The Governance Council is an innovative program that allows officers of the Student Government Association, and the Staff and Faculty senates to work together on campus issues. Still in its developmental stages, the council will meet once this fall and twice in the spring.
The idea was put forward by Fred Mackara, president of the Faculty Senate. The Governance Council allows students, faculty and staff to interact with one another, something that has not officially happened in the past.
“We can look for opportunities where we have common ground to which we can work in cooperation with one another,” Mackara said.
He believes more communication can help the administration make important decisions because the Governance Council guarantees many voices will be involved.
“Not doing it doesn’t make sense to me,” Mackara said.
He likened the academic body to a stool of the three-legged wooden variety. The three legs of a stool are faculty, staff and students. If one leg is missing, the other two legs cannot stand.
“It’s pretty darn hard to imagine a university or any learning institution without students,” he said, “It’s also pretty absurd to talk about an academic institution without faculty and teachers. The role of staff is equally important … they do so many things that often students have more contact with non-faculty staff members than they do faculty.”
Karen Sullivan, Staff Senate president and director of University Advancement, also supports the Governance Council.
“I think it behooves us all to make it work,” Sullivan said. “Anytime you have the push for anything that’s going to help us all work better together, it’s just a good idea.”
“I look forward to working to establishing a Governance Council,” said Josh Shearin, SGA president. “However, I was elected by the student body and want to ensure that any new council is beneficial to students, in addition to faculty and staff.”
Mackara saw importance in communication between three groups with different perspectives. “I’m stereotyping a little bit when I say this, but students have primarily a short-term interest. They have a lot of energy, but they’re trying to figure out how to get through the semester, through the end of their program, etc. But if something should happen down the road and the university’s reputation should be damaged, that’s going to affect them,” he said. “It will be the way the university is perceived right now that will affect you for the rest of your life.
“Faculty and staff have a different perspective because we’re here for a longer run . faculty have tenure.
“Staff, on the other hand, are at-will employees, so if they say the wrong thing to the wrong person they can lose their job. That might make them a little more hesitant to speak out on things that are bothering them or problems that they see, or the way things are being done. That’s where I think that faculty can work together with staff on things we have in common because we don’t need to be nearly as concerned about losing our job.”
Issues to work together on include physical plan issues, including remodeling buildings and classrooms, safety issues, the plus/minus grading system, academic fees and enriching the recycling and green campus initiative.
“I see it as an opportunity for greater communication between those three legs of the stool,” Sullivan said.
“I think it’s a good dynamic there, with faculty, staff and students,” Mackara said. “[Our differences] make it natural for us to get together, talk, and see where we can work together – not only on what we have in common, but how we can take advantage of those differences, not look at them as a source of conflict.

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