Patriot Weekly

  (''Court Gavel - Judge's Gavel - Courtroom'' by wp paarz via Flickr) In my previous articles, I gave a broad overview the university’s governance system and recently introduced the three main stakeholder groups within the university environment: faculty, students and staff. I wrote before about how a student who understands the university governance environment can participate in it to his own benefit.  To understand how these stakeholder groups interact together, let us now discuss The Shared Governance Model of higher education.      The Shared Governance Model (or “shared governance”) is a philosophy of university governance in which the university’s governing board (in our case, The Board of Regents) heavily relies upon the advice and counsel of the three stakeholder groups to govern the university. In shared governance, the board gives each group (or constituency) authority to advise the board on matters of the constituency’s expertise.  For ex...

  ( Photo : ''Court Gavel - Judge's Gavel - Courtroom'' by wp paarz via Flickr ) In my previous article, I gave an introductory overview of what a student needs to know to have an introductory understanding of university governance, and how this is important because this understanding will allow him to know how to participate in university decision-making about his own affairs while at university.  In this article, I will introduce the main players (or stakeholders) in university governance and this will allow the reader to begin his understanding of the university's internal governance system. In this essay, I will introduce the university's governing board, the three constituencies and their governments and finally the university president and their roles. If a student has a basic understanding of these, then he can begin his introductory understanding of the university environment and ultimately, the way to advocate for his concerns in the university env...

( Photo : ''Court Gavel - Judge's Gavel - Courtroom'' by wp paarz via Flickr ) In my previous articles, we spoke of our fictional heroine Molly who took the proper steps to advocate for university change successfully. We used her story to illustrate how the policy change process at a university works. Afterwards in the next article, we analyzed how her story illustrated important elements in the policy change process, such as how every stakeholder has a priority list and how a successful advocate will know how to either appeal to or influence this list.  Most recently, we noted how even with all the tactics in the world, it is a cause that gives one’s advocacy meaning. Now in this article, we will explore the university’s internal governance system, which is the context in which a student’s advocacy occurs. At the end of this article, the reader should have a better grasp of the advocacy environment within higher education. Metaphorically speaking, the reader will...

  (Source: via Flickr) In my previous two editorials, I shared a story about Molly, a fictional undergraduate student who used her advocacy power as a student to obtain a policy change at the university, along with the help of student government.  In my subsequent editorial, explained the different story elements that outline how the policy change process works. These insights were the fact that policy change requires a negotiation between two or more parties, and that students, while influential stakeholders, share the university with other interests and interest groups, such as the staff and faculty. I also noted that all parties in the negotiation—both student and otherwise—have a “political agenda” or rather a list of priorities that they are trying to serve and how it is important to discern this list for a success at policy change effort. Finally, I also noted how that student government's involvement is usually imperative for successful policy reform since it can levera...

(Source: DS Bigham via Flickr) In my last article, I illustrated how policy change happens within a university due to student advocacy. I told the story of how Molly, a fictional undergraduate student, wanted the University to adopt a policy change and I illustrated the steps she had to take to realize the change. I also illustrated some obstacles she might encounter in the process.  Through the story, the reader should note five insights about student advocacy and the policy change process: First, a student advocate’s voice is only so strong by itself. Molly engaged in direct advocacy with an administrator, which can sometimes work, but she was unsuccessful until she won student government’s support. An advocate’s voice by itself is only so strong.  Second, each person in the governance environment has what we will call a “political agenda”. This is not a bad word, but each person has a set of priorities he must serve, usually a list of responsibilities that demand his immedi...