Note: See the Louisiana Illuminator’s original reporting here.
LSU faculty governance is paralyzed by a decades-old oversight system. A legislative proposal has stumbled upon a potential solution.
At LSU, faculty governance is made up of two entities: the Faculty Senate, who are popularly elected representatives from each college, and the Faculty Council, made up of every faculty member at the university with the rank of instructor or higher.
Shared governance is a key tenet of American higher education, ensuring responsibility at a university is shared between administration, faculty and other constituencies within the school. On most campuses, faculty participation comes in the form of a faculty senate.
The LSU Board of Supervisors’ bylaws created the Faculty Council, which delegates power to the Faculty Senate. The Faculty Council is required to meet once a year when it must ratify the Faculty Senate’s constitution. Without the ability to update its constitution, the Faculty Senate often falls into debate over what’s practical versus what’s legal.
The obstacle the Faculty Senate faces is simple: Its fate lies in the hands of 1,600 people who didn’t realize they would become de facto public officials. By taking teaching jobs at LSU’s flagship campus, they unwittingly became Faculty Council members.
“You don’t have a choice about whether you’re a Faculty Council member,” said Dan Tirone, LSU Faculty Senate vice president, “but you have a choice on whether you show up.”
Although it’s unclear exactly when LSU’s Faculty Council was formed, it certainly predates Louisiana’s open meetings law, meaning its founders likely didn’t anticipate members having to comply with the statutes that set guidelines for public bodies to ensure the public’s right to participation is not eroded.
The Faculty Council, which is four times larger than the largest legislative body in the country, the New Hampshire General Court, has only made quorum once in the 21st century. In 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic, it was able to meet virtually due to the gubernatorially declared disaster. It’s unclear when the body last made quorum before then, as the faculty council archives, which date back to the 1960s, don’t have attendance records.
Virtual meetings could soon become legal for the Faculty Council again.
Senate Bill 201, sponsored by state Sen. Sharon Hewitt, R-Slidell, would create a framework to allow remote meetings of advisory councils, or those without any decision-making authority, that would facilitate public participation.
Both the Faculty Senate and Faculty Council fall under this classification.
Tirone said he believes the council will be much more likely to meet quorum at next year’s meeting if the bill passes. At this year’s meeting, held on April 17, the council fell approximately 70 members short of the required count, meaning that they couldn’t approve a new version of the constitution, which has not been updated in nearly two decades.
“I would certainly feel far more optimistic each year that the Faculty Council meeting would be successful in meeting quorum if there was a remote participation option, because I think it’s going to be far easier for faculty to be engaged in other tasks or be working from home that day or wherever they’re located for their research,” Tirone said.
Hewitt’s bill, the result of a months-long study committee that took input from disability and good governance advocates, was unanimously advanced from the Senate and Governmental Affairs Committee this week. It goes next to the Senate for a floor vote, tentatively scheduled for Monday, where it’s likely to garner approval.
Beyond LSU’s Faculty Council, Hewitt’s bill is likely to bring relief to other faculty governing bodies across the state.
Under the state’s open meetings law, all faculty governance panels and their subsidiaries must meet in person, meaning committees and subcommittees at two- and four-year institutions across the state must convene face to face.
LSU’s Faculty Senate committees only began complying with open meetings law in 2022, after reporting the year before revealed the group held an illegal executive session, in which members meet behind closed doors.
The in-person meeting requirement can hamper important faculty work, Tirone said, as professors who volunteer on those committees can have conflicting class schedules, research or work-related travel.
While all faculty bodies are purely advisory, their input has direct influence on a range of university policies, including academic and admissions standards.
The proposal from Hewitt, who’s running for governor, would also make it easier for disabled individuals to participate in all Louisiana public meetings.
Her bill requires all bodies to allow for remote participation of anyone with a recognized disability. Approximately 25% of the country’s population has some type of disability, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Public boards would also have to accommodate remote participation for any member with a disability.
While the Hewitt proposal allows all advisory councils to meet virtually, it has stricter requirements for bodies with direct power, only allowing them to attend remotely for some of their meetings.
Statewide boards, including the LSU, Southern and University of Louisiana system boards of supervisors and the Board of Regents, which oversees all higher education in the state, will never be allowed to meet virtually under the proposal.
Hewitt said she singled out a handful of boards, those with particularly important charges or very large budgets, for required in-person meetings because their work is too important to meet virtually.
Statewide boards primarily charged with handling disability issues would still be permitted to meet virtually, however.