Thanks for Sharing, Senators

We'd like to thank Ohio University senators for their hard work this quarter.  Faculty, Graduate Student, and Undergraduate Student Senates made it clear that the Five-Year Academic Plan deserves a much more grisly death than Vision Ohio's quiet passage into oblivion.  It's an offensive document particularly because it pretends to build upon shared governance.

Millions of dollars flow into university development and marketing, according to this latest planning document, while recruiting a diverse body of high-quality faculty members is reckoned at no cost.  Concrete academic programs are few and far between, yet we find tutoring services dedicated to intercollegiate athletes.  The language of Vision Ohio reemerges here and there, but where do we find the detailed recommendations made by academic deans, departments and programs, and all those implementation teams from Vision Ohio's heyday?

Faculty, students, and staff work hard to keep their share in governance alongside people who don't want to share.  That's admirable, as are the eleven resolutions Faculty Senate recently passed.  The O.U. chapter of the AAUP supports shared governance.

Indeed, the AAUP defined what most of us understand as shared governance in 1966 (available online).  More than half the executive members of our local AAUP chapter are current or very recent faculty senators themselves.

Our colleagues have worked hard and in good faith.  We hope the provost does more than point to their criticisms as evidence of dialogue, an end in itself.  We hope she signs their eleven resolutions over break.  We hope, if these things don't happen, that all those deserving senators treat themselves to an extended winter vacation from all university service.  Why not all faculty members? We deserve it.  Happy Thanksgiving.

Executive Committee