Empower the profs

At today's Academic Council meeting, University leaders are trying something unusual. Rather than appoint a committee to study an issue that countless earlier task forces have reviewed, they are actually referring to an historical document. Faculty are scheduled discuss the 1972 Christie report, which outlines the responsibilities and powers of the Academic Council, as the basis for a discussion of faculty governance.

While this topic may seem bland at first glance, it lies at the heart of the University's future as a leading institution. Only by marshalling the talents of its renowned faculty can the University find innovative solutions to long-standing problems.

Along with the Christie report, faculty at today's Council meeting should pull a page from another committee document, the Intellectual Life Task Force report, released last spring. In addition to recommendations on residential and curricular issues, the report suggested that the University slim down the number of campus committees and place real power in the hands of faculty and students, rather than relegating them to bureaucratic committee work that never gets beyond the final draft.

Ironically, the ILTF report's suggestions for improved faculty governance disappeared from the debate on undergraduate life this fall, making the report's recommendation a victim of, rather than a cure for, the institutional malaise that plagues committee work.

Today, Academic Council members should discuss candidly how to make faculty voices count on committees. Asking professors to sit through tedious and ultimately meaningless discussions of arcane University policies hampers faculty research and teaching, and reports that are never read kill trees to boot.

To start with, a faculty group should study the charges of standing committees to weed out overlap and streamline membership.

At the same time, the Council should consider ways to solicit broader voices into policy discussions. They could borrow from Duke Student Government, which conducted information-gathering sessions in students' dorms throughout the fall semester. While departmental ice-cream socials with the Executive Committee of the Academic Council may not rejuvenate faculty involvement, more professors need to be involved in substantive discussions that affect University policy.

But such discussions are ultimately meaningless if administrators do not heed faculty voices when they make decisions. Creating a mechanism to hold University executives accountable to faculty views should be a top priority for the council.