Chapter 1: Staff Governance: Trends, Issues, and the Practice of Shared Governance

American higher education has evolved from the early establishment of small colleges and institutions with multi-tasking faculty and administrators, to highly specialized, complex, and multi-directional institutions. Even fifty years ago Clark Kerr recognized the death of the simple college, referring to the “multiversity” as an institution with often divergent roles and competing missions (Johnson, Kavanagh, & Mattson, 2003). Birnbaum (1989) categorized contemporary institutions, and argued that a small number retain the historic perceptions of collegially operated institutions based on mutual respect and cross-disciplinary tasks. The contemporary university, particularly the public four-year institution, but inclusive of two-year colleges and many larger private institutions, is defined by a complex set of activities that are at time interrelated and at others, completely independent. The focus of this chapter and book are how these various tasks are structured and staffed, and in particular, how those who staff often divergent areas are called together to help inform the direction or mission of an institution.