Organizing Real Faculty Governance in Northern Louisiana

Change. Organization. Innovation. Direction. These terms aptly describe the recent work by faculty members at Southern University at Shreveport to develop new academic governance structures. After years of decline that began with the Great Recession, our institution needed to find a new way forward. Understanding the magnitude of the challenges faced by our small university nestled in the piney woods of northern Louisiana, a group of faculty members united to discuss the need for a paradigm shift.

Team 2014

During the summer months preceding the spring senate elections, faculty members at SUSLA, the two-year arm of the historically black Southern University system, collaborated to create the first-ever full slate of faculty senate candidates, “Team 2014.” Sonya D. Hester was the team’s candidate for senate president, and she shared the ticket with five dedicated and hardworking colleagues: Joslin Pickens, Harolyn Wilson, Marci Collins, Claudine Matthews, and Lonnie McCray. The slate’s campaign events ranged from service-oriented projects to informal opportunities for conversation, food, fun, and fellowship. Campaign materials for Team 2014 included T-shirts, push cards, short films, and other tangible items.

The elections committee, which had been selected by the faculty body before the election, was charged with creating and overseeing a new electoral process for the 2014 faculty senate elections. For the first time in the institution’s history, official voting machines provided by the state were used to elect senate representatives. Officials from the Louisiana Registrar of Voters were in charge of the machines and the delivery of election results to the faculty community. Following an overwhelming turnout by faculty voters, Team 2014 was elected in a landslide victory, along with senators representing each academic division. A new era of faculty governance had begun; expectations were high, and the atmosphere was electric.

The poet John Donne wrote, “No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent; a part of the main.” Team 2014 had a similar sentiment in mind: we intended to shift the paradigm by maintaining strong connections with the faculty as a whole. We pledged to be open and honest in communicating about faculty matters, to have a twenty-four-hour hotline for fielding concerns, and to provide swift responses to questions. We also pledged to provide continuous updates on problems until they were resolved, to ensure a faculty presence at board meetings and all other campus meetings of relevance, and to create more opportunities for faculty to socialize. We promised to forge positive relationships with the administration and with the Student Government Association and to carry out a faculty agenda that benefited all campus constituencies.

Connection and Collaboration

We had set the bar high, but failing to deliver on our promises was not an option. In order to develop a deep practical knowledge that would enable us to serve the faculty of SUSLA effectively, understand what faculty were doing at other institutions, and expand our footprint beyond the city of Shreveport, we knew that we needed to foster relationships—in a hurry.

We spent the summer months before we took office “going to school”—learning about our roles as executive committee members and reaching out to those in similar positions across the city of Shreveport, the region, and the state. We quickly realized the importance of joining the Association of Louisiana Faculty Senates, a group that advances higher education through the promotion of faculty interests and facilitates communication among faculty at institutions of higher learning within Louisiana and between faculty and external agencies. Joining this widely known association proved essential to our team’s continued evolution as leaders recognized for innovations in faculty governance.

We also quickly learned the importance of belonging to the AAUP and wanted to extend the benefits of AAUP membership to the faculty at large. Two months after our inauguration as officers, the senate chartered the campus AAUP chapter. The AAUP has consistently served as an organization that defines professional standards in higher education, and creating a powerful connection for the faculty on SUSLA’s campus through the AAUP was enough to draw the attention of the administration. The new chapter elected Shelia Swift as president along with her team: Patricia Raphiel-Brown, Alwyn Holman, and Sharon Green. The SUSLA faculty senate and the newly chartered SUSLA AAUP chapter have held joint meetings and events to broaden engagement in faculty governance.

To gauge faculty opinion with regard to the senate’s performance after our first year in office, we distributed a faculty senate satisfaction survey to all faculty members. We wanted to learn what we were doing well and what areas needed improvement, in addition to getting feedback on other matters important to SUSLA educators. More than 75 percent of the faculty responded. The data gathered from the survey helped the senate determine the direction of its strategic plan of action as our first term was nearing a close.

