May-June 2013 Academe

From a narrow, legalistic standpoint, it may be true that boards of trustees have all the power in American universities. But that ignores the real necessity of shared governance and raises questions about the connection between power and competence. In the May–June 2013 issue of Academe (http://www.aaup.org/issue/may-june-2013), we address some of these questions and the relationship between the faculty and the board. We start with articles by people who have direct experience with boards of trustees. Hans-Joerg Tiede, a member of the AAUP’s Committee on College and University Governance, discusses communication between boards and faculties in the context of AAUP policy; Ronald G. Ehrenberg, a faculty member who served on the Cornell University Board of Trustees, and coauthors Richard W. Patterson and Andrew V. Key present the results of a study of the roles of faculty members on boards; Brian C. Mitchell, former president of Bucknell University, describes how he sees the crisis boards are facing; Sandi Cooper, former chair of the City University of New York’s faculty senate, reflects on her experiences with the CUNY board; Jeffrey L. Buller, a dean at Florida Atlantic University, provides what he hopes will be a starting point for effective reform; and three members of the Cabrini College academic community relate their college’s experience with a reevaluation of shared governance.

This issue also includes reviews of books about higher education and the Red Scare, the Cold War, and linguistic minority students. And the web edition includes two special online-only features: Joseph Galasso’s examination of the role of the private and the public in education and Mary W. Gray’s update on universities in the West Bank and Gaza. Look for more online-only content in future issues of Academe.

As always, you can read others’ comments and share your thoughts at the bottom of each article on our website. You can also join the discussion on Academe Blog (http://academeblog.org/), which features interviews with authors featured in Academe and daily posts on topics such as academic freedom, governance, and faculty work.