"shared governance"

My mentor John Lachs kicked the hornet's nest with a recent Chronicle of Higher Education piece.

When I served as chair of the Vanderbilt University Faculty Senate, the chancellor met once a month with the senate's executive committee. The meetings were cordial, but it was clear that the chancellor used them to inform the senate of what he wanted. When the committee challenged some of his ideas, he summarily terminated the meetings, sending his provost to tell us each month what the chancellor had done. "Shared Governance is a Myth"

In the comments section, angry and blustering administrators from across the land have crawled out of the woodwork to protest Lachs's candor. People who don't know him are quick to deploy ad hominem irrelevance, one even slurring him (of all people) as an "elitist." Comment #7 should shut them all up:

...based on my experience Professor Lachs is one of the most genuine, generous, affable, gregarious, open-minded, inspiring professors I've come across at 8 universities where I've either studied or taught. He's beloved by many students and faculty there. He's just a really cool guy, and not in the slightest way elitist. 

After nearly three years as a Senator I can corroborate Lachs's contention. We gather, we sit, we listen to administrators speak of welcoming our perspectives. And then they do what they were going to do. Challenges were not and are not welcome.


No whine, just fact.