University of Denver Faculty Senate Minutes October 19, 2007
University of Denver
Faculty Senate
October 19, 2007
Mary Reed Building, Renaissance Room South
Minutes
Senators (or their Proxy) present: Bill Anderson, Alvaro Arias, Davor Balzar, Rick Barbour,
Rodney Buxton, Victor Castellani, Bonnie Clark, Ron DeLyser, Sandy Dixon, Jack Donnelly,
Sandra Eaton, Margo Espenlaub (Exec. Secretary), Katherine Freeman, James Gilroy, Sylvia
Hall-Ellis, John Hill, Michael Karson, Peggy Keeran, Brian Kiteley, Maciej Kumosa, Gregg
Kvistad (Provost), Rick Leaman, Mario Lopez, Chris Malloy, Seth Masket, Don McCubbrey,
Robert Mill, Mia Mulvey, Rahul Nair, Kim Newman, Paul Novak, Scott Phillips, Charles
Reichardt, Nantiya Ruan, Susan Sadler, Dean Saitta (President), Nancy Sampson, Don Stedman,
Paul Sutton, Linda Tate, Donald Sullivan (proxy for Mathew Taylor), Gordon Von Stroh, Tim
Weaver, and Margaret Whitt, and Kate Willink.
Call to Order
Dean Saitta, Faculty Senate President, called the meeting to order at noon and welcomed
everyone present. A motion to approve (with corrections) the minutes from September 14, 2007
was seconded and approved.
Provost’s Report and Q&A
The persistence rate at DU is 86.9%. Over the past 5-6 years it has been dropping; last year’s
rate was 89%. We are using several mechanisms to get into the 90% range including First Year
Seminars and lots of programming in Student Life. Of the new students who enrolled last year
150 did not return this year. Most transfer to public institutions. The lowest persistence seems to
be among our economically-middle class students. They often have siblings who also have
college expenses. These families don’t qualify for financial aid.
Sen. Freeman asked how students are doing academically when they leave DU. The Provost said
we lose good students. They do not leave because they are poor academically.
DU is working hard to make the educational experience a good one for all students, but we’re
limited in terms of providing financial aid. We need more annual giving and endowment to
support student scholarships. Persistence was addressed in the Board of Trustees retreat last
week. The big message to the Board of Trustees is that we need to provide aid to this middle
class group.
Sen. Donnelly asked about staffing levels. The Provost described Board concern about
overstaffing and subsequent discussion about the issue. The bottom line is that DU is generally
efficient with staffing. Student expenses are at $45,000/year for four years, and for that kind of
money there is a great expectation of services.
Pres. Saitta urged senators to get their faculty out to the next Faculty club on Oct. 30. This is an
excellent opportunity to talk with the Provost. Please find the Provost’s Report to the University
of Denver Faculty and Staff for Academic Year 2006-2007 at the following links:
University of Denver Faculty Senate Minutes October 19, 2007
Provost Report in Adobe Acrobat version (138 KB)
http://www.du.edu/provost/ReportToDUFacultyAndStaff-20062007.pdf
Provost Report in Microsoft Word version (185 KB)
http://www.du.edu/provost/ReportToDUFacultyAndStaff-20062007.doc
Nomination for Dean Emeritus (DCB)
The nomination for Bruce Hutton as Dean Emeritus has been approved by the Board of Trustees
and FEAC, contingent on Senate approval. Sen. Whitt moved to amend the motion with a
proposal that Emeritus be conferred after Hutton steps down as Interim Dean. Sen. Sampson
said that DCB had already approved Hutton for Emeritus now. Sen. Von Stroh reported that
Associate Dean Hanbury and DCB faculty believe that Emeritus would give weight to Hutton’s
fund-raising efforts. Sen. Donnelly argued that Emeritus status will likely make no difference to
DCB donors, and that the better argument is one that emphasizes distinguished service to the
college. Sen. McCubbrey said some DCB faculty hope that Hutton would stay on as Dean of
DCB, making Emeritus status premature. Provost Kvistad replied that Hutton was not interested
in serving for more than one year.
Following this discussion Sen. Whitt withdrew her proposed amendment to the motion. Sen.
Von Stroh seconded the motion to approve Emeritus status for Bruce Hutton. The motion
carried by a wide margin.
Second Reading, Discussion, and Vote on the Vision, Values, Mission, and Goals Document
Pres. Saitta opened the discussion. Sen. Karson moved to accept the motion to approve this new
Goals statement. Sen. Clark seconded the motion. Sen. Castellani suggested “century” be
changed to “millennium” to better convey the longer stretch of time for scholarly inquiry. Sen.
