TITLE A National Profile of Faculty Governance Leaders in Higher Education. PUB DATE 1999-00-00

This study explored the current demographic profile of faculty governance leaders, focusing on communication style. A total of 223 faculty senate leaders (or equivalent faculty governance leaders) completed a mailed questionnaire requesting information on demographic variables and communication behaviors. The questionnaire included the Personal Report of Communication Apprehension instrument and the Writing Apprehension Test. The respondents represented 76 research or doctoral-granting universities, 64 comprehensive universities and liberal arts colleges, and 83 community colleges. While it was found that the majority of the respondents were male full professors teaching in the liberal arts, females held the majority of leadership positions in the governance units of both research and comprehensive universities and in the liberal arts colleges. It was also found that the participants had moderate levels of apprehension for both oral and written communication encounters. Community college faculty governanc