The Necessities

When we speak of academic freedom and shared governance, I tend to hear the terms defined this way:

"Academic Freedom means I can do whatever I want, and Shared Governance means I can tell you what to do."

In a business-minded, self-centered society, this is indeed how the concepts play out. We rarely hear one another say things like, "I enjoy sharing the governance of my department with others," but we often hear how administrators are expected to share governance with us. When other instructors disagree with us, do we rush to protect their academic freedom? I hope so; we should.

At some colleges, there is no pretense of shared governance. In the strongest cases, a military-minded, authoritarian administration dictates policies without the input or agreement of the faculty. The faculty, meanwhile, exhibit the same tendencies toward one another, so that department chairs are lords of their departments, senior faculty are barons of their offices, and junior faculty live to serve.

Other colleges and universities claim to practice shared governance in one form or another. If shared governance is to work properly, though, it must be desired. A self-directed faculty has little desire to share governance with anyone else. A faculty who view their work as merely a job that pays the bills will be unable to glimpse the benefits of shared governance. An administration who adhere strongly to a business model of the college -- wherein the students are clients and the faculty are employees -- will likewise have great difficulty thinking that there might be any advantage to shared governance. Thus, a shared paradigm must precede shared governance.

Simply put: in order to have it, we must want it. In order to want it, we must know what it means to share. We must realize that if things get out of control, it is not our job to "fix" them. If others do contrary to what we would do, not only should we accept it, but it behooves us to embrace their freedom to do so. Sharing governance means that the community deliberately obtains input from one another prior to, and in the process of, making decisions. We do not seek such input because we are required by policy to do so; on the contrary, we do this because their input might likely be useful, and because we do not wish to marginalize anyone. If people stop caring, then they stop sharing, and shared governance ceases to exist.

Academic Freedom is likewise an ideal that must be closely guarded. Protecting the academic freedom of others means letting them speak when we think they should shut up. It means letting them teach when we think it will blow up in their faces. To have academic freedom means allowing others to do whatever decision we would like the liberty to make for ourselves.

Sharing our governance with one another and protecting one another's academic freedom are central concepts in the educational paradigm. These things distinguish us from corporations. They are what allow us to focus on education as our primary objective. But notice that we have turned the definitions around. Shared governance and academic freedom must not be things that we "take" for ourselves. If we hold such an attitude, then these things will escape us. We must always remember that shared governance and academic freedom are things that you must all give in order for any to have.