National Conference on Trusteeship: Imagining the Future While Addressing the Present

Higher education governing boards are stewards of both legacy and possibility.

Board members are fiduciaries who must protect the legacies of their institutions by safeguarding institutional assets, ensuring financial sustainability, and upholding mission integrity. Yet the urgency of now presses in: The terrain of higher education is shifting rapidly—demographic cliffs, technological disruption, public skepticism about the value of a degree, and political and regulatory pressures are present realities.

At the same time, the work of governance is inherently long-term and full of possibilities. A decision about academic investment, capital infrastructure, endowment strategy, or presidential leadership will echo not just through the next fiscal year, but across decades. Boards must ask: What will learning look like in 2045? Who will our students be? What will they need and what will they demand? Planning for that horizon requires imagination, disciplined foresight, and the patience to invest in outcomes that might not mature within a trustee’s own term of service.

This tension—between legacy and possibility—is not a flaw in governance. It is its defining challenge. When enrollment targets are missed, budgets tighten, or when potential students, their parents, and the public question the value of a degree, boards must respond decisively. But reactive governance can crowd out strategic thinking. Conversely, visionary long-range planning that ignores today’s fiscal realities risks becoming aspirational rather than actionable. Effective governing boards must operate in both timeframes at once.

The AGB National Conference on Trusteeship on March 28–30 in Denver will embrace this tension, providing higher education leaders with the knowledge, resources, and practical tools they need to be successful stewards of their institution’s mission and vision. This year’s theme, Innovation in Action, is a call to higher education leaders to think creatively as they manage the present and simultaneously lay the foundation for the future. It also provides trustees, presidents, chief executives, and board professionals a unique opportunity to network with other higher education leaders who are facing similar challenges and to learn how other institutions are responding.

Imagining the Possibilities…

Award-winning higher education futurist Bryan Alexander will open the conference. In his new book, Peak Higher Ed, Alexander explores the future of higher education after the enrollment peak of 2011 and how higher education might respond to demographic changes and rapid technological and economic advancements of the 21st century. Alexander’s predictions are evidence-based, credible, and provocative. In his previous book written before COVID-19, Academia Next: The Future of Higher Education, Alexander imagined, among other things, how institutions should respond to a global pandemic.

The next day, conference participants will have the opportunity to hear from higher education leaders at the forefront of transformation during “Fostering Innovation Across the Institution.” Higher Learning Commission President Barbara Gellman-Danley will moderate a discussion which will explore the ways in which institutions are incentivizing innovation in the boardroom and across the institution. Panelists Bridget Burns, chief executive officer of University Innovation Alliance; Joe Sallustio, chief of industry engagement and senior vice president at Ellucian plus the co-founder and host of the EdUp Experience podcast; and David Wilson, president of Morgan State University and an AGB board member, will discuss how higher education must evolve to meet the demands of a rapidly evolving knowledge economy and the growing skills gap.

Innovation does not occur in isolation, however. Two experienced board chairs, Anthony Barbar, chair emeritus of Florida Atlantic University and an AGB senior consultant, and Cynthia Shapira, founding chair of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education Board of Governors, executive vice-chair of the Brandeis University Board of Trustees, and a former AGB board member, are joined by two sitting presidents, Brian Hemphill of Old Dominion University and Mark Putnam of Central College, in the plenary session “Hanging Together: Building Strategic Partnerships for Institutional Vitality.” The panel will address the importance of forging partnerships with other institutions, industry, community leaders, and legislative bodies to spur transformational change and raise awareness of the positive impact of higher education for students, regional economies, and our nation.

…and Addressing the Urgency of Now

The AGB Govern NOW initiative calls for governing boards to lead with courage and clarity. It recognizes that the model of independent, mission-driven institutional governance that has protected the diversity of thought, academic freedom, and innovation in higher education is under threat. Two plenaries address the urgency of now, “Govern NOW: The Mission-Critical Importance of Board Independence” and “United We Stand: Courageous Leadership, Collective Action, and the Future of Higher Education.”

Robert Hur, a member of the Maryland Board of Regents and a partner at King and Spaulding, and Jill Derby, an AGB senior fellow and past chair of the American University of Iraq Sulaimani Board of Trustees and the Nevada Board of Regents, will speak to the importance of board independence. Hur is the lead attorney in Harvard’s lawsuit challenging the government’s attempt to restrict Harvard’s access to nearly $8.7 billion in federal research funding unless it took a series of actions dictated by the government.

Hur and Derby will explore the legal principles undergirding the lawsuit, including the constitutional rights of higher education institutions to be free from government coercion in retaliation for speech. The U.S. Supreme Court has long recognized that “a university ceases to be true to its own nature if it becomes the tool of Church or State or any sectional interest.” (Sweezy v. New Hampshire, 354 US 234, 262). Now, more than ever, it is critical that governing boards recognize and protect board independence.

The conference ends with a call for unity and brings together leaders building coalitions to sustain and promote American higher education. The final plenary, moderated by AGB President and CEO Ross Mugler, calls on board and institutional leaders to speak with one voice about the vital role that colleges and universities play in advancing American democracy, economic prosperity, and transformative opportunities for students. Landon Mascareñaz, chair of the State Board for Community Colleges and Occupational Education of the Colorado Community College System and convener/chair of the Colorado Trustee Network; Michael H. Gavin, president and CEO of the Alliance for Higher Education and former president of Delta College; and Heidi Tseu, assistant vice president for national engagement at the American Council on Education, will discuss higher education’s vital role in a free and prosperous society.

Creating Community

In between these compelling plenaries, conference participants will be able to choose among breakout sessions that address issues of legacy, possibility, and everything in between: from the introduction and use of AI to the creation of short-term credentials; from the upheaval in college athletics to responses to business model stressors. Most importantly, the conference provides an opportunity for campus, foundation, and board leaders to learn that they are not alone in grappling with the challenges and opportunities inherent in today’s higher education environment and the issues that will shape the future of their institutions for decades to come.

Jackie Gardina is AGB’s senior director of institution and system programs.