As the task of running universities becomes increasingly multifaceted, more governing boards are hiring presidents whose career achievements occurred outside of classrooms, labs and think tanks, experts say. Today's presidents must manage multimillion dollar operations while juggling duties as varied as fundraising, legislative relations and…

This publication is part of an Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges (AGB) series devoted to strengthening the role of key standing committees of governing boards. While there is no optimum committee system for institutions of higher education, certain principles, practices, and procedures prevail. The best practices…

Colleges must manage all types of risks on their campuses every day, and none should be of greater concern than those involving students. With students at the core of their mission, higher-education institutions should minimize any risks related to student safety and satisfaction, and governing boards should establish effective policies to support…

The purpose of this study is to determine the perceptions of New York State superintendents and board presidents in high-achieving and low-achieving school districts on the six superintendent leadership responsibilities identified by Waters and Marzano (2006) and their relationship to improving student achievement: (1) creating research-relevant…

This resource guide and the appendices are intended to help boards of trustees design a self-evaluation process that meets specific board needs and cultures. The information should help boards determine the approach they will use, which criteria will provide the best information for the board, who will be asked to evaluate the board, and how the…

In the past three years, Board of Governors' (BOG) staff, working in cooperation with university representatives, have continued to improve the data collection and reporting capabilities for the State University System. Simultaneously, Board staff have worked to lessen the reporting burden on the universities by reducing the number of data…

Today higher education faces the challenge of reconsidering and realigning its public agenda to serve better an era in which educated people, the knowledge they produce, and the innovation and entrepreneurial skills they possess have become the keys to economic prosperity, national security, and social well-being. The imperatives of expanding…

The downturn in the economy of the author's state, North Carolina, so far is less severe than that of much of the rest of the nation, due to their diversified economy, financial discipline, constitutional mandate for a balanced budget, "rainy day" fund, and many years of consistent investment in higher education. In the University of…

Achieving high performance in tough times is the most serious challenge facing presidents and trustees during this recession, when the temptation may be to substitute "getting by" for truly outstanding governance. Defining victory as making it through the fiscal year, with little thought to where the institution should be positioned in…

The fall of 2008 was a bleak time for college and university leaders. While there was little doubt that state funding would be down for the foreseeable future and general agreement that endowments would take a long while to recover, no consensus existed about the potential impact of the financial crisis on college and university development…

The boards of governors (BOG) are legally mandated by the ministry of education under the education act Cap 211 to manage secondary schools in Kenya. Their immediate roles have not been defined in the laws and there are no standards that have been adopted to measure their effectiveness. This study investigates effectiveness of the BOG in…

Intertwined trends of massification, internationalisation and marketisation constitute and drive change in higher education at all levels. Consequences at the institutional level include: increased competition, adoption of corporate management forms, accrual of power to executive management, and greater emphasis on strategy. As Government policy…

Financial stewardship by college governing boards too often stops at balancing the budget. That was the message two finance experts presented last week during the annual meeting of the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges. Furthermore, the yearly budget exercise can give trustees a misperception of their institutions'…

The main purpose of this article is to encourage early childhood administrators to make their programs visible to their board members by providing regular, databased information about services, regardless of the program's size, perceived priority, or complexity. First, the author briefly reviews the key roles and responsibilities of not-for-profit…