What is Shared Governance at COCC and Why Do We Value It?

Central Oregon Community College values shared governance. Shared governance entails full and active participation by faculty, administrators, staff, and students, who share responsibility as equal stakeholders for the mission, vision, goals, academic integrity, and institutional sustainability of the College. This mutual responsibility requires that stakeholders engage in free and open discussion, join in collaborative decision-making, and mutually inform one another of resolutions.

College committees have been established to implement present policies and procedures and to plan for the future. Committee members, consisting of elected or appointed members from the various areas on campus, collaborate in the decision-making process on broad curricular, academic, administrative/operational and policy issues.

Some primary responsibilities for implementation and decision-making reside with particular stakeholders. The guiding principle is that institutional policy-making is done in collegial collaboration with respective college stakeholders and their representatives.

Shared governance requires all such decisions be communicated effectively to the general college community, with special emphasis on the need for accountability with timely, reasoned explanations for any modification or rejection of recommendations.

In order to be effective, shared governance requires respect for the process and all participants, open communication, and a mutual basis of trust that enables all to express their views freely with the expectation that their contributions will carry weight in the decision-making process.