Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Volume 33 No. 15 1970
Staff and Non-Academic Domination
Staff and Non-Academic Domination
But of course all universities in England and North America were based on Paris and Oxford, which were always dominated by their staff who did their best to keep students under control. Few English speaking people have ever known that there could be any other system of university administration. The actual organisation varies very much from university to university. Oxford and Cambridge are still governed entirely by their own graduates and staff; they have no lay officers at all. Most English universities are governed by a lay council which may or may not have a substantial minority of academic staff upon it. A senate or professorial board is responsible for all academic matters. Student representation on these bodies is still rather unusual though students sit on many sub-committees whose business directly concerns them.
In America, lay regents, as they are often called, are in charge of universities and there has been a constant struggle for power between them and the academics. Twenty years ago, the regents of the University of California insisted that their position vis-a-vis academic staff was like that of the board of a company vis-a-vis its employees; it was this more than the argument about the oath of loyalty which produced that terrible row just after the war. It has almost been forgotten in the troubles of recent years, but at the time it seemed likely to destroy the University of California in Berkeley. Perhaps universities are more resilient than we think. I doubt if many Boards of Regents would adopt such an extreme point of view today. But should scholars be subject to the whims of politicians or of a self perpetuating oligarchy of regents?