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American
Association of University Professors
Academic
Freedom for a Free Society
Evaluation
of Shared Governance
AAUP Document Presented at the 2003 National Meeting
Introduction
The
following list of questions is designed to allow for the
immediate evaluation of the state of shared government at
institutions of higher education.
It is hoped that an institution will use these questions
to prepare assessment reports for external reviews as well as to
evaluation and enhance the institutional system of shared
governance.
The
questions are largely drawn from a short monograph by Keetjie
Ramo entitled, “Assessing the Faculty’s Role in Shared
Governance: Implications of AAUP Standards (1998),” which is
available from the AAUP national office.
Each question can be answered with a “yes” or
“no.” When
areas for concern are identified by a preponderance of “no”
answers, Ramo(1998) and the Redbook
(2001) should be consulted extensively as a means of
improving the practice of shared governance.
Ramo
identified seven areas that are key indicators of the state of
shared governance at institutions of higher education:
1.
Climate
for Governance
2.
Institutional
Communication
3.
Board’s
Role
4.
President’s
Role
5.
Faculty’s
Role
6.
Joint
Decision Making
7.
Assessing
Structural Arrangements for Governance
She
developed a separate section for each indicator. Within each section, she identifies and summarizes the
relevant governance principles located throughout the AAUP Policy Documents and Reports (“Redbook”). She also
considers pertinent governance literature and discusses the
implications of the factors discussed in the literature for the
implementation of AAUP principles.
Each section includes a set of questions requiring a
rather detailed analysis of an institution’s governance
system. A
consideration of those questions, along with the references and
AAUP principles that Ramo cites, can provide a useful framework
for building and improving shared governance in colleges and
universities.
Assessment
Questions Related to Shared Governance on Your Campus:
Measure
1: Climate for Governance
Do the trustees, the administration, and the faculty
model
collegiality,
respect, tolerance and civility towards other
members of the campus
community and each other?
____Yes
____No
Are negotiations and communications among university
constituents open and carried out in good faith and in an
atmosphere of trust?
_____Yes ____No
Measure
2: Institutional Communication
Does consultation by the administration with faculty
leadership allow time and a mechanism for leadership to
consult with their constituents before offering
recommendations?
_____Yes ____No
Does the faculty as a whole, in addition to faculty
representatives
have timely access to information necessary for
faculty
members to give input to governance processes?
_____Yes ____No
Measure 3: The Board’s Role
Do members of the governing board have appropriate individual
qualifications with regard to education and experience?
_____Yes _____No
Is the board inappropriately involved in the day-to-day
operations
of the institution?
_____Yes _____No
Do board members inform themselves on governance issues
by keeping
up with the literature and participating in training
opportunities and
meetings of the Association of Governing Boards or the
AAUP?
_____Yes _____No
Does the board respect and support the faculty’s
traditional role in
institutional governance?
_____Yes _____No
Measure
4: The President’s Role
Does the president have adequate academic, as well as,
administrative credentials to serve as the chief academic
officer of the institution?
_____Yes _____No
Does the president on more than rare occasions overturn
faculty
decisions and recommendations in areas in which the
faculty has
primary responsibility (e.g., curriculum, tenure and
promotion
decisions)?
_____Yes _____No
Does the president seek meaningful faculty input on those
issues
(such as budgeting) in which the faculty has an
appropriate interest
but not primary responsibility?
_____Yes _____No
Does the president effectively advocate the principles of
shared
governance to the governing board?
_____Yes _____No
Measure
6: The Faculty’s Role
Is the faculty afforded an appropriate degree of autonomy
with
regard to its areas of responsibility by the
administration and
the governing board?
_____Yes _____No
Does the faculty appropriate exercise its capacity for
both adverse
and positive decisions in faculty personnel matters?
_____Yes _____No
Do resources for faculty development, reward structures,
and
workloads support the development of faculty expertise in
areas
of faculty primacy?
_____Yes _____No
Measure
7: Assessing Structural Arrangements for Governance
Is there a faculty senate or other institution-wide governance
body that meets on a regular basis?
_____Yes _____No
Do faculty determine how their own representatives are
elected?
_____Yes _____No
For joint committees on which the faculty is represented,
does
the representation appropriately reflect the degree of
the faculty’s
stake in the issue or area the committee is charged with
addressing?
_____Yes _____No
Has the faculty as a whole had an opportunity to meet and
comment
on “short-listed” academic administrative candidates
before hiring
decisions are made?
_____Yes _____No
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