The Point: University Abandons Shared Governance
11/14/2024
This week’s Point is written by Steve Striffler, Professor of Labor Studies.
University Administration Abandons Shared Governance
It is now pretty clear that our Administration has fully abandoned any commitment to shared governance – and that this continues to lead to bad policy that is out of step with our university mission and leads to unnecessary work as faculty and staff are left to clean up the mess. Evidence for this was on full display at the Faculty Council meeting on November 4th in the form of three seemingly unrelated issues.
The Administration’s Graduate Student Assistantship Reallocation Policy: The Faculty Council discussed and unanimously passed a motion (see here) supported by numerous Graduate Program Directors that asked the Administration to “put an immediate halt to the rollout of this new policy, convene a committee of GPDs from across all colleges to offer direct input in the development of any new GA allocation policy, and maintain level funding for all programs until any new policy is fully evaluated by all GPDs in all graduate programs.” As we learned at the meeting, the Administration created the policy without consulting any of the relevant entities one would logically talk to before making such a consequential decision—GPDs, academic departments, graduate students, etc. This all-too-familiar desertion of shared governance is clearly problematic from a process standpoint. In this case, it also produced a policy that is vague, confusing, and does not emanate from accurate data or even clear priorities—so much so that not even the Provost could articulate a cohesive description/defense of what was being proposed. For a longer discussion, see Alex Mueller’s excellent essay here.
Bargaining and Unions: The report to the Faculty Council from CSU President Alexa MacPherson, including heart-wrenching testimony from classified staff about how poor pay forces them to work multiple jobs, endure lengthy commutes, and tolerate difficult living situations, was so powerful the Chancellor was moved to walk out of the meeting almost immediately after Alexa finished speaking (please see here and here). Addressing the serious problems faced by staff and faculty is ultimately made difficult not so much by the indifference of individual administrators as it is by the Administration’s overall lack of commitment to productive bargaining. The Administration has picked unnecessary fights with all the unions over whether to bargain by Zoom while making it difficult to even schedule meetings. They have also—after months—produced little in the way of concrete proposals of their own or substantive responses to union proposals.
Space Policy: In PSU’s report to the Faculty Council, Vice President Penelope MacDonald noted that her union submitted a demand to the Chancellor to “cease and desist” implementation of the University’s new Space Use Policy (other campus unions have followed suit—see here). The PSU has encouraged the Administration to bargain openly with all the unions about the policy, but thus far the Administration has refused to even discuss it. As MacDonald noted, “The absence of open dialogue and the refusal to bargain policy are symptoms of an administration increasingly convinced of its own infallibility.” The new Space Policy was formulated without, once again, consulting anyone and as a result was poorly thought-out. It also limits free speech on campus in ways that are antithetical to our very mission and has led to the outrageous disciplining of two staff members who participated in a peaceful and public vigil outside of Wheatley (see here). Opposition to this new policy goes far beyond the unions, to include a range of students, staff, and faculty. For its part, the CLA Faculty Senate “requests that the recent and unilateral changes to the Space Use & Reservation Policies be immediately rescinded and that the ‘Protest and Demonstration Advanced Notification Form’ be suspended until bargaining and meaningful dialogue is had with faculty, staff, and students” (see here). The Faculty Council had this topic on its agenda but was unable to get to it. Stay tuned for their meeting on November 18th.
I think you can recognize the theme: In abandoning its responsibility to run the university in conjunction with faculty and staff, the Administration is creating poorly thought-out policies that are imposed in ways that create unnecessary work for staff and faculty who are left to make the best of a bad situation. It also seems to be taking the university in an authoritarian direction where Administrators are effectively backing themselves into a corner and forced to defend bad policies by ignoring and/or disciplining university employees, stifling free speech, and creating a chilling effect among staff and students alike.
In response to the Administration’s squandering of opportunities to learn and grow collaboratively through shared governance, the ethos of a union says that local democracy is necessary for a functional university. In response to the Administration’s neglect of the bargaining process and doubling-down on repressive policies, the ethos of a union says that local democracy is necessary for a just university.
In light of the recent election, revitalizing democracy right here, where we can lay hands on it, is more urgent than ever.