Is University Shared Governance on the Way Out? How State Legislators Are Shifting Power to Themselves
Jeffrey Adam Sachs | 13 March 2025 | Pen America
Academic freedom is about the freedom to choose: the freedom to research this problem and not that one, to consider or advance one argument in the classroom and to criticize another. But freedom of choice only means something if the choices themselves are meaningful. Part of how universities make sure faculty members’ choices have meaning is through shared governance. And shared governance is under attack.
As part of the ongoing legislative attack on academic freedom and campus free speech, state-level proposals to alter university governance and remove faculty from decision-making have bubbled up across the country. Instead of following the well-established concept of governance shared by faculty, administrators, and governing boards, they are trying to shift power to themselves…