I write as a former Trustee and Board Chair of a university, an institution that I was proud to have served for many years. The Board of Trustees has the primary responsibility for establishing the fundamental direction and policies of a university. The President, the staff, the deans, the faculty, the alumni and the students, while they…
I write as a former Trustee and Board Chair of a university, an institution that I was proud to have served for many years. The Board of Trustees has the primary responsibility for establishing the fundamental direction and policies of a university. The President, the staff, the deans, the faculty, the alumni and the students, while they should all have a voice, do not finally establish the strategic direction of the university nor do they have the final say in the fundamental policies of the institution. It is the fiduciary duty of the Board of Trustees to do this. Sadly, the Boards of most universities are composed of marquee names and big donors who see their role as largely honorary, not as actually carrying the responsibility for governing the institution, as even a cursory review of the university's by-laws and the relevant foundational statutes would make clear. When university boards assert their prerogatives and direct, rather than passively accept direction from, the President and the other stakeholders of the university, then and only then will higher education regain the trust and moral standing that it has largely forfeited.
I write as a former Trustee and Board Chair of a university, an institution that I was proud to have served for many years. The Board of Trustees has the primary responsibility for establishing the fundamental direction and policies of a university. The President, the staff, the deans, the faculty, the alumni and the students, while they should all have a voice, do not finally establish the strategic direction of the university nor do they have the final say in the fundamental policies of the institution. It is the fiduciary duty of the Board of Trustees to do this. Sadly, the Boards of most universities are composed of marquee names and big donors who see their role as largely honorary, not as actually carrying the responsibility for governing the institution, as even a cursory review of the university's by-laws and the relevant foundational statutes would make clear. When university boards assert their prerogatives and direct, rather than passively accept direction from, the President and the other stakeholders of the university, then and only then will higher education regain the trust and moral standing that it has largely forfeited.