Draft Statements of Shared Governance and Principles of Decision Making

Dear Sagehens,

As many of you know, last month, Pomona College launched its Shared GovernanceTask Force, guided and moderated by David Maxwell from the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges (AGB). The Task Force, believing that shared governance is a cornerstone of our institutional strength, set out to develop four initial documents:

1. Statement of Shared Governance: a definition of what shared governancemeans at Pomona.
2. Statement of Principles: the principles that guide our approach to decision making.
3. Decision Matrix: a framework for clearly communicating who is responsible for which decisions across the College.
4. Threshold Conditions: a set of agreed-upon principles necessary for sharedgovernance to function effectively.

Since the Task Force’s launch, our subcommittee, representing all five constituent groups—faculty, students, staff, administration, and the Board—has been working to draft the first two foundational documents for how shared governance and decision making will be practiced for the benefit of the College.

We’re grateful for the thoughtful contributions that have brought us to this point. After several iterations and two rounds of broad consultation with the full Task Force, we’re now sharing our progress for wider community feedback.

You’ll find the draft Statements on our Shared Governance Task Force page. Here are a few notes to guide your review:

• We drew inspiration from similar statements at other institutions, especially those developed with AGB, like Bennington College, Golden Gate University and CSUSB.
• We were particularly influenced by models that distinguished between guiding (or core) principles and operating principles.
• While some institutions treat their Statements of Principles and SharedGovernance separately, we found them to be interdependent—with one flowing from the other.
• These Statements are not exhaustive and are not designed to capture every possible scenario. They are intended to set tone, direction, and inspiration for the structures and behaviors of shared governance at Pomona.
• Some terms, like “transparency,” were intentionally omitted. We opted for “open communication,” which better reflects what we felt could be committed to, given institutional constraints like data privacy and legal considerations.
• Similarly, “trust” is not included in the draft. We see these documents as scaffolding upon which trust will be built.
• The Statements reference a decision matrix currently being developed by another subcommittee of the Shared Governance Task Force. To provide context, we’ve linked to a sample matrix from Colorado College.

Next Steps:
We invite you to share your thoughts via the feedback form on the Shared GovernanceTask Force page. We welcome your ideas on how this draft can be strengthened, from anything you feel may have been overlooked, to sections that may require further finetuning or explanation. Your input is invaluable because it will help us shape a sharedgovernance model that best reflects our community’s values.

We ask that you provide feedback by October 14, 2025, so we can consider it at our next Shared Governance Task Force meeting on October 17, 2025.

With gratitude,
Shared Governance Task Force - Statements Subcommittee (Eric Abelev, Tricia Avant, Janet Benton, Benjamin Keim, Charles Liu)