Community College Faculty Roles in Shared Governance

Purpose: The central purpose of this study was to examine the level of faculty authority in institutional decision making in practice at community colleges in Texas. Additionally, levels of faculty authority in community colleges were compared to that of faculty in universities in the United States. Finally, levels of faculty authority were examined for patterns relating to institutional characteristics. Research Method: This quantitative study extended the 2021 American Association of University Professors Shared G overnance survey to include community colleges in Texas using the same survey instrument. Percentages of responses by decision making areas were calculated for comparison. Observation Oriented Modeling was used to identify patterns relating to faculty auth ority in universities or community college institutional characteristics. Findings: The findings indicated that the highest levels of faculty authority in the academic areas related to grade assignments, teaching assignments, and faculty searches. The lowe st levels of faculty authority were discovered in areas related to provost selection, building, budgets, salary policies, and undergraduate admissions policies. Levels of faculty authority in community colleges were found to be most similar to university f aculty in administrative decisions overall and the most divergent in academic decision making. Findings indicated a moderate relationship between institutional size and faculty authority, with smaller community colleges reporting higher levels of faculty a uthority than larger schools. Conclusion: Results of this study provide a relative benchmark for statewide faculty authority that is beneficial for individual college comparison and future studies.