Over recent decades, faculty authority at colleges and universities has increased on departmental and programmatic matters, yet their power has dropped on institutional-level decisions such as budgeting. This mixed finding comes from the 2021 Shared Governance Survey by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), its first national snapshot of faculty authority in two decades.
Tracking how faculty roles evolved over 20 and 50 years, the AAUP compared its new data to its two most recent shared governance surveys from 2001 and 1971. Respondents this year were asked to report on pre-pandemic conditions at their institutions. AAUP released another report on the pandemic’s impact on shared governance, finding it led to an overall decline in faculty authority.
In the shared governance survey from this year, about 63% of four-year institutions reported no faculty involvement in budget decisions, an uptick compared to 2001 (12.6%) and 1971 (42.8%). Allocation of faculty positions similarly saw a decline. No faculty participated in choices on such matters at roughly 45% of institutions. That number leapt from 5.6% in 2001, and it slightly outpaced 1971’s level at 39.3%.
But regarding most academic choices, faculty authority went up. For example, 76% of institutions reported faculty were dominant or primary in deciding the program curriculum. In 2001, 54% of institutions reported faculty dominance in these areas. And in 1971, 43% of colleges and universities did so.
“The results go in two separate directions,” said Dr. Hans-Joerg Tiede, the survey’s author and the director of research at AAUP. “But it’s not a positive development when things are becoming siloed. Yes, faculty have local authority over who they hire and the curriculum. But as soon as faculty get out of their department, they don’t have central authority.”
The survey also found no significant difference in shared governance between unionized and non-unionized institutions. The questionnaire was given to senate chairs and faculty leaders at 585 institutions in a stratified random sample. This sample included small colleges with no tenure and large doctoral institutions with tenure. The overall response rate was 68 percent with roughly the same rate across institution type.
Faculty sway at the institutional level has been diminishing for years, noted Dr. Adrianna Kezar, the Dean’s Professor of Leadership and Wilber-Kieffer Professor of Higher Education at the University of Southern California. In 2019, Kezar authored The Gig Academy, which examines the gig economy concept in the university workforce.
