The case for shared governance
SUNY Plattsburgh is a community that supports the enrichment of students' lives through academic and co-curricular opportunities. Governance at SUNY Plattsburgh is how decisions are made to support this community. Shared governance is when faculty and students are actively involved in these processes.
A shared governance approach has a deep and complex impact. I'm going to limit myself to three positives and one challenge; and ask that you fill in parts that I have missed in the comments.
Good governance
I care about governance because I care about SUNY Plattsburgh. If you are reading this, then you probably care about SUNY Plattsburgh too. Good governance means that wise choices are being made about how we evolve and grow as a community. I believe in shared governance because it improves the quality of decisions and the energy and cohesion of our community.
Shared governance improves the quality of information used in decision making because faculty and students have valuable perspectives on the college's mission. ( Here I will be speaking from a teaching faculty perspective, but the contribution of non-teaching faculty / professional staff is similar. In these posts my use of “faculty” will include non-teaching faculty unless otherwise qualified. ) My insight as a faculty member is two-fold. The first is my subject matter expertise, and the knowledge and experience about how to best share that expertise with students. This knowledge is why faculty are almost universally afforded domain over the curriculum. The second insight is my direct, daily interactions with students. These interactions not only inform decisions and modifications to the delivery of the classroom experience, but also a gestalt sense of today's students. The last couple of years have highlighted that students' needs and wants are different from year to year. This first-hand knowledge has served me in a wide-variety of contexts, such as discussing academic policies (such as the academic honesty policy), in gauging student interest in different areas of study, in perceiving student non-curricular needs ( e.g., mental health needs ), etc. Even before the pandemic cultural / technological shifts were transforming incoming students' lives (e.g., smart-phones, social media, helicopter parenting, etc). As the pace of the world accelerates it becomes even more important for us to be able to adapt to the changing needs of our students.
A second benefit of shared governance processes is in breaking down silos and establishing connections between different parts of the college. For practical, and bureaucratic, reasons our jobs are very compartmentalized. While this is probably necessary in a large organization, it makes it difficult to see the big-picture of what is happening on campus. Having a better understanding of the processes and resources of the campus helps us serve our students better. Working with people from across campus builds connections with those people and strengthens our sense of community. I know for myself, getting out and working with everyone has been rewarding. There is a lot that I don’t know, so it is helpful to meet others, to learn the basics about other parts of the college and who to ask for more information.
A third benefit of shared governance is that it empowers and energizes people to do a great job. Again, if you are reading this it is because you care. Most of the time and effort that we contribute to SUNY Plattsburgh is due to our commitment to helping students. Quality of teaching ( and other professional work ) is famously hard to measure and quantify. To a large degree colleges rely on trust in order to operate at the level they do. Academic freedom embodies the trust in faculty to be experts in their subject matter and how to communicate / teach that area to our students. Without this trust there would be the temptation to micromanage our classrooms and research. I'll leave as an exercise all of the ways that this can go wrong. Instead we need to inspire and support faculty to do their best. Enthusiasm and excitement can have a huge impact in the classroom, and is a precondition for scholarly activity. There are different ways to improve faculty energy, but one is to recognize that people are more invested in decisions that they participate in. We all put in more time than is strictly required because we care about the students and each other. When faculty participate in shared governance, when they are consulted and heard, they are going to be more strongly attached to that community, and work harder for it. At times there is pondering about how to improve faculty morale, one option is engage them through shared governance to tackle the challenges we face.
A Challenge
The complaint that I hear most often about involving faculty in decision making is that it takes additional time. It might, but done well it shouldn’t take any extra time. By “extra” I mean that the shared governance part of the process is improving the quality of the decision being made. Adding that extra quality should not be any more expensive through shared governance than without. Curriculum review is a good example of a process that takes time, but there does not seem to be any premium associated with the shared governance aspect vis-a-vis any other process that would have a similar level of quality. The time problem occurs more often for decisions that do not have a well-defined process associated with them.
Summary
Each of our perspectives is informed by the disciplines we come from. In software engineering there are 4 Ps that are relevant: People, Project, Process, and Product. In determining success the most important of these is People. I believe the same is true in academia. The people who work here are the most important asset to whether we succeed or fail. I believe in shared governance because it can bring the right voices to the table, and it empowers those voices. It is the best process to make good decisions and it renews the energy and enthusiasm of those participating. Instead of just following orders, we are a valued part of an important endeavor.
I’m an idealist and a bit of a dreamer. So I believe that there are ways that we can improve shared governance on our campus. This is a collective effort though, so I want to hear what you all think we can and should do. Thanks in advance for your help.