Retaliatory Governance and the University: Considering Hypothetical Questions on the Discretionary Authority of Deans and their Effects

(Pix © Larry Catá Backer 2015) To what extent do unit administrators contribute to rising cultures of retaliation in the contemporary public...

"Now THIS is Shared Governance"; "NOW this is shared Governance"; "Now this IS Shared Governance": Embedding Faculty Within the Bureaucratic Machinery of Authoritarian Regimes

(Pix © Larry Catá Backer 2015) The American university has changed.  A combination of (1) de-professionalization (in the form of dis aggrega...

The Shape of Engagement in University Governance--The AAUP Reports on the Search for the President of the University of Iowa

  (Pix © 2015 Larry Catá Backer) On December 10, 2015 the AAUP released its report of its review of the 2015 University of Iowa presidential...

Faculty Engagement in Dean Searches: Shared Governance in an Age of Retaliation and the Problem of Anonymity

(Pix © Larry Catá Backer 2015) It is still common, in the public and publicly assisted university, for the inclusion of some form of faculty...

Benefits at the Public University--Why the Individual Ought to Matter and Why This May Touch on the Ethical Obligations of University Administrators

(Pix © Larry Catá Backer 2015) I have been writing for some time on the turn in the basic principles underlying the administration of health...

Unionization of Fixed Term/Contingent Faculty and the Abandonment of Shared Governance--The View From the University of Chicago

(Pix © Larry Catá Backer 2015) I have been suggesting that shared governance in the modern American university is failing. That failure is a...