Friday, October 27, 2006
It's time to rethink university governance
Let's face it, after hearing about the check writing at UW-Milwaukee, Wisconsin students have been shocked to hear what had happened. The result of a failed shared governance system is the embezzlement made by Russ Reuden. However, it is time to rethink the way university governance is dictated and here are my thoughts from a drive from Waupaca to Appleton:
- Eliminate the separate student government, faculty senate, academic staff committees and all other forms of shared governance at UW institutions.
- The Chancellor will set up university-wide committees, that dictate university policy and procedures, that are made up of students, faculty, academic staff and university administration.
- These committees are have equal representation of as outlined in WSS 36.09 -- faculty, academic staff, chancellor and students.
- No student, faculty or academic staff shall create committees without equal representation of other members of groups in university governance. For example: the students cannot create an arbitrary committee to dictate any policy without having equal representation from faculty, academic staff and the Chancellor.
- Students have the primary authority of allocating segregated fees, but cannot distribute the fees. Distribution can be done by university officials in accordance with standard accounting practices.
- The members of any group (students, faculty, staff, chancellor) can appeal a decision to the Board of Regents.
This is just some thoughts, but instead of a faculty committee on general education and a student committee on general education, there would be a single committee on general education with everyone at the same table--students, faculty, staff and university administration. With everyone at the table, everyone will get the other groups' ideas and from there consensus building can take place. Streamlining university governance would work.
Labels: UW System
