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GOVERNANCE AT DOUGLAS COLLEGE

Some elaboration of the concept of governance may be helpful to those
discussing aspects of the future governance structure of the College.

The College Board must provide for (and require) advice and guidance

from its faculty, staff, and students in carrying out its responsibilities.
This advice is based on the expertise of €ach group, taking into account
training and knowledge gained through experience, and a job role
accountability for performance. The Board views this advice as disinterested,
and based on the College philosophy as a reference.

The governance system which we are developing is in the formal sense,

this advisory system. More realistically, it represents a system of
committees, all of which have certain kinds of authority which is almost
absolute, in addition to other kinds of rights and responsibilities to
advise individuals or the College Board. Broadly conceived, the governance
system should provide us with the rules by which we live within the College,
the goals that we set for ourselves as an institution or as a unit of the
institution, and the substance and structure of the curriculum and
instructional processes which are the means by which we express our purpose.

This system must provide for a clear connection with the administrators £4
and managers of the College, as these people have the responsibility to

see to it that the philosophy, policies, and plans for the College

approved by the Board are in fact carried out and reported upon. To vest

these same people with the governance responsibilities described above

would not only ask of them an impossible task, but also deprive the

College of the advice and guidance of those fitted to provide it. In

addition, it would result in a diversion of energy from the problems of

detailed planning and allocation of resources, and supervision and evalu-

ation of performance.

In the unlikely event that a system of faculty, staff, and student based
committees provided the Board with advice that was quite at variance
from the opinion of management of the College, the Board would then have
to take this into account in its final decisions.

Good advice involves staff work, analysis, and criticism. Staff work
should not be carried out on an ad hoc basis, because it should be
accumulative, thus rendering the institution more and more intelligent

in its behaviour. The administrators and staff members of the College

are charged with the responsibility of doing staff work, just as faculty
members are charged with the responsibility of providing instruction and
curriculum. Therefore, the governance structure of the College must
include administrators and staff members of the College who have expertise
and responsibility in the area under discussion.

The structure of the governance system should parallel very closely the
formal organization of the College, in order that there be easy compre-
hension and lateral communication possible. Thus, there should be three
levels of committee - relating to College-wide matters, divisional matters,
and departmental matters. At each stage, there should be a clear connection
to the administration or management person with accountability at that
level.