By Shannon M. Davis
Arizona Daily Wildcat
A faculty administration committee is attempting to take the old idea of co-governance and turn it into a new way of doing business at the UA.
Co-governance would give the administration and faculty an equal voice in decisions affecting academic policy.
The faculty now serves primarily as a consultant to the administration on matters of budget and academic policy.
"There is a recognition by faculty leaders and administrative leaders that shared governance is a more effective way to run this university," said Ken Smith, faculty senator and education professor.
"The UA should be a model of democracy," said Marlys Witte, faculty senator and professor of surgery.
Witte added that faculty governance is crucial and that it's important that governance of the university is through elected representatives.
Key areas that co-governance would affect are curriculum policy, selection and evaluation of administrators, space allocation, and participation in budget decisions, said Carol Bernstein, president of the American Association of University Professors, Arizona Conference, and Microbiology and Immunology Research Associate Professor.
Faculty has historically pursued co-governance. Now, in a time of mounting political and public pressures to do more with less, administrators appear more eager to share accountability and responsibility for academic decisions.
"This not a new movement," Witte said. "This has been an eternal struggle for faculty ."
"The university is faced with having to change in response to the environment," said Ken Smith, vice provost for academic planning and professional programs. "There's a greater need to share responsibility for the change that needs to occur. Everyone needs to come together for a shared view."
Political science professor and co-governance committee member Tom Volgy knows the changes occurring in the academic world create a unique opportunity for the long awaited co-governance process.
"It's impossible for the UA to survive unless there is a mutual sense of commitment on the part of faculty and administration," said Volgy. However, he doesn't think the change from decisions made at the top by administration to shared decision making between faculty and administration will be easy.
"Co-governance requires a new and different way of thinking about the same things. Everyone has to give and foster a new way of working with one another," Volgy said.
The faculty will be asked to give more time and accept more responsibility in co-governing, Volgy said.
Legally, university President Manuel Pacheco will still be accountable to the regents for the operation of the university. If instituted, co-governance would be an internal mechanism within the UA for decision making.
However, members of the working committee and interested observers say co-governance has the potential to make a huge difference in not only the way decisions are made but also the product of those decisions.
"There are too many things nation and statewide to wait much longer. We will not have great opportunities to exacerbate the UA's problems unless we have a set structure for co-governance in place," Volgy said.
"These are the best signs of co-governance actually occurring I've seen in the last twelve years of activity," Bernstein said.
Once the draft document outlining a co-governance process and structure is released by the co-governance working committee, a great deal of work still remains to be done.
"Broad consensus for co-governance is needed. A co-governance proposal is not just a product of the Faculty Senate or the working group," Volgy said. He said he hopes for a committed effort from all faculty to review the proposal and provide comment.
The co-governance working committee is scheduled to circulate a draft proposal outlining the co-governance process and structure in the near future.