This issue of Trusteeship examines the new Form 990; Jackie Jenkins-Scott explains how an innovative, results-oriented strategic planning process created a inspirational shared vision at Weelock College. Terry MacTaggart shares the critical factor when turning around a distressed institution. Celia Roady gives the right formula for compliance with IRS regulations on executive compensation.
The IRS intends to ask for much more detailed information about your institution's finances and governance practices. Here's what's coming down the pike.
Calls from Congress for a minimum 5 percent spending rate by college and university endowments ignore the core principle of intergenerational equity.
Congress, the news media, and the IRS continue to cast a wary eye on the compensation of nonprofit leaders. Hence, any college or university board that falls short of IRS expectations in its procedures for setting the president’s compensation is putting the president, other senior officials, and board members at unnecessary risk.
Wheelock College has used an innovative, results-oriented strategic planning process to create a shared vision and a plan that is inspirational, actionable, and measurable.
In turning around a distressed institution, the critical factor is the quality of trustee and presidential leadership.
Orientation programs for new trustees are different in independent and
public institutions, but they do share essential common elements. In
both sectors, such programs must provide core information about the
institution’s history and traditions, current status and aspirations,
and challenges and opportunities.
With the election year upon us, political activities on our campuses
have started to pick up, some of which may place institutions at risk
of running afoul of federal and state lobbying, tax, and ethics laws.
But with modest educational efforts and coordination within the
administration, political activities can be managed in a minimally
intrusive way.
Ready or not, like it or not, the United States is locked in a global
race for talent and is starting to lose ground. Investing in higher
education must be part of the strategy for staying in this race, but we
must make smart investments. This means helping governing boards move
beyond asking about how much to spend on colleges and universities and
engage the more pressing question of how best to spend our higher
education dollars to increase educational attainment.
In most industries, competition forces businesses to innovate, control
costs, and enhance productivity. Firms that are complacent are likely
to be left behind, or worse, by their competitors in a process that
early 20th-century Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter brilliantly
described as “creative destructionism.”
Our trustees had lots of questions last fall when they read their
copies of the U.S. News & World Report rankings and USA Today’s
listing of the National Survey of Student Engagement. But instead of
focusing on our place on the lists, we advanced our discussion to
consider some promising and meaningful alternatives.
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