Report of the Committee on College and University Governance, 2019–20

The work of the 2019-20 Committee on College and University Governance included monitoring developments related to a governance investigation completed in 2019, issuing two statements, and leading breakout sessions following a staff-led public webinar on academic governance. Last year, the committee adopted and provided to the Council and the 2019 annual meeting, as an informational item, a statement regarding an investigation at Maricopa Community Colleges in Arizona. As sound principles of academic governance are in the process of being restored, the committee has asked the staff of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) to keep it well informed. The main development over the past year is that the Maricopa County Community College District (MCCCD) Faculty Executive Committee has been reinstated as the primary system-wide governance body. This followed the sudden announcement that the chancellor at the time of last year's investigation unexpectedly resigned in Jan 2020. More recently, the staff member to the Committee on College and University Governance provided assistance to a group from MCCCD with a newly formed academic freedom committee, which was created in response to an incident there.