Association of Governing Boards

Trusteeship Articles By Topic: Academic And Student Affairs

Judith Eaton
September/October 2009

Accreditation provides a sturdy platform from which board leadership for institutional autonomy and academic freedom can proceed.

Arne Duncan, U.S. Secretary of Education
September/October 2009

For most of the last century, the United States has been recognized as having the best system of higher education in the world. No other nation has a postsecondary system that has been as successful in advancing knowledge and innovation, while also making college accessible to its citizens regardless of their financial circumstances. Yet today, higher education institutions in America face stiff challenges. If the United States is to retain its preeminence in the global economy, America's universities, liberal-arts colleges, and community colleges need to become more accessible, affordable, and successful--and in a hurry.

William Kirwan
September/October 2009

In response to Obama's emphasis on edu­cation in his State of the Union address in February, Molly Corbett Broad, president of the American Council on Education, noted that "no president in modern times has used an address to a joint session of Con­gress to make such a clear case for higher education's role in providing the solutions America needs to compete in the world economy."

William Freund
July/August 2009

Clearly, what we are experiencing now is not one of the ordinary recessions that we have experienced since World War II. What we've seen is a bursting of a bubble in the credit markets and in financial institutions--with the effects spreading globally.

Geanie Morrison and Denise Merrill
July/August 2009

The economic meltdown has hit our college campuses, and higher education is on the chopping block in state budgets, with cuts totaling hundreds of millions of dollars already approved and hundreds of millions in more cuts on the way. As veteran legislators, we have seen this story play out before in previous recessions.

Edwin H. Welch
July/August 2009

The four-year degree has been the staple of American higher education since the founding of Harvard University in 1636.

Adele Phelan
July/August 2009

How to evaluate faculty members in a way that they see as fair has long plagued education in general and higher education in particular.

Graham B. Spanier
May/June 2009

In 1852, James Elkins, the enterprising superintendent of the Boston, Concord and Montreal Railroad, had an innovative marketing idea. He urged the men of Harvard and Yale to test their skills in a rowing regatta, so he could sell train tickets to spectators. The event was a great success, and it wasn't long before other matches were planned, stands were built, tickets were sold, local businesses began to advertise their services, and coaches were hired to improve teams' chances of winning. So began the association of college sports and commerce. Whether the men of Harvard and Yale made a deal with the devil or a mutually beneficial arrangement has been hotly debated ever since.

Richard D. Legon
May/June 2009

Several forces suggest that this is a moment for board leaders and institutional chief executives to review their institutions' commitments to intercollegiate athletics. The recent NCAA basketball championships showcased not only one of the year's most compelling college sports events, but also the appropriate place of college sports at all competitive levels. An NCAA informational campaign, highlighted during the championships, emphasized that most of the more than 400,000 student athletes in our institutions don't pursue careers in professional sports. It was a useful reminder about the purpose of intercollegiate athletics--to produce well-educated men and women whose intercollegiate athletics experiences have helped prepare them for well-rounded and successful lives.

Theodore J. Marchese
May/June 2009

At board meetings, trustees scrutinize their institution's statistical indicators or "dashboard," which often constitutes the administration's brag sheet: "We brought in lots of new students and met our enrollment goals, so the budget looks good."

But there's one indicator--seldom bragged about--that trustees should pay closer attention to: graduation rates.

Brandon Busteed
March/April 2009

The first misconception is that problem drinking starts before college. That's true for some, but the effect of college on drinking is a very real one. According to our surveys, within six weeks of arriving on campus, abstention drops by 45 percent while high-risk or binge drinking goes up 114 percent. On top of this, college students outpace the drinking of their non-college-going peers--so it's not just a youth issue, it really is a college issue. And despite the myths about "healthier" European drinking, most European countries report higher rates of binge drinking among youth than the U.S. The U.S. ranks 19 of 23 countries surveyed on this measure, ahead of only Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Turkey.

Cathrael Kazin and David G. Payne
March/April 2009

"Attend our university, where we're not sure what--or even if--our students are learning. We have dedicated faculty members and great facilities, so we think we're doing a good job, but the truth is that we have no evidence to support that."

Promotional copy like that might draw some double takes, but not many applicants. Yet, allowing for some hyperbole, this is the situation at many well-regarded institutions of higher education.

Stephen M. Jordan
March/April 2009

Shifting demographics, dramatically changing student bodies, and diminishing state funds now are dictating new national priorities for higher education. It's time for governing boards and their institution's administrators to wake up, have a strong cup of reality, and face these challenges head on. Many boards and institutional leaders have received presentations on projected national demographic changes over the past few decades, but given the enrollment and graduation statistics we see today, it is clear that some have not heard the alarm bells--and that much more must be done to meet the needs of the low-income and minority students who will make up a growing part of the college-age population in the near future.

William G. Bowen, Matthew M. Chingos, and Michael S. McPherson
November/December 2009

Our study of 21 flagship public universities and four entire state systems (in Maryland, North Carolina, Ohio, and Virginia), published recently by Princeton University Press under the title above, demonstrates that if this country is to regain its leadership in higher education, it must fix two interwoven problems: (1) the stagnant level of overall educational attainment, as measured by baccalaureate completion rates that hover around 30 percent, and (2) the huge disparities in educational outcomes associated with socioeconomic status (SES) and race and ethnicity.

Susan Whealler Johnston
November/December 2009

At a recent board meeting, a trustee asked, "Why don't we talk about our product? If this were a company that produced orange juice, the board would spend a lot of time talking about the quality of that juice, our consumers' satisfaction with it, and how it could be better. Why don't we do that with our students' education?"