Governance Section : Ralph S.

Brown Award

President Anthony Tricoli Receives the Ralph S. Brown Award for

Shared Governance
Dr. Anthony Tricoli is the first two-year college president in the nation to receive The American Association of University
Professors Ralph S. Brown Award for Shared Governance. The award is created in memory of Ralph S. Brown, a Yale law
professor and former AAUP president and general counsel.
The national AAUP presents the award only when an individuals accomplishments in the area of shared governance are
identified as outstanding. The successful candidate must demonstrate a strong commitment to shared governance and an ability
to work with multiple constituencies to implement effective change. The AAUP has honored only five college presidents with
the award since its inception in 1998. Dr. Tricoli will be the sixth recipient. The award was last presented in 2007.
The AAUP expressed its appreciation to Dr. Tricoli for his accomplishments in making governance at George Perimeter College
a collegial and collaborative endeavor. The selection committee was impressed both by the substance and the spirit of the
governance system in place at the college as confirmed by those who nominated the president.
Margee Bright Ragland, Faculty Senate Chair at GPC and associate professor of art, wrote, Dr. Tricoli has united our once
divided multi-campus college into one college, reinvigorating our sense of community and mission. With the presidents
emphasis on One College, we work more and more as a cohesive, unified whole.
President Tricoli communicates that trust is the essential foundation upon which a collaborative model is built. He also focuses
on inclusivity as an integral component. Rather than having numerous permanent standing committees, Tricoli creates temporary,
targeted, transparent, and timely Think Tanks and Task Teams to address short-term issues and to allow more individuals to
participate in GPCs governance. He also holds Open Forums at each campus on topics such as governance, diversity, trust, and
strategic planning. Accordingly, as Professor Bright Ragland notes, at GPC those who will be impacted by a decision participate
in making the decision.

Dr. Julia Rux, professor of psychology and president of the GPC chapter of the Georgia Association of Educators, also
emphasizes the presidents desire to include all constituencies: Within weeks of arriving, Dr. Tricoli began convening open
forums on each campus on a series of critical topics: from values, to future goals, to shared governance, to faculty evaluation
systems. Rux is pleased that under Dr. Tricolis administration, our requests for transparency and representation have been met
after years of faculty and students being left behind.
Faculty are also pleased with the presidents accessibility. Assistant professor of biology Dr. Jonathan Lochamy notes that one
reason GPCs shared governance model is a success is the availability of the president: He doesnt isolate himself in an office or
surround himself with upper level administration. To say he is accessible is an understatement. Lochamy e-mailed the
president with a concern and, within ten minutes, received a response: In my e-mail, I explained that a faculty decision had
been lost in an administrative committee. He immediately contacted all parties involved to authorize the facultys decision. The

next day, he called me to confirm that the situation had been resolved. Why is this important? Because we have a president who
cares about the faculty voice. And it doesnt matter if the faculty is tenured, non-tenured, full-time, or part-time.

Dede Weber, the Staff Chair of the newly formed Staff Senate, quickly asserts that it is not just the faculty who capture the
presidents attention. Weber was thrilled when the president requested the formation of a Staff Senate to participate in the
colleges governance model. She notes that Dr. Tricolis commitment to inclusivity reflects his enthusiasm for Shared
Governance: Without his leadership style, how else would a non-exempt, Clerk IV, support staff member be formally
representing GPC staff concerns at the Executive Team level? Weber and Faculty Senate Chair Margee Bright Ragland serve
with the colleges five vice presidents and president as voting members on both the President's Cabinet and the Presidents Policy
Advisory Board.

Students also have a voice at GPC. Jonathan Lochamy recalls the initial response from faculty when the president began to
advocate student participation in the governing process: Many faculty were dismayed and protested that student representatives
often didnt attend or didnt actively participate in meetings. President Tricoli agreed that this was a problem. Instead of
removing students, however, he asked us to double the number of students on committees and policy councils to increase student
involvement. Each of GPCs five policy councils now includes at least two student representatives. Tricoli was honored and
humbled by the award. He stated, however, that although I am being acknowledged by the AAUP, I believe that all of our
faculty, staff, administrators, and students should be recognized for their willingness to participate in a genuine shared
governance model.

Thanks to Dr. Tricoli, Georgia Perimeter College now has a governance model that involves more faculty and staff than ever
before in its almost fifty-year history. Dr. Tricoli received the Ralph S. Brown Award for Shared Governance at the AAUP
Banquet on June 11, 2011, in Washington, D.C.

Recipients of the Ralph S. Brown Award for Shared Governance

1999 Santa Clara University Board of Trustees and President Paul Locatelli
2002 Luther F. Carter, President, Francis Marion University
2005 Phillip Dudley, Jr., President, Hastings College
2006 Barbara R. Gitenstein, President, The College of New Jersey
2007 Dr. Carolyn R. Mahoney, President, Lincoln University of Missouri
2011 Dr. Anthony S. Tricoli, President, Georgia Perimeter College