As the Associated Student Senate plans its new push for campus participation with “Thought Spots” around campus, maybe teachers should fill the posters with advice for the administration.

It will probably take more than butcher paper and markers, however, to address the controversy surrounding the role of shared governance at City College.

For shared governance to work, governments at every level-from the president to the Academic Senate to the Associated Student Senate-need to show up and speak up.

Tensions are running high surrounding Superintendent-President Andreea Serban’s proposed new budgeting process.

While some faculty members do not see the need to abandon the old process to give more control of funding requests to the administration, the Academic Senate did not voice their concerns in front of Serban.

At the same time, the student senate has been without its president, Camila Avendano, for a month. Mike Lin, the acting president filling her role, was appointed vice president of external affairs only six days before her unexpected departure.

On March 11, Serban led a joint meeting with the governing bodies that advise college policies, including the Academic Senate and the College Planning Council.

The purpose of the meeting was to reach a common understanding of the link between budgeting and program reviews. Program reviews are used to measure the success of college departments, and are required for a college’s accreditation.

The resulting conversation, however, was perceived as very one-sided by several faculty and staff members.

“The first thing (Serban) said was, ‘You’re not allowed to discuss the decision,'” said Dean Nevins, an associate professor on the Academic Senate.

As a result, even those with hardball questions balked in front of Serban.

During the second part of the meeting, without Serban, many in the senate were audibly and visibly upset over the lack of their input or involvement.

Many felt that they had been told about the new budgeting process rather than consulted.

While there is no easy solution to huge budget deficits, the senate’s discontent was with the attitude behind Serban implementing new demands on teachers, without so much as asking them about it.

However, with a very tight timeline for providing feedback, the faculty should have said something if they felt their concerns were not being respected.

The perceived failure of the shared governance system in such decisions creates discomfort among not only faculty and staff, but ultimately the students.

When college leaders proposed a 2-percent pay cut to student workers at the beginning of the semester, the student senate wasn’t given notice. Now a new budgeting process could be implemented, but the faculty voice is not being heard.

City College ought to budget for plenty of butcher paper to accommodate incoming opinions about the school’s state of shared governance.