{"id":1667,"date":"2014-01-14T10:00:51","date_gmt":"2014-01-14T18:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/erlenmeyer\/?p=1667"},"modified":"2014-01-14T08:41:58","modified_gmt":"2014-01-14T16:41:58","slug":"kevin-gable-reflects-time-faculty-senate-president-corvallis-gazette-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/erlenmeyer\/2014\/01\/14\/kevin-gable-reflects-time-faculty-senate-president-corvallis-gazette-times\/","title":{"rendered":"Kevin Gable reflects on his time as Faculty Senate President"},"content":{"rendered":"
Originally printed January 11, 2014 1:00 pm\u00a0 in the Corvallis Gazette-Times<\/a><\/div>\n
By JAMES DAY, Corvallis Gazette-Times<\/a> (reprinted with permission)<\/div>\n
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\n \"Kevin<\/a>\n
Kevin Gable on his last day as Faculty Senate President (Photo by Andy Cripe – Corvallis Gazette Times)<\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n

Kevin Gable has been a chemistry professor at Oregon State University since 1988.<\/p>\n

He was chairman of the Chemistry Department from 2006-11, and he just finished a year as president of the OSU Faculty Senate.<\/p>\n

But he doesn\u2019t really count himself a political animal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only thing that disqualifies you is wanting to do the job,\u201d Gable said of how he wound up president.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never actually ran for it. When you get to full professor you feel a certain measure of responsibility to the institution.\u201d<\/p>\n

And being a chemist, Gable likes having a role in mixing things up.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all about shared governance. There is a tradition in higher ed and at OSU that the faculty demands a voice in how it\u2019s done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then Gable ticks off the pieces of the OSU puzzle in which the Senate wields significant influence: curriculum, academic regulations, the criteria for promotions and tenure.<\/p>\n

Gable also noted the Senate\u2019s role in the establishment of OSU\u2019s new Board of Trustees.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m extremely happy with the process we went through. It was a showcase of shared governance. The Senate specifically and the faculty broadly participated in the decision-making process. And that\u2019s where our interest lies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gable notes that in an institution as diverse as the OSU faculty, with more than 3,500 people, \u201cthere is a broad spectrum of opinion\u201d then adds an old college joke: \u201cIf there are three faculty involved there may very well be four opinions in the room.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was a wide range of opinions in the room Dec. 12 when the Senate voted to approve a resolution asking the university foundation to divest from companies that are involved in fossil fuels.<\/p>\n

At times the debate resembled a national political convention as representatives of the various colleges expressed their views.<\/p>\n

In the end the resolution passed narrowly.<\/p>\n

Gable\u2019s conclusion: \u201cIt\u2019s within the realm of the faculty to make a statement.\u201d<\/p>\n

When he is not teaching or working on Senate business Gable say he likes to cook. Which made a reporter curious about the relationship between the science of chemistry and how his expertise works on the stove.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are pieces of cooking that are purely art. But as an organic chemist I have an understanding of some of the processes when you cook. An organic chemist can follow a recipe. We do that in the lab all the time. Also, you understand why in a recipe you add things in a particular order.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe goal is to have a good meal and a decent glass of wine to go with it and feel good at the end of the night.\u201d<\/p>\n

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Contact reporter James Day at jim.day@gazettetimes.com or 541-758-9542. Follow at Twitter.com\/jameshday or gazettetimes.com\/blogs\/jim-day.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Copyright 2014 Corvallis Gazette Times. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Originally printed January 11, 2014 1:00 pm\u00a0 in the Corvallis Gazette-Times By JAMES DAY, Corvallis Gazette-Times (reprinted with permission) Kevin Gable has been a chemistry professor at Oregon State University since 1988. He was chairman of the Chemistry Department from 2006-11, and he just finished a year as president of the OSU Faculty Senate. But… Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3656,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[187099],"tags":[196661,1608,199129,187100],"class_list":["post-1667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faculty-mentions","tag-faculty-senate","tag-gazette-times","tag-james-day","tag-kevin-gable"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/erlenmeyer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/erlenmeyer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/erlenmeyer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/erlenmeyer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3656"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/erlenmeyer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1667"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/erlenmeyer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1667\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1684,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/erlenmeyer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1667\/revisions\/1684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/erlenmeyer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/erlenmeyer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/erlenmeyer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}