Reports a survey of every unionized college and university in the nation on the impact of faculty collective bargaining on traditional processes of academic governance, particularly faculty senates. One of several conclusions: the degree of threat that unions constitute depends on past history of the senate, legal framework, administrator role,…

Academic senates remain an important feature of higher education governance even though they have been criticized as being ineffective. Senates are examined from the perspective of alternative organizational models, and it is suggested that the functions of the senate are best understood by considering colleges as symbolic systems. (Author/MLW)

Presidents in a cross-section of nonunionized colleges and in all unionized colleges, faculty union heads, system-level administrators, and central office union officials were surveyed to assess the impact of unionization on faculty senates. It was found that, although unions sometimes challenge senates, the dual system survives. (MSE)

An examination of the structure of academic governance at six unionized four-year institutions--two public universities, two state colleges, and two private liberal arts colleges--shows that faculty unionization is one contextual factor, of many such factors, that affects change in the formal and informal decision-making structure. (Author/JMD)