A Case Study Of Michigan State University Teachers Participating In School Co-governance

Shared governance is a system design with the most academic charm of American higher education,It helps to form a dynamic and delicate balance of value and interests inside and outside of universities by means of the mixed governance structure formed by multiple governance bodies,the governance process of multi-party communication and mutual assistance,and the governance culture of emphasizing democratic consultation.Under the background of promoting the modernization of educational governance system and governance capacity,the domestic university governance reform has always fully emphasized the reference role of this system design,especially for the current bureaucratic internal governance of Chinese Universities,most researchers believe that shared governance is the key to the innovation of university administration,and also a good solution to the pan-administration.Although previous studies have shown that faculty participation in governance is still controversial,as the main force of academic research in universities,it is feasible and necessary for faculty to have basic voice and control over university affairs,especially internal academic affairs.The key issue is never whether university faculty should participate in shared governance,but how to participate and how to ensure the realization of participation objectives.Only clarifying the above problems can we ensure the effectiveness of faculty participation in shared governance of universities.Based on the above problems,this research aims at exploring the typical case of Michigan State University by case study method.During the visiting period at MSU,the author conduct in-depth interviews with seven faculties,more than 20 faculties by email interviews,and analyze the corresponding institutional texts,then finding it from the following four aspects: system rules,implementation methods,characteristics and influencing factors.At the same time,it presents the overall picture of Michigan State University faculty participation in shared governance in the United States,with a view to providing some enlightening experience for the existing problems of university internal governance in China.This study finds that the system rules of faculty participation in shared governance at Michigan State University is embodied in state legislation,university charter,rules and regulations established within universities,college charters,department charters,and the third sector 's “soft law”,faculties can participate in the teaching system,student management system,personnel system and financial system of university governance through three levels of “university-college-department”.Faculty participation in shared governance reflects the following characteristics: the development process of “rise-prosper-decline”,the relatively perfect Institutional system,The degree of participation decreases step by step at “department-college-university”,faculty's trust with the board and administrators is lacking,the boundaries of participation in different faculty role is different,Good and continuous communication happens between faculty and the board,and also with administrators.The factors affecting participation involve the consensus of shared governance in policy texts,the demand for professional administrators since the fiscal restraint and the expansion of university scale,and also the culture of shared governance.In view of some problems existing in the internal governance of universities in China,the enlightenment of Michigan State University faculty participation in shared governance is to implement the system construction,set up many kinds of committees,carry out the cultural construction of shared governance,optimize the communication in shared governance,and strengthen the construction of shared governance at the college and department levels.