The March/April 2011 issue of Trusteeship highlights the topic of change across the institution, the student body, and governance structure. Cover story Higher Education and Health Care at a Crossroads, examines how the recent passage of health-care reform can change the ways institutions provide health care to students and employees as well as the training of future health professionals.
This issue also explores leadership response to change in light of political and economic trends (The Statewide Public Agenda and Higher Education: Making It Work), new perspectives on board-faculty relationships (Academic Oversight: Asking Questions, Building Bridges), and the educational needs and desires of the latest generation of students (Low-Hanging Fruit: How Boards Can Improve Education Now Through Pedagogy, Portability, and Price).
An excerpt from upcoming AGB Press book Leading Change: How Boards and Presidents Build Exceptional Academic Institutions by Terry MacTaggart further illustrates the vital role of trustees in institutional change (Boards as Game Changers)--a Trusteeship exclusive.
Following the passage of health-care reform, how can boards guide their institutions in improving health care for employees and students, while educating the next generation of health professionals? How can they avoid the risks associated with health-care spending?
Many colleges and universities need to change, either to reverse a gentle glide into mediocrity or simply to survive intensifying competition. Trustees must better understand their institution's context and become more engaged in leading change, whatever form that change takes.
Boards don't have to wait for coming reforms to improve pricing and academic structure for students. They can have a significant impact immediately by making recognized learning portable, simplifying pricing, and reducing costs to students.
Recent political and economic trends pose a challenge to developing effective leadership capacity to guide public universities to the achievement of statewide goals. Strong state coordinating boards are essential to shaping a longterm public agenda.
Just the act of board members sitting down with faculty members and administrators to frame the right questions about academic policy at a strategic level can become the first plank of a cross-cultural bridge.
The only effective governance strategy is to have clear, well established, and openly communicated priorities and criteria for making transparent and consistent decisions.
The growing demand for student experiences in the arena of entrepreneurship invites institutions to think through potential legal and policy issues in advance.
Board members, as stewards of the university, have a responsibility to ensure that their graduates become familiar with, and accomplished in, what it takes to be civil.
We need to understand our academic goals and ensure that we are meeting the learning and preparation commitments we make to our students.
In demographic terms, institutionally related foundation boards closely resemble the governing boards of both public and private colleges and universities.
Boards should develop policies and incentives that encourage faculty members to work more effectively with minority students and help identify financial support for such efforts.
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