The UI Academic Senate on March 28 called for a “wider university discussion” of institutional governance, inviting university administrators and members of the UI Board of Trustees to meet with faculty leaders in a summit.
Senators have been discussing recent administrative changes and approved a statement Feb. 28 asking administrators and the board for further dialogue prior to future administrative changes. At the board meeting in Springfield March 23, trustees pledged the board’s full support of the president and reiterated its approval of the actions taken by Hogan, some of which are a result of the Administrative Review and Restructuring initiative begun in November 2009 by then-president Stanley O. Ikenberry.
After reviewing a report prepared by an ad hoc committee led by political science professor Paul Diehl, the senate approved the call for a summit meeting in a statement prepared by senator Nicholas Burbules.
Diehl and committee members spent several weeks studying various administrative structures that have been used to integrate universities with multiple campuses. They conducted interviews and analyzed university structures at six institutions: Indiana University, Ohio State, Penn State, University of Maryland, University of Texas and the UI. Each is classified as either multi-site, a university with a flagship campus, or multi-campus, an institution with several campuses with different missions and profiles. According to the report, UI falls into the multi-campus model. The committee also looked at academic functions and administrative and business functions under both models.
“Recent discussions over institutional governance issues have been mired in conflicting interpretations of the Statutes and General Rules, or over the meaning of ambiguous slogans like ‘One university, three campuses,’ whose concrete implications for organization are unclear,” said a statement submitted by Burbules, a professor of education policy, organization and leadership.
“The Diehl report shows that comparable universities to ours rely on a variety of models,” Burbules said. “The UI is clearly (multi-campus); the Chicago and Springfield campuses rightly do not consider themselves regional branches of the Urbana campus.”
Burbules’ call for a university summit outlined nine principles that should “support planning for the future of the university.” The principles include statements about the role of the chancellor, the administrative chain of command, reporting structure on the three campuses, and at what level academic policy should be determined.
“We believe the time has come for a universitywide discussion of the implications of these principles for planned administrative restructuring and for the progressive implementation of changes already approved,” Burbules’ statement said.
“We’re in the middle of a series of proposals that will fundamentally transform the institution,” Burbules said.
He said the call for broader discussion of the issue was prompted by board of trustees Chair Christopher Kennedy. In correspondence with SEC Chair Joyce Tolliver, Kennedy suggested keeping lines of communication open.
Burbules said the University Senates Conference and other campus senates also will be asked to join the call for a summit meeting.
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