President Bill Perry recently assembled a new Eastern group designed to oversee the policies and practices on Eastern’s campus.

The Shared Governance Task Force is made up of nine members: three staff members, five faculty members and one student.

One focus of the task force is making sure every organization on campus has a representative in the governance of Eastern.

The Shared Governance Task Force is a higher education concept of how students and staff share parts in the university, Dan Rolando said.

“The goal of the task force is to have the power to do everything, look at conditions of Eastern and see how policies and practices mash-up at the end of the semester,” Rolando said.

Rolando, the student vice president of student affairs, is the only student representative on the task force.

“Then the task force will make a report of suggestions to Perry about ways to make all aspects equal on campus,” the senior finance and economic major said.

The Shared Governance Task Force is also trying to improve all communication, sharing governance and responsibility amongst the faculty, students, staff and administration.

Blair Lord, the provost and the vice president of academic affairs, said he generally believes the constituent groups on campus communicate well but there is always room for improvement.

The Shared Governance Task Force will look at how governing policies are written and make sure faculty, students, staff and administration are included.

“All current governing policies are inclusive of all voices at different times when deemed appropriate, our policies are formalized in the internal governing policies,” Lord said.

Eastern’s internal governing policies can be found on the Eastern website.

They are currently collecting data and ideas from other campuses and organizations.

Other Shared Governance Task Force members were contacted, but could not comment.

“We want to get everyone on the same page in governing EIU instead of having our own separate things,” Rolando said.

Erin Riedl can be reached at 581-2812 or at edriedl@eiu.edu.

Lynne Curry, professor of history, speaks during the Health Care Policy Issues Panel Oct. 12, 2009 in Lumpkin Auditorium. Dr. Curry is one of nine members of the Shared Governance Task Force that consists of five faculty, three staff members and one stud

(more…)