Blog Posts

August 24, 2020 - The importance and roles of board committees have significantly evolved through the years including, most recently, during the current pandemic. An understanding of past and current changes, and a preview of the future, will help boards better utilize their committees …

August 18, 2020 - On August 4, a tremendous explosion rocked the city of Beirut, Lebanon, devastating the city and its people. Given an already extreme economic meltdown along with other damaging effects of the global coronavirus pandemic, the incident has exacerbated the impact …

August 14, 2020 - As we approach the beginning of the academic year, there are many questions institution leaders are grappling with, including, “What is the best approach to handling a senior leader’s departure?” Of course, there are several possibilities, such as promoting an …

August 12, 2020 - Endowment Management for Higher Education was published in June 2017 by AGB.  The lessons learned from the GFC was on our mind when we wrote it.  As we face the current economic and public health challenges due to the COVID-19 …

August 10, 2020 - As the 2019 AGB publication “Best Practice Guidelines for the Continuing Engagement of Former Board Members” suggests, finding creative, meaningful, and substantive ways of retaining invaluable relationships with board members whose terms have concluded present challenges and opportunities. “Moreover, when a …

The compounding effect of the global pandemic on declining enrollments and escalating tuition discounts, long-anticipated demographic changes, and extraordinary societal divisions are transforming higher education. Governing boards and institutional leaders in collaboration with the faculty and other members of campus …

August 03, 2020 - These are extraordinary times in academia. In my role as systems thinker, strategy consultant, board member, and professor, I am often asked by university board members: What are the essential questions we should be addressing during these turbulent times? Here …

July 29, 2020 - On August 14, 2020, colleges and universities are expected to comply with new regulations regarding sexual harassment under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. This new rule, which spans more than 2,000 pages, requires colleges and universities to …

July 27, 2020 - I’ve been talking with a lot of college and university presidents lately about the crises they face and what they are doing to surmount them.  Some of these conversations occurred in researching my books Crisis Leadership for Boards and Presidents …

July 23, 2020 - In a dangerous rip tide a swimmer has only one thought: getting back to shore. In the pandemic rip tide every college and university is struggling. Unless they were already operating almost entirely online—as was the University of Phoenix, for …