Bret Devereaux

Finally I should note that most universities have a 'faculty senate.' In theory that makes the faculty self-governing; in practice the faculty senate can't do anything without approval from the chancellor/president/whatever,who in turn wants to keep the trustees happy. 45/50

Thus even tenured professors mostly (adjuncts don't get represented by most faculty senates; also staff are even less represented, which is not great) have little control over the university's direction. Often their best option is to raise a stink in the local papers... 46/50

...or, I suppose on twitter, like I am doing now. So how do we fix this stuff? There are a lot of little answers. I think the first step is putting leadership back in the hands of faculty, as I stressed before. The business model has to go. 47/50

States and the federal government need to reassess the compliance and regulatory burden they are putting on schools, which just grows and grows (yes, under this admin. too - try processing a student visa or foreign faculty hire). 48/50

Finally, states and university leaders need to then ask real questions about if these centers, initiatives and offices just *sound good* (or chase the most recent passing academic fad) or if they *do good.* In many cases, rather than creating new offices...49/50

...it would be better to make and keep decision-makers responsible for achieving outcomes - with due appreciation that a universities also cannot solve broader social problems on their own. 50/50

ADDENDA: First, I want to note that my solutions on this thread are probably a lot less complete here. I am not a university staff member and while I try to talk to staff folks and understand what they do (more than most faculty, perhaps), a lot of them know more....

...so perhaps the ultimate solution here is 'talk to staff more.' Second: I want to stress again, every university and university system is different. Internal organizations and effectiveness vary wildly. Some are better run. Some are more focused on education....