Shared Governance Under Stress: Reflections of the Chair of the Penn State University Faculty Senate
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Presentation provided a review of the governance crisis at Penn State precipitated by the arrest of Mr. Sandusky and the termination of its President and Head Football Coach followed by unprecedented investigations and NCAA sanctions. The focus will be on the absence of faculty from any meaningful engagement in any of these events.
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Shared Governance Under Stress: Reflections of the Chair of the Penn State University Faculty Senate
- 1. Shared Governance Under Stress: Reflections of the Chair of the Penn State University Faculty Senate Larry Catá Backer W. Richard and Mary Eshelman Faculty Scholar & Professor of Law, Professor of International Affairs 2012-13 Chair University Faculty Senate, Pennsylvania State University AAUP Conference On the State of Higher Education Session 4C June 13, 2013 Washington, D.C.
- 3. The Actors and Chain of Events • Jerry Sandusky • Curley and Schultz • Spanier and Paterno • Board of Trustees • Freeh Group Report • NAACP report and Sanctions • Incorporating the Freeh Group Recommendatons
- 4. Roadmap • Nature of institutional errors – Board of Trustees – Administration – Faculty • Stress on Shared Governance – Institutional impediments to faculty participation in effective shared governance • What the Future Brings – Complicity with cronyism
- 5. Nature of Institutional Errors • The Board of Trustees was not prepared – Virtual ceding of any oversight authority – Passive engagement; cronyism • The administrative apparatus of a large university is not always prepared for crisis, and tends to handle crisis badly. – No planning; administrative isolation, developing a “yes person” top down culture of control • University governance structures that are based on a strong President model are especially susceptible to mismanaging crisis, especially where the crisis itself focuses on the office of the President. – Cult of personality issues – Cronyism
- 6. Nature of Institutional Errors (2) • Large bureaucracies resist nimbleness—they prefer gesture to substantive changes if only because they are less drastic and because they hold the promise of substituting formal for functional changes. – The appearance of action as a substitute for response—hamsters on a wheel – Fosters lack of transparency and encourages stakeholders to check out of governance participation • Faculties, and faculty organizations, did not well serve the interests of the university in this crisis when they assume that servility is the highest form of service. – Cultivation of cultures of servility – Faculty conspicuously absent at key moments – Back door whisper campaigns to discredit faculty or bully them into silence
- 7. Stress Points on Shared Governance • Transparency – Informational – engagement • Senate Structure that enhances Administrative Control – Executive director reporting to the Provost – No participation in budget • No protection against retaliation or pressure – Especially potent against contract faculty on the Senate • Process complexity • Cronyism – Insider senate leaders – Rewards for behaving – Marginalization of “rebels” – Repeat players on all committees • Solidarity Issues – Faculty easy to divide – Fear mongering by administrators • Boards tend to see faculty as employees • Focus on low level administrative tasks overwhelm resources
- 8. What the Future Brings • Need to move from focus on administration related tasks to monitoring, assessment and accountability – Board performance • Should report directly to board – Administration performance • 360 review of personnel • Program review
- 9. What the Future Brings (2) • Abandon focus on petty functionary governance – Obsession with small issues; • pay attention to administrative bloat • Develop the forensic function – Only real venue for discussing important issues of governance • Protect faculty against retaliation and bullying – Abandon reliance on judicial and constitutional law protection – Require contractual or policy protection against retaliation • Enhance transparency – Informational transparency – Engagement transparency
- 10. Questions?
- 11. Further Reading • Backer, Larry Catá, Between Faculty, Administration, Board, State, and Students: On the Relevance of a Faculty Senate in the Modern U.S. University (February 10, 2013). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2032779 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2032779 • Remarks on Assuming Duties as Chair of the PSU University Faculty Senate, April 24, 2012. Available http://www.backerinlaw.com/Site/podcasts/speeches-and- remarks/remarks-on-assuming-duties-as-chair-of-the-psu-university- faculty-senate-april-24-2012/.