Shared Governance

“Shared governance” is a term used in higher education to describe how members of different stakeholder groups (e.g., faculty, students, and staff) at a university consult with one another in the development and implementation of new or revised policies and practices. At Fairleigh Dickinson University, our shared governance system was revised in 2023-2024 and the current system, developed and approved that year, was implemented as of the Fall 2024 semester.  You can read about the history of that process.

How Community Members Make Suggestions to Improve Policies or Practices at FDU

Any community member may suggest an idea for consideration by the University’s Shared Governance Structure by choosing one of the following options:

  • Submit a suggestion or question to the Governance Steering Council (GSC) by submitting the Shared Governance Idea Submission Form 
  • Submit a suggestion or question to the leadership or designated group in the individual’s Stakeholder Governance Body

Stakeholder Bodies may refer a suggestion or question they have received from a stakeholder to the GSC if they deem it relevant to the scope of the GSC’s function (e.g., a university-wide question affecting more than one group of stakeholders) or may take it up themselves within the purview of their authority (e.g., a suggestion from a faculty member to change the University’s grading system, which is a topic completely within the authority of the faculty as per the Faculty Handbook). Not every suggestion or question directed to a Stakeholder Governance Body need be submitted to the GSC.

For each idea that is submitted to the GSC, the idea’s content and the documents that reflect its progress through the Shared Governance system can be seen on the searchable Status Chart.

Submit a Suggestion or Question
See status of submitted proposals

Core Values of Shared Governance at FDU

FDU’s Shared Governance is designed to be:

  • Representative – all members of the FDU community will be represented in their respective stakeholder groups: faculty, professional administrators, staff, and students
  • Inclusive – voices of all members of the FDU community will be considered, regardless of their race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, native language, socio-economic class, ability or disability
  • Transparent – all members of the FDU community will be informed as to how policies are made and/or revised and how new practices may be introduced or existing practices changed
  • Consultative – all members of the FDU community will have opportunities to be consulted on issues relevant to them through the governance structure
  • Streamlined – the shared governance structure will function without redundancies and without undue burdens on community members to serve on numerous committees or councils

Scope of Responsibility

Committees, Councils, Stakeholder Bodies (Faculty Senate, Professional Administrative Senate, Union,  and the Student Government), Senior Leadership (as defined in the Charter), the members of the President’s Cabinet, the President, and the Board of Trustees of the University all play distinctive roles in a broad range of governance issues, including the development and approval of policies and practices, the development and implementation of new academic and co-curricular programs, the hiring of senior leaders, and the development and approval of budgets. For each governance issue, each group or upper-level administrator is specified as having a particular responsibility: consult (lowest level), recommend, decide, approve a decision, consider an appeal of that decision.

Levels of Analysis in Shared Governance

When the GSC refers a matter for review to a committee or council (see description of University-Wide Committees and Councils, below), it includes in the charge its deadline for a response and the instruction that the given review be conducted in one of the three levels of analysis as follows:

  • Level 1 (lowest level): Members of the committee or council discuss and report back to the GSC
  • Level 2 (mid-level): Members of the committee or council discuss and develop a preliminary response, present it to the relevant governance stakeholder bodies (defined below) for feedback (as specified in the charge from GSC), revise the response accordingly, and submit to the GSC; The governance stakeholder bodies are: for the faculty, the Faculty Senate; for the non-Union staff – the Professional Administrative Senate; for the Union employees – the Union; for the students – Student Government; for alumni – the Alumni Advisory Councils.
  • Level 3 (highest level): Members of the committee or council discuss, research relevant policies and practices at some other institutions and/or consider best practices as documented in the research literature, develop a preliminary response, present to the relevant governance stakeholder bodies as specified in the charge from GSC for feedback, revise the response if deemed appropriate, and submit to the GSC; The governance stakeholder bodies are: for the faculty, the Faculty Senate; for the non-Union staff – the Professional Administrative Senate ; for the Union employees – the Union; for the students – Student Government; for alumni – the Alumni Advisory Councils.