The Board of Trustees of the University of Oregon held its quarterly meeting at the university’s downtown Portland campus this week. The meeting was the first regular meeting for new President Karl Scholz where he took the opportunity to discuss his goals for the upcoming year, which include building a collaborative leadership team, deepening ties with the UO community, setting the stage for expanded philanthropy and support, and building a roadmap for success and flourishing. Scholz also laid out his plan for university strategic priority setting which will launch during fall term, conference realignment and an update on leadership hiring.

The meeting also served as the first regular meeting for board Chair Steve Holwerda and Vice Chair Marcia Aaron in their current roles and the first regular meeting for new trustees Ruby Wool, Amy Tykeson and Andy Storment.

During the meeting the full board heard reports from ASUO and University Senate leadership; a report on a recent ruling by the Supreme Court and its impact on university enrollment activities; a report on university athletics; and an analysis of state and regional dynamics and the role institutions of higher education can play in them from John Tapogna, a senior policy advisor at economic firm ECONorthwest and a UO alumnus.

Specific agenda items the board approved at the meeting included:

• Unanimous support for revisions to the board’s bylaws, which included putting in place term limits for board leadership and numerous technical changes.
• The board also voted unanimously to approve changes to the student conduct code proposed by the UO’s Student Conduct Committee and the Office of the Dean of Students to align with industry standards for academic misconduct, including adding a separate definition of “unauthorized collaboration;” and adding more specificity to the definition of “plagiarism.”

The Facilities and Finance Committee, Executive, Audit, and Governance Committee, and Academic and Student Affairs Committee also met where trustees received quarterly finance and treasury reports, discussed long-term financial projections for the university, reviewed the university policy on retention and delegation of authority, received the annual university research report; an overview on the sisters cities program within the Sustainable Cities Institute, updates on the northeast Portland campus and a briefing on the annual research report.

Full materials and recordings of the meeting can be found on the UO Board of Trustees website.

The board is scheduled to next meet Dec. 4-5 in Eugene.