The Faculty Senate Executive Committee's Statement of Principles was unanimously
adopted on 9 September 2002. These Principles will guide Senate actions in the
coming academic year. The Faculty Senate Executive Committee is committed to
the following precepts:
1. Shared governance is a crucial element of any credible academic
institution. Effective faculty participation in the life of GMU requires that
the faculty be fully informed; therefore, the Executive Committee of the Faculty
Senate will take measures to ensure that faculty have access to information
that affects their well-being and their ability to perform their professional
roles as teachers and researchers.
2. Accountability is a crucial operating principle of all organizations,
public and private, for-profit and nonprofit, educational and otherwise. At
GMU, emphasis has been given almost exclusively to the accountability of the
faculty to the central administration; little attention has been given to administrative
accountability to the faculty. This must change.
3. Academic matters are primarily the responsibility of the faculty.
It is therefore the role of the faculty to provide principled leadership in
GMU’s decision-making processes regarding curriculum and pedagogy, research
activities, and faculty personnel actions.
4. Budget decisions drive institutional priorities. The faculty must
therefore play a major role in decisions regarding the allocation of resources
from both the state budget and from private funds raised by the GMU Foundation.
5. “Corporate models” of education in which students are
viewed as “customers” are not appropriate. Education is a unique
activity in a democratic society that differs markedly from both business and
government. Universities are absolutely essential in contemporary society as
centers of free inquiry, free expression, open discovery, and dissent. Any attempt
to force education into a corporatist mold devalues faculty, lowers academic
standards, and harms both students and the institution itself.
6. Academic standards and academic integrity are essential
to the institution and to students. The faculty must take the lead to maintain
and strengthen academic standards.
7. Budget crises call for a new management paradigm to replace the
“more enrollment, larger classes” model that has characterized thinking
at GMU for at least a quarter century. New approaches must be taken so that
fiscal problems are not solved primarily by increasing faculty work loads and
reducing the quality of the students’ educational experience.
8. Research is a major hallmark of all great universities. If GMU is
to gain prominence, much greater support must be forthcoming for faculty research.
Although we recognize the faculty’s role in seeking research sponsors
and grants, the central administration must increase the research support provided
to GMU faculty to a level that equals or exceeds that available to faculty at
our SCHEV-approved peer institutions.