The current higher education landscape poses a multitude of challenges both old and new that require governing boards to understand their fiduciary roles and act with strategic insight. Board retreats represent an often-underutilized opportunity--removed from everyday operational concerns--to focus on an institution's long-term strategic direction…

Background: The value of people with disability being involved in the decision-making and governance of community organisations is increasingly being recognised. This paper reports on research that aims to understand governance models that promote the recruitment, decision-making, and leadership of people with intellectual disability. Method: A…

This study aimed to better understand of the factors that contribute to and hinder parent participation in their child's school Governing Board [GB] using a values-costs perspective. By being a member in GB, parents can actively participate in the decision-making processes of their child's school. A sample of 3,250 parents (87% mothers; 515 GB…

Higher education governing boards are important bodies with far-reaching powers over the institutions they oversee. Yet little is known about individual board members, how the composition of boards varies across institutions, or whether boards are at all representative of their institutional populations. In this paper, I introduce a novel dataset…

Because higher education's governance is easily co-opted by faculty and administrators, because of long-running campaigns of subversion by political radicals, and because academia is especially prone to the natural process of groupthink, it has become an institution that favors dogmatic orthodoxy over truth-seeking. It does not have to stay that…

We explored the relationship between board characteristics and sustainability of higher education institutions in the United Kingdom (UK). We analysed 153 UK universities using data for the year 2019. Our analysis revealed that board size, the number of students on the board, and the number of academic members on the board were found to have…

Effective governance requires high levels of trust and mutual respect among trustees who must commit to serving as stewards of the college's resources. This chapter describes rogue trustees, their tactics, and their negative impact on the governing process and college culture. The chapter includes strategies to mitigate the disruptive and…

The chapters in this volume of "New Directions for Community Colleges" highlight the intended roles of boards of trustees and illustrate areas in which board relations often go awry. This final manuscript brings together the themes of the volume, highlights lessons learned and presents recommendations moving forward. The challenges…

Universities have long served as centers for scientific inquiry, yet they are increasingly burdened by bureaucratic oversight mechanisms that, rather than facilitating research, often obstruct it. One of the most contentious manifestations of this trend is the expansion of research ethics boards (REBs). Originally designed to protect research…

State-level governing boards (SLGBs) play integral roles in the leadership and governance of higher education. Oftentimes, though, their role and influence are understated or ignored in scholarship. In this article, the authors recenter the integral impact of these boards and push for a better understanding of their impact on higher education.…

This chapter provides an overview of the important work of community college trustees and includes best practices as well as the contrasting challenges of rogue trustees and activist boards. Whether a board is made up of trustees who are elected, appointed, or a combination of the two, there are things that colleges should, and could do which…

Governing board professionals, described in The Chronicle of Higher Education as "a pocket of power advising both the board and the administration," (Jesse, 2023, para. 3) are charged with ensuring governing boards meet their fiduciary obligations and operate effectively. Despite the role's growing recognition as a "linchpin…

The business management problem addressed in this study results from the need for succession planning practices in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). This systematic qualitative review examined which succession planning practices improve knowledge management and employee retention within HEIs. Despite the growing number of baby boomer…

In modern firms, conflicts may arise between the chief executive officer and board of directors due to the separation of ownership and operations. Such conflicts may weaken listed companies' performance in the short term or affect their development in the long term. Using data on Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share listed companies from 2013 to 2022,…

The Coordinating Commission for Postsecondary Education provides funding and priority recommendations for Nebraska State College, University of Nebraska, and Nebraska College of Technical Agriculture at Curtis (NCTA) capital construction budget requests, as outlined in Nebraska's Constitution and Statutes. The overarching principle used in this…