President Gitenstein Honored by American Association of University Professors

President Gitenstein has been honored by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), receiving the AAUP’s Ralph S. Brown Award for Shared Governance.

The award is given to American college or university administrators or trustees “in recognition of an outstanding contribution to shared governance.” It was established in 1998 in memory of Ralph S. Brown, who served as AAUP president and general counsel, and headed many AAUP committees during his 44 years of service to the Association. The selection committee consists of the president of the association, the general secretary, and the current chair and a former chair of the AAUP’s Committee on College and University Governance. Criteria for the award include “demonstration of [a] strong commitment to shared governance; ability… to work with multiple constituencies…; capability to bring about effective change,” and the “capacity to communicate to multiple constituencies about the importance of shared governance.”

Shared governance, which is the cooperative and consultative process for academic decision making on college and university campuses, is highly valued by the academic community. In its widely respected 1966 Statement on Government of Colleges and Universities, the AAUP noted that “the variety and complexity of the tasks performed by institutions of higher education produce an inescapable interdependence among governing board, administration, faculty, students, and others.”

“I was deeply humbled by the award, but more so by the nominations for it,” said Gitenstein. “Higher education in the United States is a very special enterprise and its successes are always based on this concept of shared governance. Our dedication to collaboration and respectful dialogue requires that all stakeholders step outside of their comfort zone to serve the institution as a whole, not their singular program or division.”

In nominating her for the Ralph S. Brown Award, faculty and staff members at the College spoke in glowing terms of President Gitenstein’s leadership in bringing about a radical transformation of both the spirit and the content of governance at the College. Because of her leadership in creating what her nominators call a “culture of collaboration,” the faculty senate in 2004 described the new governance system as “a success,” adding that “the system now has legitimacy, and stakeholders know better than they did before what issues are being addressed and how they are being addressed… Finally, communication between faculty leadership and the administration has vastly improved, and there is an improved atmosphere of collegial decision-making.”

Offering his support of the nomination in the midst of the College’s recent budget crisis, Michael Roberston, president of the faculty senate, said, “In the months following the nomination, the College was hit by a devastating state budget cut. President Gitenstein’s response to that crisis highlighted what we had said earlier. Throughout the budget crisis, she met regularly with representatives of the faculty and staff. She took us behind the scenes, shared her thoughts, and solicited our input. The episode confirmed her status as an exceptional leader.”

The selection committee for the Brown Award expressed its respect and admiration for President Gitenstein’s accomplishments in making governance at TCNJ a genuinely collegial and collaborative endeavor, stating, “The committee was impressed both by the substance and the spirit of the governance system in place at the college, as attested to by the individuals, both faculty and staff, who nominated Dr. Gitenstein for this award.”

Dr. Gitenstein has more than 25 years of experience in higher education, serving as both a faculty member and an administrator. Before becoming TCNJ's first woman president in 1999, she was for seven years the provost and executive vice president and provost at Drake University. She earned a BA in English from Duke University, and a PhD in English and American Literature from University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill.

The American Association of University Professors is a nonprofit charitable and educational organization that promotes academic freedom by supporting tenure, academic due process, shared governance and standards of quality in higher education. The AAUP has about 45,000 members at colleges and universities throughout the United States.