Shared Governance Battle in California Heats Up

California Competes, a group led by U.S. Department of Education veteran Robert Shireman, on Wednesday filed a legal challenge to the shared governance structure of California's community college system. In a filing with the system's Board of Governors, the group seeks to overturn what it asserts are veto powers for local academic senates. The resulting "tangled bureaucracy" has contributed to accreditation crises in the system, the group said, most notably at the City College of San Francisco. Faculty leaders, however, have said that the system's governance structure functions properly and that governing boards have the power to act.