DE Politics editor 15

Graduate and Professional Student Council solidified its stance on University decision-making processes Wednesday by passing a resolution that calls for more shared governance with constituency groups affected by new University policies.

Ed Ford, GPSC vice president of Administrative Affairs, said the resolution suggests that the University has not sought student input from various student constituency groups in new policy decisions in the past year, and that GPSC wants the University to offer more shared governance in its future decisions.

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The intent of the resolution is to say that we feel some of the things that were going on last year indicate that maybe shared governance’ is something we talk about but something we don’t necessarily practice, Ford said. It also states that we expect shared governance as part of the University’s policy decision process.

Ford, who authored the first draft of the resolution, said GPSC has been concerned about SIUC’s handling of issues such as Select 2000 implementation, the one-week reduction in the winter break, and the athletic-fee increase.

During the meetings when such issues were discussed, the council realized that a potential pattern of little shared governance was developing. The resolution is a way of preventing such a pattern from developing so affected students will not be estranged from policy decisions.

Twice this semester we’ve had representatives introduce resolutions concerning the idea of shared governance about some specific issue, Ford said. In this one, we tried to put everything under one general plan.

Ford said that if the University heeds the resolution, student groups affected by new policies will have their say in such decisions.

By allowing whatever constituency groups to have information ahead of time, then those groups can provide input before a decision is made, he said.

Steve Etcheson, vice president of Graduate School Affairs, said that although the University may respond positively to the resolution, it still may not have much influence.

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An institution like this has been operating in the course of business for about 100 years as an independent body, Etcheson said. Then when everybody comes along and shouts shared governance,’ the administration can agree that it is a good thing and write it down on a piece of paper.

But writing it down on a piece of paper doesn’t change behavior.

Etcheson also said that involving affected constituency groups is not always necessary for utilitarian decisions.

Every time the toilet paper roll needs replaced, we don’t need a discussion about when and where it should be done, he said.

Etcheson said shared governance ultimately means that faculty and students’ voices will be heard before decisions are made, not that the input necessarily will change the outcome of the decision

They’re not going to let the inmates run the asylum, he said.

In other business, the council also heard from members of the faculty union, who told council members that the union had a similar resolution for shared governance and that it had an open ear for student concerns.