Faculty senate voting patterns and decision making: Faculty governance at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh.

摘要

This study seeks to incorporate two varieties of political research in an analysis of the voting behavior of faculty senators at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. Specifically, the study uses a combination of factor and discriminant analysis to determine if faculty senators form coalitions in a manner similar to civil legislatures, and further, if a model of legislative decision making can predict faculty senate decision making accurately. The evolution of academic governance is explored, as coalition building and decision making in civil legislatures. The findings show that these methodologies, borrowed from the field of political science, are successful in describing behavior of the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh Faculty Senate, although several distinct differences exist between civil legislatures and these faculty senators. Implications for governance at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh and for future research are also described.