Inside Higher Ed: Gutting Shared Governance?
The journalism world was roiled and some within it recoiled back in 2005 when Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, widely regarded as a top school in the field, announced its pick for the new dean. John Lavine, an expert on media strategy and management, came in with a sweeping charge to integrate Medill’s journalism and marketing instruction in what many in journalism consider to be an unhappy and even dangerous marriage, and others describe as a necessary step in training future journalists for a rapidly changing business climate. Under the school’s strategic plan, “Medill 2020,” the school will be unveiling its revamped curriculum this fall, with the goal of ensuring that students learn about reporting and writing in the context of consumer, or audience, engagement.
Also upon Lavine’s arrival, though far less widely noted, the university suspended formal faculty governance procedures at Medill for 3.5 years – an act condemned as “unacceptable and in violation of the University’s Statutes” in a university-wide General Faculty Committee (GFC) resolution unanimously approved this month.
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