Michael T. Miller, University of Arkansas professor of higher education, and John Murry, associate professor of higher education, co-edited a new book that examines the need for staff involvement in determining the direction and vision of the contemporary university.

The book, Staff Governance and Institutional Policy Formation, contains 10 chapters, many written by other people affiliated with the University of Arkansas. It is one volume in the series "Educational Policy in the 21st Century: Opportunities, Challenges and Solutions" published by Information Age Publishing. Miller co-edited four additional books in the series.

Miller and Murry have both held staff positions in addition to teaching and conducting research in the College of Education and Health Professions. Miller currently serves as associate dean for academic affairs, and Murry formerly served as associate dean for administration of the college.

The number of staff members at American higher education institutions has more than doubled in the past 20 years, they write, and this volume is among the first to examine the new landscape in which staff governance bodies are often cast in a competing light within the governance framework of faculty, students and trustees.

The book evaluates how staff members are involved in decision-making, explores the environments in which staff governance is used and describes the topics staff governance bodies address. It includes a case study of a professional administrator who chaired a staff senate.

The book also outlines the implications in policy formation, evaluation and agenda-setting for the involvement of staff in the higher education community.

Contributing authors include Kenda Grover, clinical assistant professor of workforce development; Kit Kacirek, associate professor of workforce development; Julie Goldman, a alumna of the college who is associate director of online education at Drury University in Springfield; Adam Morris, an alumnus of the college who works as assistant director of operations management in the industrial engineering program in the College of Engineering; Tony Myers, a doctoral student in the college who works as associate director of admissions for the transfer central office; Ashley Tull, who formerly served as senior associate dean of students at the University of Arkansas; and Elizabeth Underwood, an alumna of the college who is executive director of alumni affairs at the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith.

Information about the book is available at the Information Age Publishing website.