The author's experience as the faculty senate chair at the University of Mississippi (UM) during a year of budget crises is likely typical of many other university senate leaders. He found that major challenges face senates trying to play a role in developing budget reduction recommendations. These include: (1) an absence of understanding on the…

Nevada has a unitary system of public higher education, with eight institutions serving some 100,000 students in the Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE). Included in the NSHE are two research universities, a world-renowned freestanding research institution, one recently established state college, and four community colleges, including one of…

This article presents an interview with Emily Toth, who writes the monthly "Ms. Mentor" academic advice column in the "Chronicle of Higher Education" and teaches in the English department at Louisiana State University, in Baton Rouge. She is the author of "Ms. Mentor's Impeccable Advice for Women in Academia" (1997), "Inside Peyton Place: The Life…

Recently, some presidents of colleges and universities have run into serious trouble because of conflicts with their faculty. When such conflicts arise, faculty senates frequently precipitate an institutional crisis by voting (or threatening to vote) no confidence in the president. But whether one agrees or disagrees that a particular president…

Faculty participation in campus governance is declining nationwide. As higher education shifts toward market models of organization, boards and administrators increasingly apply bureaucratic modes of decision making to areas that used to be the domain of faculty members. All too often, administrators seem to sidestep faculty senates in favor of…

Explores how community colleges, through their curriculum and interactions among students, faculty, and staff, can model the best of citizenship education and engaged community life. Discusses how shared governance can promote engagement, and some features of community college culture that work against shared governance. (EV)

Asserting that college reforms usually fail for structural reasons, outlines some barriers to change and offers suggestions to overcoming them. Barriers include: people cannot agree on the problem to be solved, time frames and structures are not clear, and there are no evaluative criteria. Strategies include: define roles and time frames, seek…

Asserts that the distinctive moral traditions of faith-based colleges and universities can help them resist corporate demands on academia, but only if their faculties are allowed to question institutional policies. Describes five main sources of governance problems in religiously affiliated schools. (EV)

Asserts that to prevent incursions on academic freedom, faculty members must make a strong commitment of time and expertise to institutional governance, and they must promote regulations and behavior that support academic freedom. Describes how the administration, faculty, and board of Calvin College, affiliated with the Christian Reformed Church,…

Explores negative effects on academic expertise and the academic freedom of faculty when governing boards and administrators look to the corporate world for organizational models. (EV)

Explores the role and importance of faculty governance based on personal experience at the University of California, Berkeley (which has one of the country's strongest faculty governance systems) and the University of Michigan (with a weaker system more representative of national norms). Discusses the increasing market-related obstacles to…

The University of Minnesota's University Senate was established in 1912. At the time the proposal to expand it was developed in 2003, the senate had two subordinate bodies, the Faculty Senate and the Student Senate. Although the subordinate bodies could and did take action on their own, most of their actions were subject to final approval by the…

The working relationship between the bargaining agent, AAUP, and the traditional governance body, the faculty senate at Southern Connecticut State University, is described. (MLW)

The senate of the University of Maryland at College Park includes representatives of the entire campus community. The involvement of all constituencies is useful: decisions and policies made result from full information and discussion; there are no decision surprises; and there is strong administrative commitment to act on policies adopted. (MSE)

Collegiality and unionization, although they seem contradictory, are complementary expressions of a faculty desire for involvement in institutional decision making. These impulses are simultaneously present in the recent history of faculty involvement in the California State University system. (MLW)