Dive Brief:
- In an interview with The Chronicle of Higher Education, Marlboro College President Kevin F.F. Quigley outlines the construct and value of a total campus voting system with equal governance authority for students, staff, faculty and administration.
- The campus, which has just 400 total faculty and students, allows voting on most operational matters but only takes advice from students on budgetary issues.
- Quigley says that the shared governance model is one that mirrors the New England style of town management, and is a major factor in student recruiting for the institution.
Dive Insight:
This could be a model that works ideally for small institutions that have more control over sharing the immediate and longterm needs of the school, and in convincing students to play a productive role in helping to meet those needs. For these schools, shared governance is a strong tool for boosting campus morale and interconnectivity between various groups.
But on the subject of hot button issues like construction priorities and academic development, student and staff governance may not be a good idea because there are multiple layers in these issues that cannot be explained in just a few power point slides or through debate in an auditorium.