Board Responsibility for Equitable Student Success
Board Roles and Responsibilities
Safeguarding both the autonomy of the institution and the related tradition of academic freedom
- Boards will stay at the level of governance and will not go “into the weeds” of management.
- Principles of tenure and academic freedom will remain key principles of the academy.
- It is important to recognize the history and context of institutions; some have been complicit in race and sex discrimination and antithetical to institutional change.
- Boards and their administrative teams must spend time understanding the conflict points between academic freedom and free speech on the one hand and equity and inclusion on the other.
- Some institutions have been the perpetual victims of racism, including historic underfunding of public HBCUs, Tribal Colleges, and other Minority-Serving Institutions.
Action Items
- Determine whether the institution keeps data on rate of tenure and promotion disaggregated by race and ethnicity and gender.
- If no such data are kept, inquire how this information can be kept.
- Enter a dialogue with administration on determining and eliminating barriers to increasing faculty, staff, and leadership diversity.
- Review policies and practices to ensure they support and protect academic freedom for students and faculty.
- Educate the board on academic freedom principles and constitutional protections of free speech.
Metrics and Assessment Tactics
- Institutional data
- Climate survey
- Faculty survey
- Audit
Questions to Pose
- How does the board address external threats to its authority (e.g., how we teach American history)? What have been the threats to academic freedom on our campus?
- How can the board protect academic freedom, particularly of those that research and advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion issues?
- How can the board protect its students, faculty, and staff of color; build inclusive and supportive environments; and uphold the principles of academic freedom and free speech?
- For some institutions (e.g., HBCUs), protection of faculty from reprisal for speaking truth to power externally is important.
Next Responsibility:
Previous Responsibility:
←Ensuring the quality of education provided by the institution
What does success look like?
An Institutional Example:
The university supports a consortium of over 90 institutions, Universities Studying Slavery.
An Institutional Example:
The University of Cincinnati shared its history and board initiative to change the name of one of the colleges from that of its founding donor, a slaveholder.
