Symposium on Shared Governance

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Statement on the Suspension of Professor Mike Shively at UVU

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This week I read Utah Valley University’s Final Investigative Report on Professor Michael Shively, dated July 31, 2019. With a set of appendices, it is a public  document, filed in a lawsuit against UVU by the family of Professor Michael Shively (Case 2:20-cv-00119-DB-PMW Document 17-1 Filed 03/26/20; Utah Federal District Court).  I discuss the Report here because it reveals serious flaws in a procedure that should afford due process to members of the faculty while also enabling the University to dismiss faculty when there is proven cause. A UVU Faculty Senate Committee, of which I am a member, is currently writing a new policy on “Faculty Remediation, Sanction, and Dismissal for Cause.” Mistakes made in the Shively case can help us as we develop guidelines that are more reasonable than those in the earlier policy and more conducive to a mutual sense of trust and collegiality. Professor Shively passed away on August 19, 2019, never having seen this report that dis...
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Resisting the Right-Wing Attack on Academic Freedom

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    In 2023, the Utah Legislature considered but didn’t pass a bill to ban DEI initiatives at all public universities in the state. The 2024 Legislature, led by the senate education committee chair John Johnson, passed a rewritten DEI ban. When asked, sponsors of the bill reported that they had no data to support the ban. It passed nonetheless. Despite the major disruption of DEI work being done at their institutions, none of the Utah college or university presidents or Faculty Senates spoke out publically against the bill.   Building on his success with DEI, John Johnson sponsored a “School of General Education” bill ( S.B. 226 ) in the 2024 session. It failed. Given the DEI precedent, it might well return next year.   What is driving these attempts by legislators to take over university functions that are better left to faculty with professional expertise? A February article in the  National Review  by Stanley Kurtz, co-author of a  General Educ...
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