BY ALEX ZUKAS

In a recent Academe Blog post, Eva Cherniavsky wrote, “As we enter a fourth decade of life in the neoliberal university, where permanent austerity rules everywhere except in the swelling ranks of upper administration; where the pretense of shared governance has all but collapsed; where tenure lines are vanishing (particularly in the humanities and social sciences), and the faculty continues to spiral on its downward social trajectory, we should think twice about the place of institutional protocols that further amplify the power of administration to surveille and to discipline faculty.”

The administration at National University has unilaterally promulgated the (non-negotiated) “transitional” National University Faculty Handbook to replace the unilaterally imposed and non-negotiated interim faculty handbook it promulgated in June 2020 that replaced the faculty policies that it had negotiated with the faculty senate in the spirit of genuine shared governance. The saga of how shared governance was destroyed by the administration can be read here. As many of you know, the AAUP sanctioned National University in June 2021 for “a trinity of egregious violations of widely accepted governance standards”; the AAUP further specified that “the governing board and administration at National University have thoroughly and brazenly violated AAUP-supported principles and practices of academic governance.” The transitional faculty handbook embodies the practices and values that led to the AAUP sanction, and it upholds the pretense of shared governance and the power of administration to surveille and to discipline faculty that Cherniavsky criticized.

Without a hint of irony or insincerity, the first sentence of the September 20, 2021, cover letter sent to faculty with the handbook reads, “We are grateful for your dedication to students and your patience as we pursue our opportunities to make National University ‘better.'” It seems that even the administration can’t take its slogan of making the university “better” sincerely. Perhaps they know they are making it worse.

Here are some excerpts from the handbook that provide further real-life examples of Cherniavsky’s points:

In keeping with its unilateral governance philosophy, “the University Board of Trustees reserves the right to review, revise, remove, and interpret the policies and procedures set forth in the Faculty Handbook . . . National University supports Academic Freedom, defined as the right of Faculty to contribute content to curriculum and utilize teaching methods from review or censorship for content [sic], so long as the content contributed or method used is generally recognized in the discipline and does not violate applicable laws and regulations.” The latter sentence crumbles into meaninglessness halfway through and does not seem to follow any agreed-upon academic freedom norms as promoted by the AAUP.

“The University Senate provides the voice of the collective faculty . . . The purpose of the AAC [Academic Affairs Committee] is to provide advice, counsel, and recommendations for all academic matters at National University. All AAC-approved policies and procedures are forwarded to the University Senate for final consideration.”

Accompanying the faculty handbook was another document entitled “Faculty Handbook Transition Implementation.” It explains how some provisions of the handbook will be implemented. Why it was not part of the handbook is not explained,  but it is exemplary of the hurried and improvised nature of the whole enterprise. After all, a final faculty handbook was due to be completed in December 2020 but without genuine faculty input; the quality and timeliness of this document suffered. Here are some excerpts from it:

University Senate: Each department within the school/college will elect one faculty member as a candidate for the University Senate. The name of the faculty will be forwarded to the Dean of the school/college. After considering the faculty’s qualifications and their knowledge about the need of the college faculty and the leadership style, the Dean will nominate one to the University Senate. The term of appointment will be three years. Faculty can only serve two consecutive terms. The Chair of the University Senate will be the President or a designee. The Vice-Chair of the University Senate will be a faculty member elected by the faculty senators annually.

The abuse of language, logic, and common sense is striking here. Faculty “elect” a nominee (why not just write that “faculty nominate?”) and the dean “nominates” which really means that the dean appoints a faculty member acceptable to the administration to “represent” the faculty and their perspective. The use of the word “elect” is likely meant to mollify the regional accreditor (WASC) that faculty are “voting” for their senate representative when that is clearly not the case. The whole process is fraudulent and has nothing to do with accepted standards of shared governance at US universities. Showing a complete lack of self-awareness and respect for other people’s intelligence, recall that the handbook contended that “the University Senate provides the voice of the collective faculty.” How it provides for the voice of the collective faculty within this administratively imposed undemocratic structure is a complete mystery. Welcome to National University “newspeak” where complete administrative control is shared governance.

“The membership of the ACC will consist of a) Vice Provost of Academic Affairs, b) Six members appointed by the Office of the Provost, c) Seven members (two from each college and one from the school) and recommended by the Dean, d) one student (every year this will rotate by school).” The process of choosing faculty members is the same as it is for choosing senators above, replicating the farce of shared governance that we saw with regard to faculty membership on the university senate.

As is obvious to anyone with even passing familiarity with the norms of shared governance in US universities as they have evolved over the past hundred years, the provisions for shared governance and academic freedom in the transitional faculty handbook at National University are a travesty.

The National University chapter of the AAUP is considering what actions to undertake in response to the handbook. Stay tuned.

Alex Zukas is the immediate past president of the National University AAUP (NU-AAUP).