By: Ava C. Green, Editor-in-Chief
On Friday, Oct. 18, the faculty senate unanimously passed two resolutions – one regarding student attendance at the State of the University address delivered on Oct. 9, and the other regarding the way the $15 million cut from the operating budget should and should not be carried out, but both addressing the idea of shared governance.
The shorter of the two, titled “Students, Communication, and a Thriving Community,” is a statement from the senate, ultimately standing “in support of the right of students to be
informed on the status of the university.” Further, they believe students’ voices should “be heard and be made a priority concerning the future of Canisius University,” citing “open dialogue” as a sign “of a healthy university community.” When Stoute was asked by The Griffin about the blockage of student attendance at the State of the University, he stated, “It is to give our faculty and staff the place to have candid, honest, hard conversations without worrying about how it will impact our students.”
The second resolution is titled “On Shared Governance & Budget Cuts,” and starts by referencing the Supreme Court decision that officially acknowledged university faculty members as “managerial employees” whose input plays a “crucial role” in decision-making, according to documents from the case. The Senate’s resolution also references the American Association of University Professors’ (AAUP) definition of shared governance to emphasize that decisions made about “curriculum, subject matter and methods of instruction, research, faculty status and those aspects of student life which relate to the educational process,” in particular, should refer heavily to the perspective of the faculty. The resolution also states that Canisius has been sanctioned by the AAUP for its inability to do so.
The faculty senate wrote that they have “no evidence that the current administration understands what shared governance is – nor how to conduct it,” and as a result, they crafted a list of demands for the terms the task force President Stoute plans to form in response to the faculty cry for shared governance. The demands are listed as follows:
Faculty representatives must be elected from the faculty at large.
Faculty representatives must be given complete and accurate knowledge of the budget.
All efficiencies throughout the entire university must be on the table.
Faculty representatives on the task force must be able to freely share information about this task force with the Faculty Senate, and the Senate and its committees should offer input throughout.
We ask that the Faculty Senate Chair be added as a fifth member of the task-force in addition to the four elected members.
And, finally, the Faculty Senate should have a final vote on the task force plan before it is adopted.
The resolution closes, stating, “If it should become clear that the Board of Trustees or Stoute’s intentions are to make disproportionate cuts to academics, we the Faculty Senate will call for a vote of no confidence, and all options available under the law will be considered.”