University Governance and Institutional Culture: A Canadian President’s Perspective

Abstract

In 1960s North America, challenges to the dominant forms and practices of university governance came from inside, as students and faculty members took action for civil rights and sought to limit American involvement in Southeast Asia. Although widespread public demonstrations and sit-ins spurred changes on university campuses, broadening representation on boards and senate s, intro-ducing human rights and equity policies, and opening up some processes, there was eventual disillusionment with the slow pace of change and campuses gradually quieted. Even where change was substantial, it concerned internal campus communities. The outside world stopped paying attention for several decades.

It does not know what it is doing. Its goals are either vague or in dispute. Its technology is familiar but not understood. Its major participants wander in and out of the organization. These factors do not make a university a bad organization or a disorganized one; but they do make it a problem to describe, understand and lead.

Cohen and March 1986, 3