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November 9, 2017

Academic Futures Open Forum: Strengthening Faculty Governance

Moderator:      Jeff Cox

Listener:          Russ Moore

Points made and issues raised included:

1. There is a need to get faculty more engaged in shared governance and in the university in general.
   1. A sense of reward for such participation needs to be developed
   2. Faculty need to believe that governance is representative
2. Communication is critical to the meaningful function of shared governance and faculty committees
   1. Committee or shared governance recommendations should generally be honored, but
   2. If not honored, then there needs to be clarity as to why recommendations were not taken.
3.  Representatives from governance bodies should make concerted efforts to visit constituent units on a regular basis.  This is key to promoting better communication.
4. Faculty don’t participate or seem to take shared governance seriously because they fear their efforts will be for naught (nothing will happen).
5. Communication (from governance groups and administration) is critical to support faculty morale.
6. Broader faculty participation in shared governance and key committees would serve to harness the creativity of the campus community.
7. Why do some schools and colleges have governance advisory bodies and some don’t?
8. Efforts should be made for better collaboration between administration and governance bodies/faculty.
9. There should be some vehicle to allow faculty voices to be heard, perhaps along the lines of a more contemporary Silver and Gold.
10. Collaborative communication between faculty, shared governance bodies, and administration is critical to better campus function
    1. Influences how and when constituents hear about important issues and developments
    2. How things are communicated is important to avoid unintended misinterpretations of messages.
11.  Leaders of key shared faculty governance groups and campus committees should make efforts to get together on a regular basis so that there’s a better sense of what’s going on in different parts of the campus.  Also, there could be great value in cross-committee ex officio participation by members of different shared governance bodies/campus committees.