Paul Frelick, Guest Writer (pfrelick@wwc)

Warren Wilson College, special, because of where it is, because of our Triad-grounded education – with a further special, a governance system unique to the way we order our daily life. All members of the community participate in making decisions that affect the present and future of campus life dedicated to education through shared community leadership.

Looking at other higher educational institutions, we discover only few govern their lives through full participation of all, not only of faculty, but as at Wilson, of staff, work supervisors, volunteers and students, all who fully participate in SHARED GOVERNANCE.

When I talk, as often I do, with friends about our College, I lift up this distinctive part of life at Warren Wilson where the whole community comes together to look at our life, our mission, our goal-setting, while performing the daily tasks that prove the College’s unique life and role in the world of education.

Over the past decade, new bodies have emerged on campus: a Faculty Body, a Staff Body, added to an already lively Student Caucus, all partners in the Staff Forum. In addition to the above, several attempts have been made to create institutional mechanisms to assure full engagement of all in shepherding our life together.

The present Governance Task Force is seeking fresh ways ”to provide a distinctive undergraduate and graduate liberal arts education” through “participatory governance.” We here at Warren Wilson College are called to engage ourselves with the Task Force in seeking the richest possibilities for the continued growth of Warren Wilson’s shared governance.