Governing boards of universities and colleges are facing an unprecedented tidal wave of change that is creating new opportunities, risks, innovations, and disruptions within and beyond the confines of their campuses. A board's ability to be both reactive to these changes and proactive in response will require that they not only have the right…

The president has just announced her plans to leave the college within the next year. What is the board going to do? At Wilmington College in Delaware, the board relaxed and continued with its business without missing a beat. That's because a succession plan had been in place for several years, and it was just a matter of deciding the details of…

American higher education has never been more in need of good governance than it is right now. Yet much of the structure many boards have inherited or created tends to stall or impede timely, well-informed, and broadly supported decision making. At many institutions (ours included), layers of governance have been added with each passing year,…

This article suggests that trustees give the same high level of thoughtful consideration to selecting the board chair as they give to filling the presidency. More than the routine filling of a vacancy, the process for naming the board's next chair amounts to the selection of a governance team. The board's most important responsibility is not only…

Sunshine laws are designed to make meetings and records of public entities visible so that a state can help ensure accountability of decision making affecting public resources. The laws often pit the news media's desire for greater public disclosure of information on public college and university governance against institutional leaders' desire to…

This report focuses on the critical relationship between the presidents and governing boards of this nation's higher education institutions. At the outset of the 21st century, colleges and universities face an array of daunting challenges. To name a few: intense global competition, rapid technological advancements, changing demographics,…