Dear President Capilouto and members of the Board of Trustees,
The signatories to this letter agree that it is time for the President of the University of Kentucky to act on the requests made in the two resolutions recently passed by the Senate Council (acting on behalf of the University Senate):
Resolution Expressing Profound Concerns Regarding Proposed Changes to the University Senate Responsibility for Educational Policy
Resolution for an Extended, Careful, and Effective Review of University Regulations
You have made responses to the University Senate that do not seem collaborative. You have refused to provide the data used in the Deloitte and Workgroup 5 report. The request for more time was first reported as denied with your quote in the Herald Leader, which arrived prior to your direct message to the Senate Council. Indeed, such responses seem hostile.
Many members of the UK community have spoken out already about how “shared governance serves as an important check to balance competing interests.” The AAUP and the United Campus Workers have also released a joint statement in support of the University Senate. The AAUP sent a letter on shared governance to the president. More than 250 people attended the March 4 open meeting of the Senate Council. More than 500 people attended the March 18 University Senate meeting. More than 250 people have participated in your listening sessions. More than 300 people have specifically spoken to Senate Council members. Yet nothing has changed. This suggests that you have a plan, and the lack of clarity on that plan has led many people—perhaps especially faculty—to feel nervous, scared, and wary of what is to come.
You repeatedly asked during the March 18 meeting how the faculty understand shared governance. The meeting itself offers an answer to that question. At a number of moments, faculty members expressed an openness to considering your specific calls for change. Several of them recognized points of potential agreement with the administration. Several of them communicated a willingness to include more voices in the governing process, including those of staff and students. They voiced an openness to examining the governing regulations with an eye toward revision. They demonstrated a willingness to work with you as good faith partners. To be sure, there may be areas of governance in which the voice of certain constituencies should have greater importance than others. But the determination of those areas must result from a real conversation--a genuine and transparent exchange--between stakeholders. The foregoing indicate what is meant by shared governance: an equal partnership in decision-making that results from transparent and good faith communication.
When asked during the March 18 meeting if you would consider slowing the process currently underway, you indicated that you are beholden to the process laid out by the Board of Trustees. This is disingenuous. As everyone who has observed a Board of Trustees meeting knows, and as one faculty member explicitly remarked, the Board of Trustees would in all likelihood accede to your request to slow the process, certainly for the sake of maintaining a healthy community of mutual trust and respect. In essence, your reply to the question of slowing down the process amounted to a "no." If that is indeed your position, then the rhetoric of listening and dialogue amounts to prevarication. We hereby invite you to demonstrate your sincerity by adjusting the timeline such that true partners can engage together and collaborate with the best interest of the entire University at heart.
Countless concerns have been raised about the Accelerate Kentucky project—including the rushed timeline and the threat to faculty decision-making authority, among many others—yet, at this moment, a clear concern of the AAUP and these signatories is that much of this project has happened behind closed doors and without collaboration with the University Senate. It is not reasonable to pursue major changes to the governance structures of the University of Kentucky without deliberate and respectful collaboration with the shared governance bodies that have been entrusted to serve the university in determining educational policies. You must acknowledge that the processes associated with Accelerate Kentucky have lacked transparency, integrity, and collaboration with the University Senate, and you must immediately collaborate with that body in the processes of evaluation, development, and modification of the regulations that directly impact the functions of the University Senate before any revisions of those regulations are presented to the Board of Trustees. This must include deliberate examination of data provided by the University Senate, acknowledgement that these data are not in accordance with previous presentations of “data” surrounding these questions, and a shared plan for going forward that is not simply the same as the hidden plans underway now.
The number of signatories here should signify to you broad support for a process that is transparent and truly a shared endeavor.
Philipp Rosemann, President of UK Chapter of the AAUP
Karen Petrone, Vice President
Robert Lodder, Treasurer
Jennifer Cramer, Executive Board Member
Michael Kennedy, Executive Board Member
Leon Sachs, Executive Board Member
