Shared governance at Saint Louis University: reality or myth?

Such is the question addressed in a report released at the end of last month and endorsed unanimously by the Faculty Senate on March 26. The report addresses the current state of shared governance at SLU, from the faculty perspective.

“The report is the culmination of a great deal of work on behalf of the committee,” said Faculty Senate President Randy Sprague. “The report itself is not subject to more discussion or additions; however, we hope that it will stimulate a great deal of discussion among our faculty, students and administration.”

The report addresses five steps to further shared governance, set originally on April 6, 1999 in an agreement between administration and faculty, staff and student representatives.

Those five steps included:

 expanding the President’s Coordinating Council to include a faculty, staff and student representative;

 reinstituting the Budget Advisory Committee and include on it faculty, staff, student and dean representatives;

 appointing a task force to review the decision-making structures in the University;

 recommending that the Board of Trustees’ committees admit faculty, student and staff representatives; and

 presenting a proposal to the Board that a faculty, student and staff representative be allowed to sit in and observe Board meetings.

The report affirms that each of these points was consequently addressed but adds that adherence to shared governance principles has been less than ideal. For example, the report states that while the PCC has expanded its membership, issues are brought before the senior staff of University President Lawrence Biondi, S.J.-consisting of the University vice presidents-as opposed to the PCC. The report also notes that centralized decision-making and an inconsistency in commitment to shared governance continue to serve as major obstacles.

The report concludes that the faculty does have primary responsibility for and a voice in the curriculum, as well as over matters of pedagogy, research and faculty status. However, it also stated: “We find that the faculty has no voice in the framing and execution of strategic planning, in decisions regarding existing or prospective physical resources and in the allocation of resources among competing demands.”

“The committee conducted in-depth interviews with faculty, students, staff, deans, chairs and past and present officers of the Senate,” Sprague said. “Their report was built upon these discussions, as well as previous reports on shared governance from this institution and a previous covenant among students, faculty and the administration.”

To improve shared governance, the report lists several recommendations, including:

 establish channels of communication between the Board of Trustees and the Faculty Senate, so that at a minimum the Board can receive faculty views directly from faculty members;

 give vice presidents, deans and directors enough authority and discretion to provide innovative and entrepreneurial leadership to their units;

 establish new structures to provide for meaningful input from students, faculty and staff;

 allow faculty involvement in the development of priorities for the operating budget;

 put in place structures and procedures to guarantee adequate participation by affected units in space allocation decisions;

 focus attention on the School of Medicine, which has seen a “significant loss of faculty;”

 allow faculty to select their own representatives according to procedures determined by the faculty.

“The seven recommendations at the end of the report are a beginning, not an end,” Sprague said.

“They are steps that the Faculty Senate believes are necessary to begin to move toward true shared governance at (SLU). I know that we will be able to work with the administration to resolve these critical issues as we move forward toward our shared goal of becoming the finest Catholic University,” he continued.

Sprague added that in his opinion, the report clearly expresses the existing deficiencies in shared governance.

“It is my belief that the principals endorsed and the recommendations made in the report can be embraced by all members of the Saint Louis University community,” he said.

Biondi responded to the ad hoc committee’s report in his monthly message, stating that he disagreed with the statement that faculty have no voice in strategic planning and the allocation of resources. “The University is in the midst of a strategic planning process that has included extensive faculty involvement throughout,” Biondi stated.

He noted, though, that continuous improvements to shared governance were necessary. “I am not completely satisfied with shared governance at SLU, specifically with the level of participation by members of our community-students, staff, faculty and administrators,” he said. “I believe that all of us in our SLU community welcome continuing discussion and dialogue from all parts of the University, whether it be the Faculty Senate’s report or interaction at an SGA-sponsored town hall forum or the candid, frank discussions which occur at PCC meetings.”

“It is my opinion that, in his message to the faculty, President Biondi fairly and clearly articulated his viewpoint,” Sprague said. “However, I do not believe that he addressed the concerns of the faculty as expressed in the report endorsed by the Faculty Senate.”

From a student perspective, Student Government Association president Mike Cappel said that shared governance has worked well for students.

As SGA president, Cappel also serves as the student representative to the PCC, which he reports still meets once a month.

Cappel said he does not feel a sense that issues are kept from the PCC, as opposed to the president’s senior staff meetings. “I feel well-represented and well-heard,” he said. “I think the administration is willing to listen and work for what students want.”

Cappel said that faculty may feel concerned that several student-oriented issues-including the student union and lower tuition increases-have overshadowed faculty-oriented issues, such as a research facility and lower salary increases. “We don’t perceive the same problems as the faculty does,” he said. Cappel noted that shared governance will involve cooperation on all sides-faculty, staff, student and administration.