TCU faculty leader demands changes to shared governance system on ‘verge of collapse’
The chairman of the Faculty Senate at Texas Christian University has written an open letter expressing a “growing sense of frustration and mistrust” among faculty and staff in the university’s administration.
Concerns in the letter from Sean Atkinson range from COVID-19-related safety issues, to “the continuing disintegration of shared governance and the lack of concrete action on racial injustice.”
Atkinson said staff and faculty want administrators to release a detailed plan for COVID-19 safety on campus, rebuild the university’s shared governance system and take concrete action to address racial inequity on campus.
Among other things, Atkinson says “serious discussion” is needed about changing the name of the university’s AddRan College of Liberal Arts, which combines the names of the university’s founders, who were volunteer Confederate soldiers.
The letter — 3.5 pages and nearly 1,900 words long — was the result of a meeting at the end of June in which a faculty member proposed a vote of no confidence in university leadership. The vote did not take place, but the Faculty Senate decided to publicly air its grievances with the university as a next step, Atkinson said.
TCU Chancellor Victor J. Boschini said he has talked with Atkinson and other staff and faculty about the issues addressed in the letter. He said the proposed vote of no confidence “breaks my heart.”
“I think (the proposed vote) comes out of frustration,” Boschini told the Star-Telegram. “I totally get it. It’s a combination of change in retirement benefits, the pandemic and being isolated, and all of these social justice issues. I think people are frustrated.”
He said he is “happy to talk to anybody about any of this at any time,” but then faculty need to “give me a minute” to fix the problems.
“I feel like personally, I’ve tried to communicate the best I can,” he told the Star-Telegram. “I feel that some people are mixing up communicating and getting what they what.”
Atkinson, an associate professor of music theory, told the Star-Telegram that “TCU is poised for greatness” and he and other faculty want to make sure the university “has the tools it needs to get there.”
“If we didn’t care deeply about TCU, we wouldn’t write a letter; we would get up and leave,” Atkinson told the Star-Telegram.
On Wednesday afternoon, Boschini addressed some of Atkinson’s concerns in a letter to faculty and staff.
“I understand your frustration. We all feel it,” the letter said. “We know that everyone is making sacrifices and working hard to adapt to a new reality. Please be assured the full administrative team and I keep the future of the University, and your best interests, in mind at all times.”
Shared governance
At TCU, committees made up of faculty, staff and students provide recommendations to the board of trustees on everything from the year’s budget to employee benefits. But over the past 10 years, the system has eroded, Atkinson said.
“At this moment, that system is on the verge of collapse,” Atkinson wrote in his letter.
Administrators tell a committee about a decision a day before — or hours before — it goes into effect, giving them no chance to contribute meaningfully, he wrote.
Boschini said in his 18 years at TCU, he is not aware of any situation where a committee was told about a decision so late. He said shared governance “does not say you always get what you want. It says you will always be part of the process.”
Atkinson demands in his letter that TCU “rebuild our shared governance system into something that allows these constituencies to have a real voice in the decisions that shape the future of the university.”
This breakdown in communication led to one of the most serious concerns faculty currently have, Atkinson explains in his letter.
In August 2019, the university charged the Compensation Advisory Committee with revising the benefits package for employees because the current package was “too rich to be sustainable.”
However, administrators were vague about how much money needed to be saved, or why, Atkinson said. Questions from the committee were ignored or met with cryptic answers, he said. Eventually, the committee sent its recommendations for benefits changes. The action TCU administration decided to take — to cut the university’s contribution to retirement accounts for faculty — was not one of those recommendations.
TCU’s leadership cut the university’s retirement contribution rate by 3.5% — from 11.5% to 8%. The cuts put TCU’s faculty below the average compensation for their peers, Atkinson wrote, referencing a 2019 analysis from the TCU Faculty Relations Committee.
However, Boschini said the previous retirement contribution of 11.5% was the highest out of all the Big 12 schools. He said the decision was discussed for 18 months and has nothing to do with COVID-19, but he understands that naturally, faculty would not like the decision.
One of the demands Atkinson makes is for administrators to immediately make this a temporary cut rather than a permanent one. Boschini told the Star-Telegram the board is firm on its decision, and it will not change.
Racism on campus
While Atkinson acknowledges some steps the university has taken to combat racial inequality, he said there is much more administrators need to do. TCU established a university Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee several years ago, and requires students take at least three credit hours in a course about diversity.
But TCU has a long history of racial injustice, Atkinson writes, and there is “still evidence that active racial inequity and inequity in general is present on campus.”
Boschini said he has three areas of focus going into the new school year: safety, solvency and justice. In terms of justice, he personally discusses TCU’s history in the class he teaches on campus.
“I just want to make sure we’re listening to our students and faculty, and working on the issues swirling around us in society right now,” he said.
Five black women are suing the university over allegations of racial discrimination. The university is investigating a family with deep ties to TCU after the daughter, a recent undergraduate student, made an apparent white power sign during a protest in Sundance Square.
“We insist that the administration take concrete actions to address the frustrations of our students, faculty, and staff,” the letter from Atkinson says.
For example, Atkinson suggests administrators “begin a serious discussion” about the name of the AddRan College of Liberal Arts, which combines the names of the university’s founders. Addison and Randolph Clark were voluntary soldiers in the Confederate army.
In response to the suggestion, Boschini said, “It’s a college campus. Everything is open for discussion.”
Coronavirus safety
The discussion of safety at TCU’s campus related to COVID-19 prompted the proposed vote of no confidence at June’s meeting, Atkinson said. Faculty are concerned by the lack of a detailed plan from the administration on how contact tracing, quarantine and testing of coronavirus cases will be handled, he said.
TCU recently announced any staff who are able to and want to work remotely can do so — although Atkinson said answers for those who wished to do so were slow to come. The university also will mandate students wear masks on campus.
But for those who need to interact with students on campus, there is still confusion over how COVID-19 will be handled, Atkinson said.
For example, the university has not clarified what happens if a student in a classroom tests positive for the virus, he said.
Boschini said TCU has already made 21 modifications to its campus to make students, staff and faculty safer, such as electrostatic misting systems to disinfect spaces and increased hand sanitizer stations. He emphasized that information about COVID-19 is constantly changing, which affects decision-making.
“They want permanency and final answers, I get that,” he said. “But we are not living in a time of final answers and permanency.”
Some safety concerns that Atkinson brought up in the letter — such as plexiglass barriers on campus — were already addressed by administrators, Boschini said. More than 140 barriers have been installed on campus in high-volume areas where transactions take place.
Other concerns are addressed on the university’s new micro-site about campus safety during coronavirus.
Another concern shared by Atkinson is that administrators are not emphasizing to parents and students that online courses are on par with in-person classes.
Faculty have undergone training to redesign their courses to work remotely, Atkinson writes in the letter. He says that if students take a course online this fall, “we know that it will be an experience on par or better than any comparable options at other universities.”
“We should loudly broadcast this message to students and parents,” Atkinson writes.
Boschini said while he agrees that the quality of TCU’s online classes are excellent, that’s not what parents and students are concerned about.
“Nobody is questioning the quality of online education,” he said. “What they’re saying is, ‘This is not what we signed up for.’”
This story was originally published July 8, 2020 at 5:23 PM.
