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At the University Senate’s first meeting of the year, Syracuse University Chancellor Kent Syverud thanked senators for their active participation in “shared governance.”

In the same meeting, senators said they felt university decisions this year violated shared governance, including when Syverud appointed a provost without senate input and admission into 20 majors in the College of Arts and Sciences were paused without faculty input.

Faculty also expressed frustration in the meeting regarding changes to the SU Renée Crown University Honors Program without their input.

The American Association of University Professors refers to shared governance as “the joint responsibility of faculty, administrations, and governing boards to govern colleges and universities.”

“Shared governance emerged from the peculiarity of universities as institutions for knowledge production and circulation in the broadest sense,” said Crystal Bartolovich, associate English professor, senator for the Agenda Committee and president of the SU AAUP Executive Committee’s chapter.

USen, the Board of Trustees, the Student Government Association and most recently the Chancellor Search Committee, are all expected to contribute to SU’s shared governance, senators said.

Each group’s influence on university issues should depend on the responsibility and expertise it holds in a given area, Bartolovich said. She said academic conversations should always include faculty, with unprecedented events as the only valid excuse.

“Decisions about the curriculum and academic program should be made by the faculty, and only deviated from by administrators in extremely unusual circumstances, such as extreme financial peril that cannot be addressed in any other way,” Bartolovich said. “It is the job of administrators to demonstrate to the faculty that their determinations are absolutely necessary.”

Margaret Susan Thompson, a history professor and co-chair of USen’s Academic Affairs Committee, said many faculty members feel recent decisions were made by higher administration, without involving the faculty.

“One of the questions that relates to shared governance is, how were faculty involved in those decisions, are these top down decisions, or are these more broadly based decision making processes?” Thompson said.
Shared governance has been brought up in key moments of SU’s history, said Amy Kallander, SU history professor and chair of the Academic Freedom Tenure and Professional Ethics Committee.

When #NotAgainSU organizers presented demands in 2020 to improve the campus climate for students of color, the university denied some of them, saying it “cannot implement them under the law or under shared governance practices,” according to internet archives.

After THE General Body, a coalition of over 50 student organizations at SU, protested in fall 2014 over transparency issues, Syverud discussed shared governance at a senate meeting later that semester, according to the Wayback Machine — an internet archive.

“The second motion states that it is resolved that the Syracuse University Senate affirms and applauds the attempt of THE General Body to increase diversity, transparency, and shared governance in university practices and pledges to continue these efforts as part of your own work until concrete measures are taken to achieve these goals to the senate’s satisfaction,” Syverud said in the meeting.

University Senate

While some universities have only a faculty senate, SU has a university senate, which means the governing body includes not just professors, but also undergraduate and graduate students, staff and administrators, Thompson said.

“For the most part, we advise the Chancellor and the Provost about university policy; we do not have the extensive power to actually make policy, so that’s where some of the tension comes in,” she said.

The senate consists of 17 standing committees, each of which meets and reports to the full senate at least once a year. Each senator’s responsibility depends on the committee they serve on, Thompson said.

Not all senators serve on a committee. Full-time faculty are elected by their own schools or colleges. Committee members serve a two-year term, while other senators serve for as long as their electing group decides.

The governing body mainly advises the chancellor, but it is also “empowered” to approve curriculum changes and recommend faculty promotions, according to its website. The full senate meets monthly to hear reports and vote on proposals, motions, or resolutions introduced by committee representatives, the website states.

Doug Yung, engineering professor and co-chair of the Employee Services, Fiscal Affairs, and Operations, said the senate is a forum where senators can stay up-to-date on key issues and events.

“The information piece is more important in the senate so that everybody stays well informed and is able to express their opinions and perspective, and so a lot of times, I would say, there usually a lot of consensus going on at the senate,” Yung said.

Yung, Thompson and Bartolovich agreed that the senate is the primary site of shared governance at SU.

USen Agenda Committee Student Caucus Chair Reed Granger said students participate in shared responsibility through their role as university senators.

“Most of these committees are faculty, professors, librarians and other executive members of our campus leadership, so the students (senators) can act as a kind of liaison of what students actually experience,” Granger said.

This year, there are 22 student senators, elected by SGA, serving on committees. They can vote on motions and proposals during meetings, Granger said.

For the most part, the administration holds faculty and student voices in high regard, she said, but the decision to pause programs discussed in the last senate meeting showed a lapse in faculty input and engagement.

“That is one of the few times that I have been alarmed by this university’s decision-making processes,” Granger said.

Kallander said although the senate makes recommendations, senior leadership ultimately decides whether to follow them, and if they don’t, faculty, staff and students have little power to “hold them accountable.”

“Most people in the senate feel like the senate is frequently bypassed and committee reports are ignored, and that this has become routine,” she said.

Efforts by graduate students to unionize in recent years are partly a result of disruptions to shared governance, Kallander said.

Board of Trustees

These senate recommendations are decided by the Board of Trustees and the Chancellor’s Office with 48 voting trustees and 71 life trustees, currently. Voting members serve four-year-long terms, with the opportunity to serve three terms.

Kallander reiterated that the idea of shared governance is to “indicate an awareness,” saying it’s more of an “ideal” that doesn’t “necessarily always happen in practice.”

She highlighted instances where faculty and the senate were not involved in decisions made by the university, including when the senate had previously voted to propose revoking an honorary degree but the board “shot it down.”

Most critically, the board has the authority to decide who the next chancellor will be, Thompson and Kallander said.

Search for a new chancellor

Discussions around shared governance became more common when Syverud started his tenure in 2013, according to past university releases.

Now, as Syverud prepares to end his term as Chancellor, the board holds significant power in selecting his successor.

“I hope everybody is able to bring in their perspective for this endeavor,” said Yung, who is a member of the committee.

The board announced the members of the Chancellor Search Committee on Sept. 19. Out of 24, eight are faculty members and three are students. German Nolivos, president of SGA, is the only undergraduate representative.

Kenneth Lanterman, SGA’s vice president of community and government affairs, said he is “100% sure” there is enough student representation on the committee.

However, the student-to-faculty ratio and the number of alumni on the committee have been questioned by others.

Thompson said the chancellor matters a lot for shared governance, highlighting that Syverud made it a “priority “to attend senate meetings and answer questions, a practice she said previous chancellors haven’t followed.

The new chancellor’s approach could have a big impact on how shared governance unfolds, she said.

The future of shared governance

In September 2024, Syverud addressed the current political climate affecting the university at the senate meeting regarding layoffs, program cuts and budget restrictions.

“I’m also not surprised that, given all this going on and given the politics of the world, I’m seeing attacks on traditions of shared governance continue and become exacerbated from various directions,” Syverud said. “I talked about this at the first senate meeting last year, and I’ve seen it accelerate.”

With President Donald Trump’s administration’s increasing involvement in campus policies, Bartolovich said shared governance is “essential” for protecting education, and along with faculty expertise, it can protect academic programs.

She said SU, a private university, has been relatively “shielded from government meddling” in academic programs and curricula.

“The current level of state intervention in universities to control the details of what faculty can say in research and teaching, are antithetical to the process of knowledge production itself, which the faculty are enjoined to uphold,” Bartolovich said.

Published on October 2, 2025 at 1:50 am
Contact Isabel: iamelend@syr.edu