ABSTRACT
If governance at the institutional level, now dormant in most public research universities, can be revived, albeit in a new form, perhaps the lessons can be applied elsewhere. Why is this issue an important question? Why not simply be content with the corporate model of university governance, which emphasizes efficiency in resource allocation and appears increasingly accepted? The answer is that the university does not produce only private goods. It also produces public goods. Attempts to limit decisions in universities to narrow market-like efficiency criteria are inappropriate in this setting.
Public goods (in this case education, research, and services) cannot be reduced to simple exchanges between interested parties. Their production and consumption require many participants and much sharing in production and consumption to produce goods of high quality. Faculty involvement is needed to produce results of such quality.
I will attempt to show why this assertion has merit by distinguishing the roles of teaching and learning from research. In addition, I will introduce the role that general education and assessment might play in giving faculty across the institution a common language they might use to reengage at the institutional level in public research universities.
