Board Responsibility for Equitable Student Success
Board Roles and Responsibilities
Selecting, supporting, and assessing the chief executive of the institution/system
- Arguably the most influential role that boards have is to select, support, and evaluate the institutional chief executive and/or system head.
- Boards can use this influence to elevate equitable student success as a leadership requisite.
Action Items
- Incorporate criteria for equitable student success into the recruitment, selection, and evaluation factors for the chief executive.
- If your institution says equitable student success is a priority, evidence of the success must be placed prominently in the recruitment and vetting process.
- The actions and progress of the chief executive should be monitored with the lens of equitable student success, and compensation decisions should reflect achievement of related goals.
Metrics and Assessment Tactics
- Require a history of improved student success.
- Ask questions centered on equitable student success during the candidate’s interview.
- Request an equitable student success statement.
- Ask the candidate to show evidence of equitable student success in past work.
Questions to Pose
- What are the ways you have worked to support equitable student success at your current or past institution?
- What are the ways in which different students require different resources for student success?
- How are those different resources provided?
- What goals and evidence of achievements regarding equitable student success does the board use in assessing the chief executive?
- Are incentives leading to greater equity and student success? If not, why not?
- Boards should ask questions based on their understanding of current positioning: Do we need a transformational or transactional leader?
Next Responsibility:
Co-creating, approving, and monitoring the progress of the strategic plan→
Previous Responsibility:
←Establishing, disseminating, and keeping current the mission of the institution
What does success look like?
An Institutional Example:
An Institutional Example:
The Arizona Board of Regents set CEO compensation to be dependent on achieving equity goals (at-risk compensation).
Sources:
ABOR meeting highlights: Board approves presidents’ contracts, at-risk goals; ASU and UArizona head baseball coaches’ contracts; Regents Medal for exceptional service
Proposed At-Risk Compensation Goals (President Crow)
Proposed At-Risk Compensation Goals (President Cruz Rivera)