Donnelly recommended the last four words, “of the new century,” be deleted. The Provost
reminded us that there is no room for wordsmithing at this point. The one addition of the word
“research” to the scholarship goal was precipitated by a convincing argument from faculty in
NSM that the word “scholarship” alone did not precisely describe their purpose as scientists.
The change in language thus validated a substantive concern.
There was a motion to vote to approve the VVMG document. The motion carried 41 in favor. 4
opposed, no abstentions.
Other Documents and Proposals
RSC Task Force Report; Chancellor’s Convocation Address:
Pres. Saitta asked that we discuss these further in our units for an anticipated future conversation
in the Senate.
Pioneer Athletic Programs Update (Guests from Athletics)
Anne Hoskinson, Director of Athletic Development, passed out flyers about athletic programs
and upcoming events. Bobby Muuss, the men’s soccer coach, said the recruiting class for 2008
looks promising. A positive value is that DU is a private school with strong relations with
faculty and DU administration has always supported athletics. Lacrosse is also doing a great job.
University of Denver Faculty Senate Minutes October 19, 2007
Faculty Senate was encouraged to come out and support student athletes outside the classroom.
Pam Tanner, women’s basketball coach for 12 years, said she was back as a student in the MBA
program. Tanner offered a big thanks to the faculty for teaching students life skills to be
successful in society. She said the women’s basketball players’ academic welfare is important to
her. Their cumulative grade point averages are never below 3.0. Women’s basketball is playing
Duke in two weeks, and she urged faculty to “pack the house.”
Sen. Sadler observes that coaches are models for us. Tanner said that DU faculty bend over
backward to help students. Pres. Saitta reminded senators that the Senate has season hockey
tickets and to see him if interested in attending a game.
New Business
Sen. McCubbrey said new committees had been formed in Personnel to evaluate Sabbatical
applications and nominations for Faculty Awards.
A new title has been proposed to replace the current “Adjunct Teaching Award.” The proposal
is for the “Ruth Murray Underhill Teaching Award”. It is named after a well-respected teacher
and scholar of anthropology who served DU as an adjunct for a few years several decades ago,
but who maintained a long relationship with university students and faculty up until her death. A
handout containing historical information on Dr. Underhill was distributed to senators and is
attached below. An archive of Underhill’s work exists in Penrose Library.
It was moved and seconded to change the name of the Adjunct Teaching Award to the Ruth
Murray Underhill Teaching Award. The vote in favor was unanimous.
Adjournment
A motion to adjourn the meeting was introduced, seconded, and passed. President Saitta
adjourned the meeting at 1:30 p.m. and thanked everyone for their participation. Saitta then
invited Senate Committees to meet if they so desired.
Respectfully submitted by
Margo Espenlaub, Faculty Senate Executive Secretary
University of Denver Faculty Senate Minutes October 19, 2007
Ruth Murray Underhill
(by Bernie Spilka, Professor Emeritus, Psychology)
Ruth Murray Underhill was a short-timer in terms of the number of years she was actively on the DU staff
[1948-1952]. Still, she became a valuable adjunct who appeared in day classes giving invited lectures or offering
night courses until she was in her 90s. A special celebrity aura came to surround her name and presence. Often,
particularly to those who studied Anthropology, she acquired the status of those great figures that define a discipline.
Indeed, she was truly an internationally acclaimed giant in Southwestern Anthropology. Some might correctly
suggest that Ruth Underhill was one of the foremost scholars of Native Americans in the world of the twentieth
century. Having known her personally for two decades, I think she actually headed the pack. She was truly an
exceptional individual, possibly the University’s pre-eminent sage for its first century.
Most biographical references state that Ruth Underhill was born on August 22, 1884 in Ossining-on-the-
Hudson in New York. There is some doubt about this year both from various sources and also from her own mouth.
She once indicated to the writer that she altered her age by one year to delay retirement. Then the question becomes
whether she died one week short of her 100th or 101st birthday. Her distinguished American genealogical heritage
goes back to the early 17th century.i There was little about her that was not distinctive, yet if she were told about
such images, she would have undoubtedly laughed at the idea.
After 1905, she continued her education at the New York School of Social Work, and then went on to the
London School of Economics.
Prior to her 1905 graduation from Vassar College, she displayed signs of considerable intellectual
motivation and accomplishment, all of which were supported by her family. With the aid of an uncle who was a
Professor of Greek, she began studying that language by the age of 14. Concurrently, an interest in History,
Literature and the nature of other peoples was manifested. Almost annually she traveled in Europe learning other
languages and cultures.
From 1909 to the beginning of World War I, her Social Work preparation took over and she worked with
poor Italian immigrants in New York, and became further involved with Settlement houses, charity organizations
and in Boston with abused children. During the First World War she affiliated with the American Red Cross in
Italy, and worked with the orphaned children of slain soldiers.
