YSU committee promoting 'shared governance' to improve trust of leaders

YOUNGSTOWN

A Youngstown State University committee will soon seek trustee board endorsement on new guidelines to solve a sore spot among faculty – shared governance.

A document was drafted by the YSU Excellence Steering Committee – made up of faculty members, administration and trustees – in response to the 2016 Chronicle of Higher Education’s “Great Colleges to Work For” Campus Climate Survey results.

The 2016 results showed faculty surveyed have a distrust of their senior leadership and administration and cited poor communication and a lack of shared governance.

The 2017 Campus Climate results in August again showed distrust in terms of communication and governance.

The committee’s goal is to create guidelines and “not to create hurdles over which people will stumble,” said YSU Trustee Ted Roberts during Wednesday afternoon’s Academic and Student Affairs Committee meeting.

Shared governance is defined in the YES Committee’s draft as: “The transparent process by which the university community (i.e. faculty, staff, administrators, alumni and students) influences decisions on matters of policy and procedure, and/or to present alternatives on such matters.”

Read more about the situation in Thursday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.