College and University Governance

From the Editor: Governance in a Time of Financial Crisis

Calls to resist the corporatization of higher education and for faculty control over educational issues go back at least to Thorstein Veblen’s publication of The Higher Learning in America in 1918. However, as many of the articles in this issue demonstrate, the current economic crisis has greatly intensified threats to the practice of shared governance.

College and University Governance: Idaho State University

Report, prepared by the Association’s staff, concerning the decision by the Idaho State Board of Education to suspend the operation and bylaws of the faculty senate at Idaho State University and to direct ISU president Arthur C. Vailas to “implement an interim faculty advisory structure.”

College and University Governance: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Report concerning the action taken in summer 2007 by the board of trustees and the administration of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to suspend the faculty senate and replace it with a “transitional structure of faculty governance.”

College and University Government: Miami-Dade Community College

Report concerning the action taken by the administration of Miami-Dade Community College to abolish the existing system of academic government at the institution following a faculty vote in favor of collective bargaining and to replace it with a wholly new system of governance.

College and University Government: Elmira College

Report dealing primarily with conditions of academic government at Elmira College, particularly relations among the faculty, the chief academic officers, and the governing board.

College and University Governance: The University of Virginia Governing Board’s Attempt to Remove the President

This report documents a major breakdown in governance at UVA, focusing on the role of the board of visitors and its rector, Helen Dragas, who initiated the effort to force the president’s resignation. It finds that the events at the university resulted from “a failure by those charged with institutional oversight to understand the institution over which they presided and to engage with the administration and the faculty in an effort to be well informed.”

College and University Governance: University of Iowa

This report describes departures from shared governance standards in the hiring of new University of Iowa President J. Bruce Harreld, appointed by the Iowa Board of Regents in spite of overwhelming objections from faculty. The investigation found that in contrast to historical practice at the university, which had been to involve faculty fully in presidential searches, the board designed this search process specifically to prevent any meaningful faculty role in the selection of the final candidate.

On the Pros and Cons of Being a Faculty Member at E-Text University

This essay discusses e-texts in terms of academic freedom, using excerpts from conversations with instructors who have used various e-texts in their classes. These instructors often take a pragmatic approach to the materials but fear losing control of what and how they teach.

State of the Profession: Taking Hostages in Kentucky

Kentucky governor Matt Bevin has been testing the limits of shared governance. On June 17, by executive order, the governor unilaterally abolished the University of Louisville’s full seventeen-member board of trustees and replaced it with a new thirteen-member board entirely of his own choosing. In an e-mail to the campus community the same day, the university’s embattled president, James Ramsey, announced that “after conversations with Governor Bevin” he had agreed to offer his resignation to the “newly appointed board” upon its “legal restructure.”

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