Faculty Governance in Difficult Times

The new issue of Academe is out, and it focuses on the challenges to shared governance in these calamitous financial times.  There are several hair-raising stories about the ways in which some administrators have tried to consolidate power, as well as a powerful group of arguments for rejecting the typical approach to shared governance: that administrators should take care of the money and leave the curriculum alone, and faculty shouldn’t trouble themselves about money.  As the various authors point out, such an approach tends to debilitate the faculty during moments of financial crisis.

I particularly appreciated, though, James T. Richardson’s article about lobbying as a mode of shared governance. As he points out, it is critical that legislators understand the impact of budget cuts on higher education, and the best way to do that is for faculty members to go to the legislature.  And while there’s often an assumption that faculty and administrators are always at odds, on at least some issues we have to join forces–for example, when lobbying for better funding for our universities.  Or, in states where there are multiple systems of higher education, to make sure that state funding is distributed equitably, and not just on the strength of the flagship school’s basketball teams. (Ahem.)

An excellent example of how such lobbying might work is the case of part-time faculty.  As AFT-FACE points out, it’s not enough simply to report research showing that high rates of contingent faculty impede student performance.  The key is what is to be done. Rather than pointing the finger at contingent faculty, the job is clearly to “make this research part of our education of legislators, parents, students and the community that depends on colleges and universities. What this research tells us is that if we believe that students succeeding in higher education is good for the students, their families, their employers and the communities in which they live, then faculty must be provided with the time, space and resources they need to engage students as fully as possible.”

Of course, not all trips to the legislature end well, and, in an online-only supplement, Jack Simmons and Beamon Floyd offer strategies for resisting “legislative interference in university governance.”

Image by flickr user niassembly / CC licensed