Trusteeship Articles By Topic: Public Policy

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."

This special issue of Trusteeship focuses on the national agenda  seeking dramatically increased college graduation rates and how that goal will guide boards' engagement in setting institutions' strategic direction and priorities. We are especially pleased that U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan and former Virginia Governor Gerald Baliles, along with a number of other distinguished leaders, have contributed thoughts to Trusteeship about the nation's higher-education priorities.

The federal government will soon require higher-education institutions to post a calculator on their Web sites to help students estimate what they will have to pay for college. That new requirement gives boards an opportunity to ensure their institution's financial-aid policies align with its mission.

Joe Manchin, second-term West Virginia Governor and the new chairman of the National Governors Association, promises a year-long NGA agenda that will focus on postsecondary education, specifically college completion and productivity.

A recent portrait of undocumented immigrants by the Pew Hispanic Center reveals that most children of undocumented residents living in the U.S. are actually citizens. According to "A Portrait of Unauthorized Immigrants in the United States," 73 percent of children in undocumented or mixed-status families (with a parent or sibling undocumented) were born in the U.S. That adds up to approximately four million young people, contrasted with a million and a half undocumented youths.

In today's political and econonic environment, universities are being forced to grapple with significant contemporary challenges, including uneven public support, surging enrollments, cost containment, and increased demands to serve as engines of economic growth. Against this difficult and fast-changing backdrop, boards, presidents, and chancellors can occasionally overlook governance policies and legislative statutes and mandates adopted in previous years. Such oversights can prove to be embarrassing, even damaging, to the institution.