Shared Governance - Making Respectful Trade-offs [with 3.3 minutes of audio]

"Overload, Shared Governance & Productive Assessment
- New Paradoxes (and Paradigms?)"
Do you see a shift away from older patterns of shared governance when lines could be drawn more clearly and easily between different parts of an educational institution? … What if anything could be done to help faculty and others to be involved more comfortably and constructively in these trade-off kinds of decisions?

Here are excerpts from “Clothing the Emperor” series online interview of Richard A. Detweiler (Rick), President, Great Lakes Colleges Association, December 7, 2005, by Steven W. Gilbert, President, The TLT Group. In the attached MP3 file, you will here the complete versions of Gilbert’s final question about the changing patterns of shared governance and Detweiler’s insightful, helpful answer.

EXCERPT FROM GILBERT’S FINAL INTERVIEW QUESTION AND COMMENTS FOR DETWEILER 12/7/2005:
Do you see a shift away from older patterns of shared governance when lines could be drawn more clearly and easily between different parts of an educational institution? When making trade-offs across those lines was usually unnecessary? What if anything could be done to help faculty and others to be involved more comfortably and constructively in these trade-off kinds of decisions?

Additional comments from Gilbert:I believe that significant educational decisions for colleges and universities now often require new kinds of trade-offs, and that makes old patterns of shared governance much harder to sustain. Within any college or university the professional success of people from different academic departments and offices has depended on their mastery of very different kinds of reasoning, proof, and argument. It can be hard for people who are so committed to different ways of thinking to reach reasonable conclusions together. The training that most faculty members have for their professional roles has not prepared them well for making decisions that require weighing the needs and goals of other groups. Your career has taken you through many roles (faculty member, administrator, president, board member…), so your insights on this topic would be especially valuable.

Other Related Resources
Full Interview Archive [Open in Internet Explorer Only]
Related TLT Group Resources
Online Institute Home Page
Faculty/Professional Development
Dangerous Discussions
Clothing the Emperor