After the War, Ruth wanted to explore the human condition in greater depth. She wondered about the
attitudes, characteristics, cultures, and problems of different peoples and decided she needed further education. Her
method was to visit a number of departments at Columbia University. In her search, she encountered the famous
Anthropologist Ruth Benedict who simply indicated that if she wanted to know about people, she needed to study
Anthropology. Taking this advice, she studied with Franz Boas, the founder of American Anthropology and her
soon to be close friend Ruth Benedict. Another friend and classmate was the internationally acclaimed Margaret
Mead. The Doctorate was awarded to her in 1937. Later recognition of her considerable accomplishments resulted
in an Honorary L.L D. from the University of Denver in 1962, and an Honorary Doctor of Science degree from the
University of Colorado in 1965.
Pursuing her Doctorate, Franz Boas suggested she study a little known people in the southwestern United
States, the Papago. Combining the little money Boas was able to provide with her own resources, she drove to
southern Arizona, and camped near a Papago village. Slowly, she was accepted, and in 1936 wrote her noted
Autobiography of a Papago Woman. In 1979, the writer was able to get Ruth a contract with Holt, Rinehart, and
Winston to rewrite this monograph which was then published as the book Papago Woman. The initial 1936 effort
was followed by five more books on the Papago, other works on the Hopi, Navaho, and other tribes. As she
expanded her horizons, she penned two major works, Red Man’s America and Red Man’s Religion. Even though
estimates of the number of books she wrote start at about 20 and go up, I located 26, and know she had more. In
addition to her professional non-fiction, she also wrote fiction and poetry. She especially loved Tennyson and Emily
Dickinson. Ruth was an excellent writer, and once commented that she and another woman were hired to correct the
writing of Eugene O’Neill when he was in a down period of heavy drinking early in his career. Her strength in
University of Denver Faculty Senate Minutes October 19, 2007
language was apparent to all. English may have been her native tongue, but she was also fluent in French, Italian,
German, Spanish, and Papago.
Like other woman anthropologists, Ruth Underhill encountered the prejudices of males, and in one instance
when she disagreed with the famous John Collier, a power in the Bureau of Indian Affairs, she was removed from
doing any further work with the Papago. Happily, the Papago esteemed her greatly and honored her in a special
public ceremony in her last years.
Interestingly, she held a peculiar combination of progressive and reactionary ideas. As much as prejudice
and discrimination was recognized both against women and the peoples she studied, she expressed her own biases
often crudely. When this writer was working with the Oglala Sioux in South Dakota, she referred to them as
“savages.” Negative views were also voiced against other minorities in American life. Her feelings toward
Democracy were ambivalent. On one hand she felt it could never work in American society because of its
heterogeneity. Still, she couldn’t accept the excesses of a non-democratic system given what she saw as the political
immaturity of people. In all of this there was a certain elitism which may have reflected her own conservative
WASP family origins. These views were not well thought out, but rather impulsively stated. Disagreement was not
well taken.
If you could say of anyone that they were loved and admired by all, this was certainly true of Ruth
Underhill. Her ever ready smile accompanied a natural warmth that conveyed a welcome to all. When she lectured,
not only was she giving information, but also conducting a conversation with her class. There was an informality
which made students feel that they were personally part of an intimate group. When she was in her 90s, I would
bring undergraduates to her log cabin style home southeast of DU. It was one of her greatest pleasures to talk, as
she put it, “girl-to-girl” with the young women students.
In the late 1970s, Ruth would come to my course on the Psychology of Death and Dying where she had
free reign to say anything she wanted. Invariably, a student would ask “Dr. Underhill, you’re getting on in age, do
you think about death and dying?” Her common response was “Of course I do, but I’m too busy to die.”
Unfortunately, a week short of her 100th or 101st birthday, as she might have put it, “Azariel, the angel of death
decided that I had time enough for him to carry out his onerous task. Ruth Underhill died on August 14, 1984.
i
Among the many sources used for this biographical treatment are: Omega
State Chapter, Delta Gamma Society, Torchbearer: Biographical sketches of
Colorado Women Educators. Boulder, CO: Johnson, 1967, 66-69. Spilka, D. G.
Ruth Murray Underhill; A life of outstanding achievement. Undated
undergraduate composition. Garcia, B. “Joy of knowledge was reward enough
for Anthropology pioneer Ruth Underhill in study of Indians, other cultures.”
University of Denver News, February 1977, p. 10. lastly, see Parezo, cited
above, and Babcock, B. A. & Parezo,
N. J. Daughters of the desert: Women anthropologists and the Native American
Southwest, 1880-1930. Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press, 1988.