E-mail Notice
The notice below was originally shared with the university community via e-mail.
November 29, 2004
Re: President's Comments on Senate Report on the Strategic Plan
Dear Colleagues:
During a recent meeting of the Academic Senate, there were reports from several standing committees on the draft Strategic Plan for our University. I was deeply disappointed in the report from the Educational Policies Committee and said so during the meeting. Professor Fulgham, Chair of the Senate, has asked me to make my comments public so that the campus and the Senate would have them in written form. I do so below to the best of my memory. I believe I spoke for about 3-5 minutes.
The report from the Educational Policies Committee disappointed me because I believe it represents an effort to frustrate and delay change in the University. This report takes a very negative perspective on a document that represents more than a year's work by about 200 people. The Educational Policies Committee's recommendations are largely to keep the University where it is now. The report raises the spurious argument that we intend to transform this institution into a research university. That is simply false. I do believe our faculty should be engaged in scholarship and creative activities for the good of our students, themselves and our region. I strongly believe that one cannot be an effective teacher without also being a good scholar. One of the most important skills we teach students is how to be a scholar.
I am particularly concerned with the recommendation from the committee which stated, "It is unacceptable to remove the language 'equal in weight and compensatory in combination' from Appendix J." I have been told that this language has been used in the past to tenure faculty who did not meet minimal requirements for scholarship of any kind. Whether this is accurate, I do not know. However, both the Provost and I recommend its removal from Appendix J. All the faculty at Humboldt State University should be engaged in scholarship or creative activities. One of the things that I admire about many of our faculty is that they use their scholarship to benefit our students.
Finally, I pointed out to the Senate that they had just unanimously recommended a faculty member to be named the Outstanding Professor for 2004/05. This person is an exemplary Professor who is an excellent teacher and an excellent scholar. This individual and the other Outstanding Professors who have been named during my tenure at Humboldt State University were all excellent scholars as well as exemplary teachers demonstrating that such achievements are possible at HSU.
To the best of my memory, this was the substance of my comments. Although, I did not state the following explicitly during the Senate meeting, I hope these remarks may help to clarify any possible misconceptions about my intent. I take a broad view of scholarship and creative activities that includes the scholarship of teaching as long as that scholarship is peer reviewed and shared broadly within the discipline. And the expectation for all faculty to engage in scholarly or creative activity is not meant to diminish in any way the long standing commitment of this university to very high quality undergraduate instruction.
Sincerely,
Rollin C. Richmond
President