Running head: THE GOVERNANCE OF COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES

The Governance of Colleges and Universities: Historical Developments of Educational

Governance and Recognizing the Need for Faculty and Student Involvement.
Coco Roberts
Georgia Southern University

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The Governance of Colleges and Universities

The Governance Structure of American Colleges from the Past
The early organizational structure of university governances has had a long-lasting
impression on many of the colleges and universities within the United States. University
governance can be defined as the distribution of authority among qualifying individuals who
manage and set policies for an organization. Governances usually work and function to make
decisions for a large organization. The hierarchy of authorities for universities and colleges
started among Masters, Scholars, and Chancellors. Nonetheless, the establishment of governing
committees took over and started to transform the way colleges and universities were governed.
These distinct groups eventually paved the way for establishing governance and structure of
colleges and universities of today.
During the Colonial Era, England custom was for faculty to have more control over
governing decisions within a university. However, this idea did not appeal to the new colonies in
America. The new colonies embraced a new approach which included establishing an external
board of authorities which would include a president as well as administrative officers, along
with a board of trustees that would oversee the policies and procedures of the new established
universities. This would entail that a president would report issues of the university to a board of
trustees and not to faculty. (Reference?)
An example of this is that of Harvard University which was founded in 1636 and was the
first college in the United States. Harvard Universitys governing authorities were a group of
people called the Overseers. The Overseers would oversee all the functionalities of the college.
The Overseers were not an official governing board; therefore, around 1950 the Harvard

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university governing system became more of a corporation in that the Overseers governed more
of the funds and important decision making of the college while the president and administrators
handled the daily administration duties of the college. (Reference?) Another example is that of
the College of William and Mary which was established in 1693. The College of William and
Mary had a similar board of trustees which were called the board of visitors. The board of
visitors ultimately succeeded in controlling the corporation of its university despite that faculty
tried trying to gain some control. (Reference?) Therefore, the current structures of America
colleges today are from a legacy that was established during the Colonial Era.
Transformation and Governance
The Transformation Period had important developments within higher education. Small
colleges developed into large universities that were sponsored by the state. The Morrill LandGrant Act of 1862 generated growth throughout state institutions. And by the Nnineteenth
Century research universities had emerged. Along with these developing academic changes,
institutional governances changed as well. Administration was progressively being controlled by
offices such the deans office and registrars office. Other universities emerged by having vice
presidents take administrative roles. Faculties began to organize themselves into committees and
developed councils that consisted of faculty and administrators which would aid in making
important decisions on critical issues. Faculty members on campuses wielded great power and
had influence in issues related to tenure and promotion (Simplicio, 2006). Professionals began to
gain some control over hiring, degree requirements, and curriculums. However, as the faculty
and administers administrators developed councils they did not yet play an essential role in
university governance.
board of trustees.

Main control of university governance continued to reside with the

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By the 1960s public colleges and universities saw a rise in faculty unions. Faculty started
seeking increases in salaries and benefits, as well as academic promotion. Faculty also sought for
greater control in tenure decisions and other related professional issues. Furthermore, students
also protested and argued to have more of a say in the governing system. Because of this,
students began to develop governing bodies. Nevertheless, in the years to come faculty unions
and student influences help transform what is now a current university governing system.
(Reference?)
Current Issues of Shared Governance and Solutions
Higher education has relied on the power of collaborative decision making on college and
university campuses through the model of shared governance since the early 1900s (Crellin,
2010). Inside the American governance of colleges and universities, boards of trustees have long
been responsible for governing colleges and universities. Historically, governing boards have
held this authority, functioning as the principal overseers and policy makers of most colleges.
Recently, however, faculties and students have become more involved with voicing their need to
have a voicebe heard in internal governance decisions. Thus, transforming and challenging the
way colleges and universities have been ran run for centuries. However, elite universities do not
have unions because of their tenure security (Bucklew, 2012). Because of this transformational
trend during that time period, minimal contemplation for faculty having academic freedom and
instructors rights were never really addressed until the formation of American Association of
University Professors. The AAUP is an established organization that was formed to ensure
academic freedom for faculty. The AAUP formed the 1966 Statement of Government of
Colleges and Universities which was to help governing authorities as well as other unions

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establish a mutual understanding regarding government within colleges and universities. The
statement also emphasesemphasizes the importance of faculty involvement in personnel
decisions and administrative issues related to policies. This statement paved the way for what we
know today as Shared Governance. Shared Governance can be defined as a joint effort in an
academic institution where faculty has primary responsibility of governing or voicing their
opinion about institutional matters (Euben, 2003).
To this day faculty still make efforts to allow their voice to be heard. The AAUP has been
great organization in helping faculty allow their voice to be heard. (Be careful about duplicating
thoughts in consecutive sentences.) The legal matter of the academic freedom has been the
foundation of AAUP. A solution to improving academic freedom for faculty and students raised
the awareness of the need for faculty and students to protest so that their voice can be heard so
that governing officials will make more of an effort to allow these groups to more involved in
governing decisions. A number of public and private colleges have incorporated AAUP policies
into their faculty handbook and other guiding documents (Levinson, 2011). This will build (build
what?)in an effort to make faculty aware of their rights concerning academic freedom.
In conclusion, there have been many historical developments that have impacted the
structure of the current governance of higher education. The Colonial Era governing
establishment has had an everlasting impact which still affects our current governance today.
Disagreements over governance in are not likely to go away, however, the basic form during the
early years of the nation still remain intact. Current universities and colleges still have boards
that overseer the general administration policies and the president still remains as a part of this
group. Issues concerning academic governance will forever be shaping the structure of
governances at colleges and universities.

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References need to be double spaced.

References
Bucklew, N. (2012). Faculty Union and Faculty Senate Co-Existence. Labor Studies,
373-390.
Crellin, M. (2010). The Future of Shared Governance. New Direction for Higher
Education, 71-81.
Euben, D. (2003, October 11). Some Legal Aspects of Collegial Goverance. Retrieved
November 23, 2013, from AAUP: www.assup.org
Levinson, R. (2011). Academic Freedom, Shared Governance, and the First
Amendment after Garcetti v. Ceballos. American Association of Universty
Professors, 3.
Simplicio, J. (2006). Shared Goverance. Education, 763-768.

Solid topic and great linkage between past and present. Spend some
more time proofreading and remember, when in doubt, over-reference rather
than under-reference. You do not, under any circumstances, want to be
accused of plagiarism. If you are writing anything with a historical flavor, you
were not there, so you cant be the subject matter expert. 17/20