A UNIVERSITY AND ITS FACULTY
Recently across the country controversies have arisen over the proper role of faculty in the governance of universities. We at Austin Peay State University have not been immune. Therefore, the executive committee of the APSU Chapter of the American Association of University Professors thought that we ought to try to explain our basic understanding of the issue.
A university, at its best, is an academic and artistic community of persons of varied backgrounds, interests, and expertise who come together to learn, to instruct, to pursue research and to cultivate the arts. In a public university, this work is done not only for the students who are the most obvious and immediate beneficiaries, but also for the benefit of the taxpayers or society at large. A primary purpose of a university is to contribute to the cultural, economic, and social development of the region it serves.
The university faculty is charged with the main responsibility of determining the nature and quality of instruction, research, artistic production and public service. The administration serves mainly as the stewards of the university's financial and physical assets. The administration alone cannot make decisions directly affecting the nature of instruction and other faculty responsibilities because it lacks the necessary detailed expertise. Similarly, the faculty lacks the time and background to determine on its own such matters as financial policy and building programs. Hence the necessity of what is called "shared governance."
Administrators and faculty must consult regularly and candidly on all matters of overlapping responsibility. A good example is faculty hiring. Faculty members are in the best position to evaluate the qualifications of prospective faculty while administrators must participate in the decisions for financial reasons. Faculty must also participate in financial planning and administrators must participate in curricular developments having financial impact. As such, therefore, neither the administration nor the faculty "run the university." Rather, it is a joint endeavor, requiring open and honest communication on all sides.
A university professor, like a physician, lawyer, or member of the armed forces, belongs to a profession, a term that implies commitments and responsibilities which transcend the simple employee/employer relationship. A good lawyer, for instance, works not only for his or her clients but also for the ideal of a just society. Thus, lawyers are "officers of the court." Similarly, professors work not only for the students or the administrators who "cut the checks" but also for the ideal of an educated society. Faculty members, by custom and regulation, are thus "officers of the university." Professors certainly have obligations to their universities but they can only meet those obligations well if they are also strongly committed to the traditions and standards of their disciplines and to the ideals of education in general.
To meet those responsibilities, faculty members need "academic freedom," - the right to think, write, and speak freely about their areas of expertise and about the quality of education available in the institutions and regions they serve. They must be free from arbitrary political and economic pressure. Here professors often have problems similar to those of physicians dealing with HMOs or "trial lawyers" being bashed by politicians. In short, all professions require a certain amount of liberty and mutual trust in order to function effectively and "professionally." When all these pieces of university life come together, the result is a healthy and vibrant academic and artistic community committed to excellence in instruction, research, artistic production and public service.
Richard P. Gildrie, President, APSU Chapter, AAUP
This essay was sent in the form of a letter to the university's student newspaper, The All-State, in the Fall semester of 1999.
"All politeness is owing to liberty. We polish one another, and rub off our corners by a sort of amicable collision. To restrain this, is inevitably to bring a rust upon men's understandings. 'Tis a destroying of civility, good breeding, and even charity itself, under pretence of maintaining it." Earl of Shaftesbury, 1711.
Last updated on December 6, 1999.