Common Sense: Shared Governance and the Courage to Ask (#676)

The greatest tyrannies are often not enforced by force, but by silence.

In January 1776, a recent English immigrant named Thomas Paine published a 47-page pamphlet that changed history.

It was called Common Sense.

Its message was remarkably simple.

Ordinary people should question authority.

Power should justify itself.

Institutions exist to serve the people - not the other way around.

Paine did not write for scholars. He wrote for citizens. He translated complicated political philosophy into language that everyone could understand.

Paine’s appeal was not to emotion alone but to reason, evidence, and what he repeatedly called common sense.

Less than six months later, many of these ideas echoed through another remarkable document - the United States Declaration of Independence.

It began with one of the most enduring sentences in history:

We hold these truths to be self-evident...

Those seven words deserve renewed attention today.

Not because they belong only to history.

But because they raise uncomfortable questions for every modern institution, including universities.

What Is a Self-Evident Truth?

The Declaration does not say that truths become valid because powerful people approve them.

It does not suggest that authority determines what citizens may question.

Instead, it argues that certain principles are so fundamental that reasonable people can recognize them through evidence, logic, and moral reasoning.

Whether one agrees with every philosophical premise is almost beside the point.

The important idea is this:

Institutions should be accountable to principles larger than themselves.

That idea remains as relevant today as it was in 1776.

Universities Were Built on This Idea

Universities exist because society believes that ideas should withstand scrutiny.

Knowledge advances because assumptions are challenged.

Research progresses because accepted wisdom is questioned.

Academic freedom is not a decorative slogan.

It is the operating system of scholarship.

Shared governance is the practical mechanism that allows this culture to function.

Faculty contribute their disciplinary expertise.

Administrators contribute executive leadership.

Staff contribute institutional knowledge.

Students contribute lived experience.

Alumni contribute historical perspective.

Each group provides something essential.

No single voice possesses all wisdom.

Shared Governance Begins with a Simple Question

When faculty ask:

Why?

they are not being obstructive.

They are fulfilling their responsibility.

When alumni ask:

Were stakeholders consulted?

they are not resisting change.

They are asking whether institutional values were respected.

When staff ask:

What evidence supports this decision?

they strengthen the institution rather than weaken it.

These are not acts of rebellion.

They are acts of stewardship.

Silence Is Never Evidence

One of the recurring themes in Common Sense is that authority should never expect unquestioning obedience.

Legitimacy comes from explanation.

Transparency.

Reason.

If decisions are sound, they should survive scrutiny.

If a process is fair, it should withstand questions.

Silence, by itself, proves nothing.

But prolonged silence often creates its own story.

People naturally begin asking why answers are not forthcoming.

The Difference Between Authority and Leadership

Authority can issue instructions. Leadership earns trust.

Authority can insist. Leadership persuades.

Authority can close discussion. Leadership invites it.

Universities should aspire to leadership.

The greatest academic institutions are rarely those that suppress difficult conversations.

They are those confident enough to welcome them.

Common Sense and Shared Governance

Shared governance is sometimes portrayed as cumbersome.

Meetings take time.

Consultation can be frustrating.

Questions slow decisions.

All of that is true.

Democracy is slower than dictatorship.

Peer review is slower than personal opinion.

Consultation is slower than unilateral decision-making.

Yet universities have embraced these processes because they usually produce better decisions, stronger legitimacy, and greater institutional trust.

Efficiency should never become an excuse for bypassing participation.

Self-Evident Truths for Every University

Perhaps every university should periodically ask whether these principles remain self-evident.

Truth benefits from open inquiry.

Questions deserve thoughtful answers.

Transparency builds trust.

Academic freedom requires disagreement.

Shared governance depends upon meaningful consultation.

Respect is demonstrated through engagement, not silence.

Institutions serve their communities, not the reverse.

These are not revolutionary ideas.

They are simply common sense.

Commentary

My recent efforts to understand the process surrounding the renaming of the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine have reinforced this lesson.

The issue, for me, has never been whether universities should accept philanthropic gifts.

Nor has it been opposition to change itself.

The central question has been whether shared governance operated as many members of the university community reasonably expected it to operate.

Were faculty, staff, alumni, and other stakeholders given a meaningful opportunity to understand the proposal, ask questions, and contribute before important decisions were finalized?

Those questions deserve careful, respectful answers, not because any individual is entitled to prevail, but because accountability is fundamental to the credibility of public universities.

When institutions respond openly, trust grows.

When reasonable questions are left unanswered, uncertainty fills the vacuum.

Nearly 250 years after Thomas Paine wrote Common Sense, his central message still resonates.

Strong institutions should never fear honest questions.

They should welcome them.

Because common sense, and the pursuit of truth, remain the foundation upon which every great university should stand.

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