community to focus the Senate’s energy on improving academic excellence at UO.

To that end the Senate oversees the work of an extensive system of committees. This year I am hoping we can simplify some of this system, revise some Senate by-laws to make the Senate’s work proceed more smoothly, and better coordinate the work the Senate and its committees is doing with the system of advisory groups that the administration has set up outside the Senate.

In addition to the usual work of approving new courses and programs and hashing through the revision of still more university policies – we’re hoping fewer than last year! – I want to begin discussions about important academic matters such as potential changes to our general education requirements, and our strategy and policies for on-line and hybrid courses.

This year UO is revising its responsibility centered budget model, which has had and will have significant academic consequences. I am working to ensure that the Senate, working through the Senate Budget Committee, is fully consulted on these changes.

I welcome other suggestions for academic matters that the Senate should take up. You can add these as comments to this post, or reach me at senatepres@uoregon.edu (this is a new email address that will pass to future presidents and increase continuity) or at harbaugh@uoregon.edu.