PROBLEMS OF SHARED GOVERNANCE

“Problems of Shared Governance at Illinois State University: Management by Objectives--Catch-phrase of the Seventies”, quotation from panel sponsored by AAUP chapter at, ISU (December, 1974)

    “Robert D. Sutherland (Chair of the Academic Senate) noted that we at ISU are fortunate in currently having an administration which is committed to democratic procedures. However, there are certain trends manifested both nationally and locally which affect even those administrations which desire to be open and honest, and to which we must be alerted: 1) there is growing a class of institutional managers whose key concern is efficiency in meeting objectives; 2) growing reliance on management by objectives (a goal-oriented approach which measures its success by “quantifiable outputs”) where ends come to be more important than the means used to reach them, and people tend to be lost sight of; 3) a tendency for the objectives to become narrow and quantitatively viewed; 4) a fallacious assumption that in evaluating the attaining of these goals both objectivity and accuracy can be achieved. Democracy by nature is an inefficient process but in an academic setting is much to be preferred to more “efficient” autocratic management. Many academic goals which a university must pursue are not amenable to quantifiable evaluation. Faculties and students must simply decide what they will tolerate and draw the line.”