College and university governance works best when every constituency within the institution has a clear understanding of its role with respect to the other constituencies. It works best when communication among the governing board, the administration, and the faculty (not to mention the staff and students) is regular, open, and honest. Too often…

During the 2011-12 academic year, a group of faculty and student researchers at the Cornell Higher Education Research Institute (CHERI) gathered information on which public and private institutions had faculty members on boards of trustees and obtained the names of the faculty members serving in these roles. In April and May 2012, the authors…

Academic Leadership 2.0 means making an administrative partnership with the faculty the cornerstone of an institution's culture. Administrators have to stop thinking of themselves as operating on a different level from the faculty. The fear many administrators have is that if they demonstrate their willingness to advocate for the faculty, the…

An academic plan is a business plan disguised in the regalia donned for significant public ceremonies--black cap and gown, colorful hood, and, of course, gold tassel. Several years ago, the University of Connecticut started to plan for the economic disaster that was at the time so obviously in the future of higher education institutions. A formal…

On September 15, 2009, faculty members from four of the five community colleges in San Antonio delivered an overwhelming vote of no confidence in Chancellor Bruce H. Leslie to the Alamo Community College District's board of trustees. (One college, Northeast Lakeview, didn't participate in the vote because the college is not yet accredited.)…

When the Antioch University board of trustees announced in June 2007 that it was suspending the operations of the historic Antioch College as of June 2008, the college's faculty, staff, students, and alumni mourned. Then, as Mother Jones recommended, they began to organize. Their goal was to reclaim the college and its progressive educational…

Boston University (BU) has had a history of contentious relations between administrators and faculty. John Silber, who ran the university from the early 1970s through the late 1990s, gave faculty little say in university governance, and an "us versus them" atmosphere soon developed. In 2004, however, major changes in the board of…

Nevada has a unitary system of public higher education, with eight institutions serving some 100,000 students in the Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE). Included in the NSHE are two research universities, a world-renowned freestanding research institution, one recently established state college, and four community colleges, including one of…

Seeking to raise money for new academic buildings and programs, Indiana University's board of trustees is exploring outsourcing its "auxiliary-service" units. These units manage printing and food services, the university's bookstores, campus motor pools, and other functions. To prevent job loss and wage cuts among hundreds of long-term…

Recently, some presidents of colleges and universities have run into serious trouble because of conflicts with their faculty. When such conflicts arise, faculty senates frequently precipitate an institutional crisis by voting (or threatening to vote) no confidence in the president. But whether one agrees or disagrees that a particular president…

In this paper, the author describes what might happen if a college got rid of its board of trustees and the faculty became voting partners in running the "corporation." What if there was no board of trustees composed mainly of outsiders? What if the president was chosen by and responsible to the faculty? What, in short, if the faculty owned the…

Examines the relationships between presidents of elite universities and the boards of publicly held firms in the United States. Describes the proportion of such presidents who sit on corporate boards, types of firms which elected presidents to sit on their boards, the personal financial benefits to presidents, and their time commitments. (EV)

For the last several years, Auburn University has been at the center of controversy over its governance practices. In April 2001, soon after the board of trustees abruptly fired popular president William V. Muse, representatives of the University Senate, the Student Government Association, and the Alumni Association jointly filed a complaint with…

A trustee argues that public institutions have more, not less, obligation to support free expression. A growing climate for suppression in the United States is feared. The discussion is in the context of the controversy at Nassau Community College (New York) over college production of a play. (Author/MSE)

Most professors have little idea of who sits on their board of trustees or what they do. Occasionally, some faculty may conduct a seminar for a trustees committee, or may know a board member socially in the local community. But by and large, faculty awareness of trustees and the actions they take is episodic and minimal. Activist boards have…