The Anti Shared Governance Winds in California

The controversy surrounding City College of San Francisco's potential closure has uncovered an underlying view among some "education consultants" that shared governance in California's Community College System is a bad thing.  The San Francisco Chronicle has not been kind to the CCSF.  In addition to such negative press, there have been very hostile blog posts in the Huffington Post against the faculty and faculty involvement in governance in the community college system as a whole. The Huffington Post is often perceived as being liberal, but in the case of our system, this may not be true.  Here's a sample of some of these postings.

Only in California: The Academic Senate Filibuster--Huffington Post.

The article basically says that it is the faculty that are the cause of management problems on the main campus.  It doesn't address whether or not management is flawed.  The underlying premise is that management is perfect and faculty are malcontents.     

The Missing Signature at Modesto Junior College--Huffington Post

Again, this is an example of a how the author blames Modesto's Academic Senate for being the root cause of governance problems.    

Who's in Control?  September 21, 2012 - 3:00am.  By  Paul Fain.  Inside Higher Education

This article seems to indicate that there is a movement largely driven by a growing group of lobbyists against the concept of shared governance in California's CC System.  This article gives you a detailed analysis of this sensibility, and who's behind it.

These trends should be watched and monitored.