Shared Governance, The Faculty Role: AAUP Annual Community

College Conference

Kay Sather Bull

Chair Committee on Faculty Governance of OKAAUP

Topics to be Examined

• Range of shared governance

• Faculty responsibilities

• Need for tenure

• Issues in community colleges (CCs)

• Status of CCs in other locales

• Advantages of shared governance in CCs

• Reconciling perspectives

Range of shared governance : Sharing is in the eye of the beholder

• The administrator who tells you about decisions before they hit the paper is sharing governance.

• The administrator who requests input from those on the next lowest level of administration or of faculty is sharing governance.

Range of shared governance Con’t

• The administrator who tells faculty that they can come to him/her and have input to a decision at any time is sharing governance.

• The administrator who has a meeting for all faculty where they can provide input is sharing governance.

• The administrator who authorizes the faculty to meet and decide on an issue has shared governance.

Range of shared governance Con’t

• Faculty who recommend to the administration the position of the faculty have shared governance.

• Faculty who elect representatives who negotiate with the administration as equals have shared governance.

• Faculty who belong to a union which negotiates for them with the administration have shared governance.

Range of shared governance Con’t

• All of these definitions could be called shared governance depending on whom you are talking to!

Is Shared Governance Necessary?

• No, unless you– Want to have academic freedom– Want to determine what you are required to

teach to students– Want to have a voice in planning for the

future– Want to have a voice in how the money is

spent– Want to determine who your leaders will be

Is Shared Governance Necessary?

• Yes, the AAUP asserts that you cannot adequately prepare students in an environment where the faculty have no agency and control. Shared governance is necessary if community colleges, colleges, and universities are to do an adequate job over the long term in preparing students for the next century.

Faculty Responsibilities (shared governance): Degrees (Curriculum)

• Set the requirements (curriculum) for degrees offered

• Authorizes the president and board to grant the degree

Faculty Responsibilities: Subject Matter

• Faculty are responsible for the curriculum and for the subject matter in the curriculum

• Determination of subject matter is an issue of faculty knowledge or the needs of the students

• Subject matter determination is a matter of academic freedom

Faculty Responsibilities: Methods of Instruction

• The choice of the teaching method rests in the hands of the faculty, some methods may be better than others

• You should not be required to teach using a particular teaching method if it is inappropriate for your content.

Faculty Responsibilities: Faculty Status

• Appointments

• Reappointments

• Decisions not to reappoint

• Promotions

• Granting tenure

• Dismissal

Faculty Responsibilities: Policies for Admitting Students

• Faculty set entry requirements

• Faculty determine number of students to be admitted

• Faculty determine diversity needs of the program (in a positive sense)

Faculty Responsibilities: Standards for Student

Competence in a Discipline

• Faculty give the grades

• Faculty determines qualifying and comprehensive examinations

• Faculty evaluate theses/dissertation

• Faculty determine when students are ready to matriculate

Faculty Responsibilities: Salary

• Faculty should actively participate in the determination of policies and procedures governing salary increases

Faculty Responsibilities: Department Heads/Chairs

• Appointments should normally be in conformity with department members’ judgments

• Chair or head should not have tenure in office (should have a stated term)

Faculty Decisions Reviewed by President/Board

• Power of review or final decision should be exercised adversely only in exceptional circumstances (e.g., promotion and tenure)

• Should be done for compelling reasons which are stated in detail

• When done reasons should be communicated to the faculty

Faculty Should be Involved in

• Framing of long range plans• Decisions regarding resources

– Buildings– Facilities

• Budgeting– Short and long range priorities– Receive analyses– Reports on current budgets and

expenditures

Faculty Should be Involved in (con’t)

• Presidential selection and retention (President should have the confidence of the faculty)

• Selection of Deans and other chief academic officers (appropriate faculty advice)

Shared Governance is not Possible Without

a Faculty Governing Body

• An agency should exist for the presentation of the views of the whole faculty

• Faculty representatives should be selected by the faculty according to procedures determined by the faculty

• May be faculty as a whole or elected representatives

Faculty Governance and Academic Freedom: Sound Governance

• Is necessary to protect faculty rights and freedoms

• Protects against pressures from the outside

• Protects academic freedom with in the institution

Issues: Faculty Handbooks, Do you Have One?

• Academic freedom• Tenure• Due process

– ARPT procedures– Grievances– Dismissal procedures

• Financial exigency• Without a handbook you have no

protection

Tenure is Needed• The building of a strong faculty requires

careful joint effort in such actions as staff selection and promotion and the granting of tenure.

• Many of the attacks on shared governance have emanated from the same people who have also questioned the need for tenure.

• Neither top-down nor bottom-up governance approaches work well unless there is a clear mission and a commitment to the goals of the institution. (impossible without tenure)

Issues in Community Colleges (CCs)

• Contingent faculty are replacing full time faculty

• Part time faculty are at risk each semester

• Without tenure you have no protection

Part-time Faculty and Governance

• Part timers should be included

• Should be eligible for tenure

• Should be involved in planning– curricular– programmatic

• Should have academic freedom protected

• Should be evaluated

Use of Part Time Faculty: AAUP

• No more than 15% of total instruction

• No more than 25% in any department

President’s Role

• Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely

• It is incumbent on the president to ensure that faculty views, including dissenting views, are presented to the board in those areas and on those issues where responsibilities are shared

• Presidents should be teachers not CEO’s

Corporatization of Governence

• The academy does a disservice to society when it emulates a corporate model of governance that has produced massive corruption and a failing economy at the same time that more enlightened companies turn to the academic model of shared governance.

