Investigating the Voice of Staff: Exploring the Structural Components of Staff Councils at Association of American Universities Institutions

• In Event: Equitable Education Systems and Perspectives on Institutional Change

Abstract

Despite their essential contributions to colleges and universities, a scant literature examines the role of staff in institutional governance. Institutional responses to the COVID-19 pandemic exposed a need to clarify this role because reports indicate that senior administrators often overlooked the perspective of staff when making critical decisions, including imposing layoffs and devising plans to reopen campuses, despite staff being disproportionately affected by these decisions. In response, this exploratory study, which applies qualitative content analysis to examine institutional bylaws, investigates the structural components of staff councils at member institutions of the Association of American Universities. Preliminary findings indicate that different methods of selection - appointment by administrators versus election by employees - are associated with different espoused functions for staff councils.

Authors

• Paul J. Gorelik, Binghamton University - SUNY

• Nathan Frederick Harris, University of Rochester