Understanding Faculty Senates: Moving from Mystery to Models

For better or for worse, faculty senates remain a critical component of campus governance. Yet an understanding of how senates with various structures and cultures operate in the context of campus governance is limited. Based on site visits to 12 campuses, the author provides four models for understanding faculty senates: functional, influential, ceremonial, and subverted. These models provide a conceptual frame to comprehend senates in the interest of improving the effectiveness of campus governance.