ARCHIVE - November, 2001

The New Face of Shared Governance on the Boulder Campus
Lisa Lucio, Chair, Staff Council

Last year, as a new member of the Boulder Campus Staff Council, I volunteered to fill the position of Staff Council delegate to the Boulder Faculty Assembly (BFA)  a position that had been vacant for several years.  Not knowing what to expect, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that not only was I welcomed with open arms by the assembly, an interesting number of issues being discussed before the assembly applied to staff concerns as well.  During the course of that year I was often consulted for staff opinion and was approached by a number of faculty members who had concerns for their own staff.  It was a rewarding and highly educational experience.

This year, having been elected as Chair of the Boulder Campus Staff Council, I expressed my desire to deepen the working partnership between the two groups and was graciously invited by the Chair, Uriel Nauenberg, to attend the weekly BFA Executive Board meetings.  Once again, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that my opinion was welcomed and encouraged by this group.  So too were the voices of representatives from the University of Colorado Student Union (UCSU) and their graduate student equivalent, the United Government of Graduate Students (UGGS).  In addition to the above-mentioned participants, there is also a representative of campus administration (Associate Vice Chancellor of Budget and Planning, Bill Kaempfer) available to lend his expertise and administrative perspective on the matter of discussion.  For the first time I experienced a working environment of shared governance.

The advantages of having this kind of partnership are numerous, but for the purpose of brevity I will mention only the top three.   The most obvious advantage is having a forum in which issues can be addressed from a campus-wide perspective.   This affords each representative body an understanding of all perspectives on a particular issue, which promotes a genuine spirit of partnership and understanding among the various groups.  In addition, solutions presented out of these discussions are inclusive and not limited to any individual single perspective.

The second advantage of this type of forum is that the BFA, as a much larger and more powerful voice on the Boulder campus than Staff Council, can draw the attention of influential guests that the Staff Council would sometimes have difficulty reaching.  Such guests have included CCHE Director Tim Foster, RTD’s Cal Marsella and Bill Van Meter, President Elizabeth Hoffman, Vice President John Bliss, Treasurer Judy Van Gordon, and numerous key campus and system administrators.  In a single session, matters of interest to all CU constituencies can be addressed in an open format.  In addition, the BFA Executive Board meets on a weekly basis enabling timely response to current issues facing the campus community.
 
The final key advantage that I gained from participation in this assembly is the opportunity to acquire information  I would not otherwise have known about.  Armed with this knowledge, I have brought back important news to Staff Council and solicited input from our constituents.  This flow of communication has proven valuable for Staff Council on issues such as the PeopleSoft implementation, Pay for Performance, faculty/staff tuition benefits, faculty/staff housing initiatives, drop-in daycare, domestic partner benefits and, most recently, the RTD fare increases.
 
With a unified voice coming from all four of the campus representative organizations, we are bridging the gap between our individual concerns, building a sense of community and mutual respect, as well as strengthening our ability to influence decision-making and effect change on the Boulder campus.  This is the true spirit and great advantage of shared governance.  I have nothing but the highest regard for my partners in this endeavor and strongly recommend that such cooperative activity continue.

IN THIS ISSUE:

The opinions expressed in these articles are those of the authors, and do not represent those of the Boulder Faculty Assembly, CU faculty at large, or the University of Colorado.

Responses to these articles are welcome. We are developing our capacity to collect responses on-line. In the meantime, please send your comments via e-mail to Thomas.Mayer@Colorado.edu.

Click here for the names and contact information of the membership of the BFA Communications Committee.