The process of forming a Presidential Search Advisory Committee from the campus community is shining light on the nuts and bolts of Eastern and its use of shared governance.

Board of Trustees chair Leo Welch announced that 17 people would serve on the committee, including administration, faculty, staff, students and members of the Charleston community, deliberately creating a diverse committee that will practice shared governance in the search process.

Eastern, like most universities, practices shared governance, which allows input from all areas of campus to help the administration and the Board of Trustees make decisions.

A Statement on Government of Colleges and Universities created by The American Association of University Professors breaks down how shared governance might be used at a university.

It says the governing board, administration, faculty, students and others are all dependent on one another, dictating a need to work together.

“The principle of higher education is that we sort of do things in collaboration with each other,” said Blair Lord, provost and vice president for academic affairs. “People at Eastern are invited to participate and do participate quite a lot.”

Councils, committees and senates abound on campus full of interested members who want to make an impact in university decisions.

“The faculty voice in academic decisions is pretty significant,” Lord said.

The Faculty Senate, Council for Academic Affairs and the Council for Graduate Studies are all meant to give faculty a say in academic and faculty issues.

“Their voice is to put words around the faculty concerns at the moment,” Lord said.

Another entity at the university included in Eastern’s shared governance is the Council on University Planning and Budgets.

“I do think faculty members have an opportunity for shared governance on a variety of levels,” said Pat Fewell, CUPB chair and Secondary Education and Foundations department chair. “If faculty members choose to participate, they can run for office.”

She feels that the administration does a good job of listening to the advice of university constituencies and using it to make decisions.

“I think we have more opportunity for shared governance than some other institutions,” she said.

And students have a large share of that opportunity to participate.

“Students are included in every decision making group on this campus,” Lord said. “The student voice at Eastern is very active. When you take them seriously they take themselves seriously.”

Student Body President Sean Anderson said everything the Student Senate does has to do with creating recommendations for an ultimate decision by another party. For as long as he has been at Eastern, the recommendations have always been seriously considered by the administration, he said.

“We play a big role in helping (the administration) find out what the students’ wants and needs are,” Anderson said. “Student government plays a big roll (on campus), and I think that’s because they allow us an equal share in shared governance.”

As the search for a new president continues, the practice of shared governance will be put to the test as all these constituencies work together for the greatest good.