Section 1: Introduction, Organization, and Principles

1.5 Shared Governance

Founded in 1915, the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) is dedicated to facilitating a more effective cooperation among teachers and research scholars in universities, colleges, and professional schools; to promoting the interests of higher education and research; and in general, to increasing the usefulness and advancing the standards, ideals, and welfare of the profession.

The principles of shared governance which, accordingly to the AAUP’s Statement of Government of Colleges and Universities, “refers to the responsibility shared among the different components of the institution—governing boards, administrations, and faculties—for its governance, and the specifies areas of primary responsibility for each component.

The role of the governing board is to ensure that the institution stays true to its mission, to play a major role in ensuring that the institution has the financial resources it needs to operate successfully, to possess decision-making authority, and to entrust the conduct of administration to the administrative officers.

The role of the president is to be the chief executive officer of the institution, to ensure that the operation of the institution conforms to the policies set forth by the governing board and to sound academic practice, to provide institutional leadership, to make sure there is effective communication between components of the institution, and to represent the institution to its many publics.

The role of the faculty is to have primary responsibility for such fundamental areas as curriculum, subject matter and methods of instruction, research, faculty status, and those aspects of student life which relate to the educational process. The responsibility for faculty status includes appointments, reappointments, decisions not to reappoint, promotions, the granting of tenure, and dismissal.”

The university practices shared governance in accordance with the aforementioned principles and is committed to timely information sharing among faculty, staff, students, administration, and trustees; faculty responsibility in determining curriculum, educational policy, standards for evaluating teaching and scholarship, selection of new faculty, and promotion and tenure; faculty representation in university decision-making that directly or indirectly affects faculty; consultation with appropriate faculty on the general fiscal implications of decisions about curriculum, enrollment, class-size, and admission policies; on peer nomination of faculty to serve on committees and similar deliberative bodies. Shared governance requires timely communication, transparency, inclusion, collaboration, and consistency. All faculty members are expected to accept the responsibility of shared governance and act as good university citizens through service on committees (or similar deliberative bodies) and the faculty senate.