Branding was also instrumental in helping the senate and faculty of SUSLA shore up a sense of identity and pride. The senate developed an official logo and distributed pens, folders, shirts, cardigans, and handbags to faculty, and we used social media to expand the brand.

In July 2015, faculty senate presidents representing Southern University Agricultural and Mechanical College, Southern University at New Orleans, and SUSLA came together in one setting for the first time. The new system president and chancellor, Ray L. Belton, had invited faculty leaders to discuss a range of issues and ideas involving the Southern University system. We suggested creating a Southern University System Faculty Conference where faculty could present papers, discuss pedagogy, exchange ideas about technological innovations, and talk candidly about faculty concerns. (Such a conference was held in New Orleans in June 2016.) We also decided to broaden our newfound collaboration as faculty senate presidents to include vice presidents. As the days passed and the joint discussions intensified, a common thread emerged: faculty across the system, like our colleagues across public institutions in the state of Louisiana and beyond, had a long-standing concern with depressed and inequitable salaries.

Faculty Governance in Action

The Southern University System Executive Council of Faculty Senates was formed in response to the faculty’s concerns about salary raised at the July 2015 meeting. The newly formed body’s first action was to draft a joint resolution speaking directly to the problem of compensation inequity among faculty.

At a subsequent meeting, faculty senate presidents of the Southern University system individually addressed the system’s board of supervisors about faculty compensation. The faculty, staff, administrators, and media representatives in the room listened intently as the senate leaders presented data. The individual appeals concluded with a reading of the joint resolution; all faculty leaders stood in unity as the resolution was read. As a result of our action, the board agreed to conduct a comprehensive study of faculty salaries and to take actions to address faculty concerns. Board members promised to send faculty leaders monthly reports tracking the progress of the study. They also formed a committee, which includes faculty leaders, to address salary inequity.

Members of the SUSLA faculty senate strive not only to build meaningful collaborations for the benefit of the faculty but also to weave outreach to community stakeholders into their strategy. One of SUSLA’s core values, as Shreveport’s community college, is service. The senate has led a range of community service programs: the senate provided bags of groceries through an initiative called “Preparing for the 5000,” served lunch to those in need at the Shreveport-Bossier Rescue Mission, provided women’s shoes through a campus-wide drive supported by the rescue mission and Dress for Success, and participated in career-day activities at local middle schools. These acts of service further extended and cemented the mission of SUSLA and brought recognition to the humanitarian efforts of its faculty.

Faculty events have further helped to foster a sense of unity and fellowship among faculty members. Several times throughout the year, the senate organized grab-and-go breakfasts and lunches to express gratitude to educators, and last year SUSLA hosted its first-ever Faculty Celebration Week.

Accomplishments and Challenges

As we enter our second term in office, we look back on the work done so far for the common good of faculty at SUSLA. At the beginning of our first term, as requested by faculty, executive committee members and senators updated and quickly ratified changes to our constitution. We created an e-mail account to allow direct correspondence between the faculty and the senate. We sought and were granted a budget increase. The senate also created relationships with local radio and television stations to promote community events hosted by the senate. We revised the faculty handbook and, in partnership with the administration, lobbied for faculty salary increases that were later granted. The senate then took its message to the public by hosting higher education forums that featured faculty leaders, legislators, and gubernatorial candidates. Members of the senate spoke on the steps of the state capitol as Louisiana higher education institutions lobbied for full funding; we served as panelists at statewide conferences; we were quoted by national journals; and we gave presentations at the AAUP’s Annual Conference on the State of Higher Education in Washington, DC. The senate also successfully lobbied for a change in the promotion and tenure processes.

More work remains to be done in our second term. Committed to that work, the SUSLA faculty senate is poised to continue advocating for the advancement of faculty as well as our students and community.   

Sonya D. Hester, Harolyn Wilson, and Joslin Pickens are currently members of the SUSLA faculty senate. Hester and Pickens are on the faculty in the Division of Humanities, and Wilson is in the Division of Science and Technology. Their e-mail addresses are shester@ susla.edu, [email protected], and [email protected].