The central cause of the present sorry state of governance in many institutions is an historical misunderstanding as to the real nature of a college or university. Most institutions have inherited a formal organizational structure founded on the concept of hierarchy, a concept that is totally unsuitable to the needs of an institution of higher education, where power does not reside at a single source at the top, but in varying proportions in three or four groups. Proposals for modification of governance include: (1) the establishment of a new mechanism within the institution to make possible community-wide participation in governance; (2) making explicit the redistribution of authority that has been taking place; (3) the strengthening of leadership to maintain the college or university as a viable institution; (4) the establishment of means to enforce accountability with every extension of authority; and (5) the modification of the traditional structure of high school, junior college, 4-year college, professional and graduate schools. These proposals go a considerable way toward devising a system of governance designed to facilitate the engineering of consent. (AF)

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