Exploring Shared Governance

Academic Council discussion examines faculty role in university decision-making, strategy

Duke Chapel and Hospital
Image courtesy of Duke Marketing & Communications.

Faculty at Duke are tackling a fundamental question at the heart of higher education: What does shared governance look like at a time of increasing complexity for universities?

Duke’s Academic Council examined this topic recently in a conversation featuring Chair Mark Anthony Neal, Arts & Sciences Council Chair Denise Comer and former Academic Council Chair Don Taylor.

Each emphasized the importance of the faculty’s role in guiding university strategy while also acknowledging the trickiness and challenges putting it into practice.

Comer, from the Thompson Writing Program, emphasized that the foundation must be built collectively. Effective governance, she noted, requires continuous reflection on what’s working, recognition of tensions, and candid conversations about differing expectations.

Taylor, a public policy professor, underscored that governance is a process with limitations.

“The most important thing is a shared understanding of reality … of what governance means,” Taylor said. “We could have really good governance in my mind, and the president or provost could do something I don’t like; however, it’s not my job to decide. They’re the president and provost. So I think we faculty need to make sure we are focusing on the process.”

Neal, the current council chair, said he put the conversation together to bring some needed transparency to the roles of various bodies – like the council – which meets publicly – and its executive committee, which meets privately.

The conversation stretched broadly – from the faculty’s role in the use, monitoring and implementation of AI tools, to concerns around confidentiality on some committees, to university budgeting.

Taylor said his time in faculty governance illuminated the complex nature of university budgeting, adding it might help faculty members to understand more deeply how Duke’s schools and institutes receive their revenue. The sizes and needs of Duke’s various schools vary widely, and that context helps explain the university’s overall budgeting situation, Taylor said.

Much conversation centered on the need to involve more faculty members in governance but also to only have committees that are truly useful – and at manageable sizes.

“Democracy is not easy,” said Neal, a former chair of the African and African American Studies Department. “Not everyone is invested in the same way we would like them to be invested for the process to work.”

Provost Alec Gallimore emphasized the value of shared governance, adding faculty members may not understand just how important their role is in decisions coming from the administration.

“There isn’t a strategic direction we take at this university where we don’t have significant input from the faculty to guide us,” he said. “You’re the faculty expertise, and it wouldn’t work otherwise.”