Shared Governance Critical To All Faculty
Barbara Altmann, Vice Provost for Academic Affairs and Professor of French
May 20, 2013
University of Oregon President Michael Gottfredson voiced his commitment to shared governance in his inaugural speech before the UO Senate last Fall. He underscored the idea that shared governance is at the heart of a premier public research university and rooted in meaningful collaboration.
The message hasn’t changed since his fall speech and it is reflected in the University’s affirmation of shared governance in its contract proposal in the ongoing negotiations with United Academics.
President Gottfredson recognized that shared governance must include “active faculty participation.” In fact, he said, shared governance places the responsibility for the central mission of the university with the faculty. This includes the curriculum and programs of study, academic degrees at the undergraduate and graduate levels, as well as standards for student admissions and faculty hiring and promotion.
The university president also has clearly delineated responsibilities. Those responsibilities, he said, include managing the university in the public’s interest and in a manner that is consistent with the direction and requirements of the University’s governing board, other authorities, and Oregon law. President Gottfredson recognized that “administrative governance responsibilities only work when important policies and practices are informed by consultation and advice from the faculty, staff and students.”
The preamble of the University’s March 5 proposal on shared governance re-affirms “the important role of appropriately shared responsibility, accountability and cooperative action.”
The University also agrees that aspects of shared governance – specifically pertaining to terms and conditions of faculty employment, such as tenure and promotion — must be addressed in the labor contract as required by the Public Employees Collective Bargaining Act.
But the University does not agree with the argument that a union contract covering only a portion of the University faculty is the appropriate mechanism for protecting and strengthening the fundamental structure of shared governance. Shared governance is the province of all faculty at UO.
Some have expressed fear that a new UO institutional board will not be supportive of shared governance with the faculty and that the proposed legislation removes existing protections. The proposed legislation does not change the existing faculty governance structure. If anything, an institutional board working closely with the University will result in even stronger shared governance.
In reality, it is the Union’s proposal to make shared governance subject to grievance and arbitration that should concern us all. It would make shared governance subject to the whims of an outside labor arbitrator, a person who may be unfamiliar with or unsympathetic to the principles of shared governance, thereby fundamentally changing the shared governance structure.
As President Gottfredson pointed out in his speech, the UO is far better served by continuing its tradition of shared governance under the same provisions of law and charter that have existed since the nineteenth century.
