A faculty forum on shared governance will be held at 1 p.m. Wednesday in the Effingham Hall in the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union.

The forum will cover shared governance from the past and future.

Todd Bruns, dean of library services and chair of faculty forum committee, brought the idea up for a forum at previous Faculty Senate meetings.

The forum was originally the idea of one of Bruns’s colleagues on Faculty Senate who proposed the upcoming confidence/no confidence regarding Provost Blair Lord, vice president of academic affairs.

After the senate discussed the forum, they decided to have a forum that focused more on shared governance in general, since some of the discussion regarding the vote was about shared governance.

“Ideally we will have a robust, informative discussion about shared governance as it has been on this campus and what we would like it to mean going into the future,” Bruns said.

At the forum, attendees will discuss Rob Miller’s “A Review of Shared Governance” as well as the work from the committee to study shared governance.

The work from this committee was released in 2011. The committee itself was also created in 2011.

Bruns said while it is possible that the upcoming referendum vote on confidence/no confidence on the provost may come up for discussion, but it is not the topic of the forum.

No speaker is involved with the forum, Bruns said.

“I will highlight some of the issues presented in the reports and then open the forum up for faculty discussion,” Bruns said.

Depending on the number of people who attend, this could be a general discussion or those at the forum will break into discussion groups.

Bruns said he hopes some attendees will be able to help lead the discussion because of their involvement in the committee to study shared governance.

While Bruns does not have any particular hopes or agenda for the forum, since it was a proposal from a colleague, he does think the discussion is important.

“I do think a general discussion amongst faculty about shared governance is valuable, and could help inform what we see our role being in the future direction of EIU,” Bruns said.

Bruns said the amount of people who come to the forum varies depending on the topic.

“Not all faculty can make the forum day and time due to other commitments,” Bruns said.

He said he did not know for sure what the turn-out is likely to be.

“I hope it will be good,” Bruns said.

Cassie Buchman can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected]