State policymakers and the public at large have a vested interest in the successful governance of their higher education institutions. The citizens who are appointed or elected to serve as board members of a state's colleges and universities oversee valuable public assets that they hold in trust for the state and for current and future…

The leadership role of the State must be to assure access for all of its citizens to a quality education. This is an all-encompassing role, and it includes many factors. An important factor is that States must support the low-tuition principle in colleges and universities. The best student aid program ever devised is low-tuition. Closely related…

This paper examines eight key cases over the past two decades that have affected the way foundations raise funds to help state colleges and universities with which they are affiliated, and thereby risk losing their legal status as independent entities. Sections of the paper review three cases in which foundations were ruled public entities; three…

This paper examines system leadership and the role of system heads, using data from interviews of state system leaders (board members and chief executives), as well as campus heads and selected state and association officials. System heads have crucial responsibilities within public higher education. The relationship between board members and…

Relations between the public and private sectors of higher education are discussed. In the first chapter, John W. Gardner provides a historical perspective to the recent conflict in some states between public and private colleges and universities. In addition to discussing the pluralism and diversity that have characterized U.S. colleges and…

The policy-making and administrative roles of trustees and presidents are distinguished. The level of policy at which trustees should operate is dependent on the college's size and complexity and whether it is public or private. Trustee responsibilities of soliciting funds and selecting a president are acts of implementation in pursuit of a…

This paper discusses how to design useful research and scholarship on higher education governance, trusteeship, and the academic presidency, proposing radically altered decision making mechanisms and several research approaches derived from the humanities and social sciences. The paper describes the world into which today's graduates are moving,…

The role of college trustees in institutional planning is considered with emphasis on the development of a long-range plan of the five-year variety. The analysis is also applicable to shorter-range planning and to the formulation of an annual budget. Trustees of private colleges must insist that planning be done, since, unlike the public sector,…

As part-time volunteer members who have few direct operational duties, board members constantly are bombarded with information on matters ranging from strategic plans to operating budgets to tuition rates to parking permits. In the end, it is they who are accountable for all activities that occur in their institutions and systems. The need for…

This paper describes the Glion Declaration II, which resulted from the Glion Colloquium of 2000, an international meeting that focused on governance of universities. The Glion Colloquium is a private initiative that includes renowned scholars and higher education leaders from leading research intensive universities in western Europe and the United…

Some higher education observers suggest that the increasing complexity of academic governance is a way of characterizing the evolution of social expectations. Others say it underscores the adaptability of higher education's organizational structures and practices. As a general account, increasing complexity fits better during times of growth than…

Endowment practices at 23 institutions during 1978-1983 were studied to provide recommendations on endowment fund management for colleges and universities. Although most of the participating colleges were privately supported, two state-supported universities were included. Twelve of the institutions used a systematic approach to improving…

Guidelines for locating and selecting a college president are presented. The complexities of the job are reviewed, including the changing presidential role, shared governance, and equal opportunity requirements. The first step is to establish a framework for search and selection that covers the nature of the search and selection committee (e.g.,…

This paper contains three articles which present the opinions of the authors on public college tuition and state finance. The problem addressed is the large increase in tuition charged by public sector, four-year colleges coupled with the effects of fiscal constraints facing the states. After an introduction by Richard J. Novak, the papers are:…

Recommendations are presented on how to improve trustee selection in public colleges and universities. It is assumed that the health of public institutions depends on the competence of their trustees, that there has been an erosion in the autonomy of public governing boards, and that lack of diversity in board membership limits its perspectives.…