Shared Governance : A More Meaningful Approach in Higher Education

This book helps the reader find that correct balance of authority across the governance groups by empowering all groups within a common framework and understanding.

Shared Governance begins with the premise that today’s higher education governance practices have lost their focus and vitality. By re-examining the original suppositions of shared governance, along with an infusion of seminal democratic values and principles, a contemporary model is envisioned.

From historical perspectives on shared governance, the book then takes a view of current governance models through the lens of Critical Theory and Open Systems Thinking. Political, corporate, and school system models are briefly reviewed before moving on to application to colleges and universities.

Each chapter concludes with a continuous story of a young and maturing college vice president as she grapples with a static and worn governance system at her institution. She strives to reinvigorate the notion of shared governance and to bring staff and students into the process.

The final three chapters of the book each include an essay written by individuals who have served on the ground level of shared governance at their institution. These people include: an administrative assistant who helped to create a Staff Council; a Student Government Association president who took a nascent SGA and gave students a new voice; and, an associate dean who mentored students in this developmental process.