Association of Governing Boards

Trusteeship Articles By Topic: Ethics And Accountability

What's the Status of the American College and University Presidents' Climate Commitment?
Julian Dautremont-Smith
November/December 2008

The first round of greenhouse-gas reports has come in, and we just beginning to analyze the data. Out of 391 Charter Signatories, we've received reports from 190 colleges. Another 99 were granted extensions of up to four months to submit their baseline data. We are working with remaining charter signers to help them complete their inventories and submit their reports.

Valuable College Artworks: To Sell or Not to Sell?
Ford W. Bell
November/December 2008

Museums--whether on a college campus, on Fifth Avenue, or on Main Street--should not sell pieces from their collections to fix the boiler. That is not a statute, but it is a clear standard in the Code of Ethics established by the American Association of Museums. The language in the AAM Code is succinct and to the point:

"Proceeds from the sale of nonliving collections are to be used consistent with the established standards of the museum's discipline, but in no event shall they be used for anything other than acquisition or direct care of collections."

Valuable College Artworks: To Sell or Not to Sell?
Peter C. Erichsen
November/December 2008

Ever since the New York Times caught Thomas Hoving, then director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, at it in 1973, "deaccessioning" has had a bad odor in the museum world. Even the term, which the Hoving episode made famous, is the kind of word Orwell made infamous, designed as it is to obscure its true meaning.