Mounting attacks on shared governance are hurting educational quality, say faculty, and reaching crisis proportions in the academy. In January, union leaders from the AFT, National Education Association and the American Association of University Professors met in Washington, D.C., to talk about shared governance, a cornerstone of higher education operations.

The practice of faculty participating in academic and curricular decision-making is coming under increasing threat these days, noted William Scheuerman, an AFT vice president and president of the United University Professions/AFT at the State University of New York. These threats can take the form of attacks on curriculum by "activist" trustees, such as are seen at SUNY and CUNY (the State and City Universities of New York), or end runs by administrators impatient with the collegial process, or the covert maneuvers of entrepreneurial corporatizers. "Never in the history of higher education have we had so many who know so little having so much power," bemoaned Jane Buck, AAUP president.

Especially pernicious is the effect of hiring more part-time faculty, who are not available nor expected to participate in institutional governance. The dwindling number of full-time faculty available to work on governance matters reduces efficiency and undermines the process, thereby giving fuel to administrators’ arguments for excluding faculty altogether from matters that have been their historical prerogatives. Yet the issues that are rapidly changing higher education--the corporatization of the university, distance and online education, and the exploitation of part-time faculty--have such complex academic implications that faculty must be involved in dealing with them.

Threats to traditional governance are an internal problem, many leaders agreed, that must be addressed from within, by acculturating junior faculty to the governance process and expecting greater participation by senior faculty. However, it is also an external problem that manifests itself in demands for greater access and convenience, lower tuition and better quality.

The leaders heard from a trustee, Robert E. Tranquada, board chair of the Claremont Consortium, who was heartening in his support of faculty involvement in governance. They also heard about the legislative side of the challenge when Sandra Rupert, an analyst from Educational Research Inc., presented preliminary data from a survey of state legislators whose concerns reflect public pressures and center on economic development, access, affordability, performance accountability, costs, teacher supply and quality issues.

The unions affirmed that labor has a significant role to play in ensuring the faculty role in governance. Through the contract, unions can strengthen governance (which occurs through faculty senates and academic committees) by setting enforceable ground rules for how it is conducted. The AFT, NEA and AAUP will work together to support faculty at institutions where governance is under attack.