The question of whether the presidential spouse should be compensated is one on which it seems everyone has an opinion. "Trusteeship" magazine asked two such people with differing views to weigh in. (Note that the use of the term "spouse" is also meant to include "partner.") David G. Horner, president of The American…

Many boards will find themselves hiring a new president in the near future, as higher education faces unprecedented turnover in its top leaders. Not only must they manage the transition of a new president into the institution, but they must also manage the transition of the current president out. Best practices for the transition are discussed in…

The time between a president's resignation and the next president's assumption of office--often a 12-to-18 month period--can be crucial for an institution. Between the winding down of an existing presidency and the successful launch of the next, there are all too many opportunities for lost momentum, frayed relationships, key departures, and…

Many colleges and universities need to change, either to reverse a gentle glide into mediocrity or simply to survive intensifying competition. Trustees must better understand their institution's context and become more engaged in leading change, whatever form that change takes. By exerting the right pressures in the right ways at the right times,…

Last August, the U.S. Department of Education disclosed that 149 nonprofit private colleges and universities had failed its "financial-responsibility test" for fiscal year 2008-2009. This article explains what the financial-responsibility test is and how it is used, explores what the implications might be for colleges and universities,…

As boards and presidents are increasingly in the vanguard of change that disturbs the status quo, they may also find themselves the targets of expressions of concern, censure, and no confidence from faculty members who may be averse to a new order of things or to the manner of bringing it about. Since presidents or other chief executives are…

Most board of trustees' evaluations of a president's performance look backward, assuming that the challenges of the future will be pretty much the same as they've always been. But as every alert trustee now realizes, colleges and universities face problems more daunting than the familiar conundrums of the past. As a result, each presidential…

Controversies over higher education governance are in the news these days. The most recent occurred this summer when several members of the board of the University of Virginia asked the president, Teresa A. Sullivan, to resign, only to be forced to reinstate her after protests from students, faculty, donors, alumni, and others. That situation…

The real danger with a successful president and a complacent board is that the board will no longer have the benefit of a "marketplace of ideas" when making critical decisions. Boards that rely on an experienced president as the major source of their information are just as likely as a student's single-source paper to arrive at…

Shared governance is a basic tenet of higher education and is frequently referred to. For shared governance to be successful, board members, administrators, and faculty members must learn to have respect for and confidence in each other, acting inclusively, transparently, and responsibly. Boards need to be active and involved, participating in…

Gettysburg College President Janet Morgan Riggs and Board Chair Robert N. Duelks are both members of the Gettysburg class of 1977, but did not know each other as students. As a member of the college's board of trustees, Duelks chaired the presidential search committee that selected Riggs as Gettysburg's 14th president in 2009. Then, one year after…

Whether hiring a sitting president or one beginning a first presidency, the board of trustees should be keenly interested in ensuring that the new president's first months in office flow as smoothly as possible. Increasing attention has been paid in recent years to the idea of using a transition team to assist the new president. Using a transition…

There is an adage common among deans and provosts: The board is concerned with the care and feeding of the president; the faculty is concerned with the care and feeding of the faculty. The implication--and why it brings a knowing smile to any chief academic officer's face--is that no one seems concerned with the care and feeding of the CAO. Small…

When the executive committee effectively assumes the responsibilities of the full board by acting as the only real and substantive agent of board governance, the governing board becomes dysfunctional; board members not on the executive committee are disenfranchised, and the board and president may never form the governance partnership necessary to…

In the summer of 2008, the author had become president of St. Norbert, a nationally ranked and respected liberal-arts college founded in 1898 by the Norbertine order of Catholic priests. It is the only Norbertine institution of higher learning in the world, and the order's three core values--(1) "communio" or a deeply felt sense of…