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May 8, 2008
Baylor Line News
A publication of the Baylor Alumni Association
Baylor's Faculty Senate, during its regularly scheduled monthly meeting on Tuesday, May 6, met for nearly four hours to discuss the university administration's practices of "shared governance." For part of that time, Baylor President John Lilley and Provost Randall O'Brien were present to answer questions, address concerns, and participate in the discussion.
At the meeting, according to local media, senators passed a resolution that was critical of the administration's handling of recent faculty tenure decisions. According to a copy of the resolution obtained by the Waco Tribune-Herald, the faculty resolution laid out fifteen items of contention regarding the recent denial of 40 percent of the faculty candidates up for tenure. The resolution called for administrative action on six specific items, including the restoration of shared governance and due process, that tenure policy revisions be given a reasonably long timetable for candidates to adjust, and for the president and provost to repair damage to faculty morale. The resolution ended with the statement that, should the administration fail to satisfy the request of the Faculty Senate, the group will "take steps to request an external review of shared governance from an appropriate professional association within academia."
According to Dr. Lynn Tatum, senior lecturer in Baylor's Honors College and the Texas president of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), the concept of shared governance might be unfamiliar to those outside academia, but it is a foundational principle of the governance of "great universities." To read Tatum's blog on shared governance--an exclusive for the Baylor Line News--go to "Shared Governance: We're All In This Together."
For more on the meeting of the Baylor Faculty Senate, read the story in the Waco Tribune-Herald, "BU Faculty Senate Passes Resolution."
For the complete text of the senate's resolution, go to Faculty Senate Resolution on the Failure of Shared Governance at Baylor University.
To share your thoughts on this issue, click here: Shared Governance
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