Students have quiet voice in new shared governance

Faculty and staff were asked in a Friday town hall meeting for campus constituents to take the student body into consideration while deciding changes to the proposed Shared Governance Process.

"I urge you to keep in mind that students do have a say and want to have a say in what happens on campus," Nathan Gastineau, president of the Graduate Student Counsel, said. "We don't expect to have equal say or more say, but we do expect to have a say."

Dr. Craig Jones, professor of psychology and counseling, agreed.

"The SGA is an important organization and for the proposal going forward, they have a minimal voice," Jones said.

Jones said the proposed policy offered little say for students wanting to offer proposals to the chancellor. Students would instead have to go through faculty or staff to offer proposals.

"They have issues that will only be of interest to students," Jones said. "They should have the same power as everyone else to speak directly to the chancellor and not have to go through the staff or faculty voice."

Gastineau was the only student to show up at the meeting, which consisted of around 25 faculty, staff and university officials. Mike McDaniel, chairman of the Shared Governance Oversight Committee, led the meeting.

Feelings toward the proposed policy were mixed.

Dr. John Hall, professor of psychology, said "The policy that I assume that we are on right now, some of us saw as problematic."

Hall cited wording as one of the problems.

Hall said he felt with changes, "the majority of us can live with this document."

It was not the same for Jones.

"My conviction is that the representative that we elect for us should speak for us," Jones said. "Each (faculty and staff) has separate interests that only involves them, but also has joint interests" such as the academic year calendar.

Dick Freer, a faculty senator, said he felt everyone involved needed more time to consider the Shared Governance proposal before a vote was taken on what he called was a "huge issue."

"I do think it's important that we do this in a measured way," Freer said. "I feel the urgency from the writing committee to move forward but with due respect … I think they understand they did not have all constituencies heard."

Freer said he considered the university to have three constituency groups on campus:  the 10,000 students, 600 faculty, and 900 staff, all of whom should have a way to suggest ideas and problems.

Chancellor Potts said if there were doubts, the proposal could be delayed to allow for more discussion.

McDaniel said the proposed policy came about because of the "university's inability to get proposals through the current shared governance system."

Moore said a better system should include a system that identified where to send proposed policies and where to expect the proposed policies to come out, "so people know what they are dealing with."

In a unofficial vote during a Faculty Senate meeting that followed the public hearing, faculty senate members said they generally approved the proposed shared governance policy.