An Analysis of Students' Perception of Their Role in Governance at Gaston College.

To determine the extent to which students felt that they should be involved in institutional governance at Gaston College, 100 students were asked to indicate on a list of 30 pertinent college activities the degree to which they felt students should be involved in the activities. The degree of involvement involved five choices, from no student involvement to completely under student direction. The students favored no student involvement in selection of college president, faculty hiring, faculty promotion, teaching loads, class size, teacher salaries, and requirements for degrees and certificates. In five areas, the students favored some student involvement: setting institutional goals, establishing attendance policies, allocation of annual college budget, allocation of student financial aid, and determining the administrative structure of the college. The 17 areas in which equal student involvement was favored were: selection of college officials directly related to student affairs, allocation of student activity fees, regulation of student conduct, recognition of student organizations, approval of guest speakers invited by students, alterations in college calendar, distribution of student-initialed literature on campus, release of student records, admissions standards for curricula, curricula or course changes, student probation and suspension policies, development of physical facilities, planning commencement exercises, college publications, grading policies, and faculty evaluation. Students wanted to largely control student publications. (DB)