Accountability Remains a Priority

It’s all about accountability. That’s what we told our daughter when she was growing up, and what she’s trying to teach her daughter now. If it hasn’t quite permeated the halls of Congress yet, as evidenced by the 11th-hour nature of this summer’s debt ceiling negotiations, that’s just further testament to the ongoing debate about citizen expectations of the role of government in the life of our nation.

Something similar is happening in higher education. The public is increasingly holding college and university boards accountable for their institutions and their effectiveness in arenas such as access, affordability, and educational outcomes. As well they should. Boards bear not only fiduciary responsibility for the institutions they serve, but a responsibility to ensure that their institutions serve the public.

To that end, legislators have raised questions about the oversight of law schools, as well as governance performance and compliance. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is seeking to redefine “municipal advisor” to apply to college and university board members. And the IRS has yet to release a final report based on its 2008 Compliance Survey (which AGB and NACUBO, the National Association of College and University Business Officers independently analyzed last year). As more information becomes available on these pressing issues, we will keep you informed.

While calls for accountability on the part of our institutions and their leaders are to be expected, AGB has been calling for the federal government to encroach less on institutional autonomy and to engage more in issues such as supporting student financial aid so that more young people can not just start their studies but actually finish them (and without a crushing debt load, either). It’s this investment in the future that we talk about in the report “Front and Center: Critical Choices for Higher Education,” which we recently published along with UVA’s Miller Center.

As we head into a presidential election year, and with campaigning already begun, let’s remember that accountability only works if it goes both ways. Both our public officials, and our boards, need to get governance right.