Corporatization of Colleges

• The faculty’s capacity to govern itself and to participate in decision-making has to be compromised for the corporate model to succeed.

• A college degree should not be a license sold for a fee.

Selling Degrees

• If sales and marketing become the driving forces in our colleges and universities, then student preferences to avoid courses with heavy reading assignments and strict grading standards may well result in administrative pressures on faculty to lower standards in order to maintain enrollments.

Threat to all Colleges

• The real threat to higher education is that it will focus only on the short-term gain that we will search for ways to maximize revenue at the expense of the longer-term purposes that have formed the backbone of higher education for centuries.

In Other Locales San Diego CC

• Trustees shall consult collegially with academic senates

• The Board shall elect to rely primarily on the advice and judgment of the Academic Senates for the following policy development:

• a) Curriculum, including establishing prerequisites and placing courses within disciplines

• b) Degree and certificate requirements • c) Grading policies • d) Educations; program development

Control in CCs

• In some states community colleges have state mandated shared governance (see California)

• Half of all community colleges have collective bargaining, e.g., California, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island.

San Diego CC cont

• e) Standards or policies regarding student preparation and success

• f) District and college governance structures, as related to faculty roles

• g) Faculty roles and involvement in accreditation processes, including self and annual reports.

• h) Processes for institutional planning and budget development

San Diego CC cont

• In instances where the Board elects to relay primarily upon the advice and judgment of the Senates, and recommendations are not accepted, the Board shall communicate the reason in writing to the President of each Academic Senates within 30 days of the decision.

San Diego CC cont

Mutual agreement within the Academic Senates The Board shall elect to provide mutual agreement with the Academic Senates for the following policy development activities

• a) Policies for faculty professional development activities

• b) Processes for program review; and • c) Other academic and professional matters as

mutually agreed upon between the Governing Board and the Academic Senates.

CHEPA A National Report

• Shared governance has been a hallmark of American colleges and universities for more than a generation

• The tradition of shared governance rests on the assumption that faculty should hold a substantive role in decision-making

CHEPA A National Report cont

• Meanings of shared governance based on large poll– Fully collaborating decision-making: Decisions

are joint and consensus is the goal (47%)– Consultative decision-making: Opinion and

advise sought but decision-making remains with the administration (27%)

– Distributed decision-making: Faculty and administration have their own spheres of influence (26%)

CHEPA A National Report cont

• Factors needed for shared governance– Trust– Good communication

CHEPA A National Report cont

• Problems related to shared governance– Confidence in governing bodies is low– Apathy and lack of trust are significant

barriers to participation– Differential perceptions of shared governance

leads to ineffective governance

CHEPA A National Report cont

• What management needs to do– Delineate responsibilities– Articulate meaning of shared governance– Create conditions for trust– Improve communication

Advantages of Shared Governance

• Fosters a sense of empowerment as individuals gain the opportunity to participate in decision-making

• Promotes greater buy-in to decisions by all parties associated with the ability to influence the outcome.

• Encourages faculty to accept responsibility for decisions

Advantages of Shared Governance cont

• Results in improved moral and improved college environment

• Increases the breadth of understanding related to issues

• Improves communication by involving more people in the decision process

• Fosters divergent points of view as a range of opinions are brought forward on different issues

Advantages of Shared Governance cont

• Improves the likelihood that the college will move forward in responding to critical issues.

Reconciling Perspectives

• An ideal shared governance model is collegial and fosters a sense of empowerment, equal partnership and vested interest in successful outcomes of institutional policy and implementation decisions.

• The agenda for a campus needs to be set by an administration that cares about what the faculty thinks

A Political Model of Governance

• The political model is well-suited to describe community college governance. The political model incorporates issues of power, conflict and politics to conceptualize academic decision-making and provides an accurate account of the influence of external environment and constituents.

Political Shared Governence

• The focus of shared governance in conceptualizing an institution as a political system is on the balance of powers between numerous constituencies and the negotiations required to develop consensus

Define the Terms

• 'Communication,' 'consultation,' and 'decision making' should be defined and differentiated in board and institutional policies.

Trust in Governance

• Shared governance centers around 'a collegial system of shared decision-making uniting the responsibilities of those who oversee, administer, instruct at, study at, or have graduated from the institution’ It rests upon relationships of mutual respect and trust, especially among faculty and administrators

Participation is Needed

• Participation in shared governance should be expanded, ensuring that all faculty have suitable arrangements for their voices to be heard and given proper weight in decisions that affect the mission and operation of the institution.

Impacts on Morale

• Morale is affected by the degree to which faculty and staff feel respected and believe that their input is desired by the administration and board 

In Conclusion

• Participatory/shared governance is in the best interest of the institution and creates and endorses a spirit of collegiality among all groups concerned with providing quality education.

What Questions do you Have?