Equally, board members are selected for expertise in various areas, including, resource
development capacity (e.g., ability to
get/connections to resources, ability to give) and oversight expertise (e.g., risk management, compliance, legal/ investment/audit), among others.7
The size of college boards is set by their charters and bylaws. The number of trustees can range from a few individuals to over 50 members,8 which at the higher end is extremely difficult to manage from operational standpoint. A McKinsey & Company article of 2021 points to an additional fact of why managing boards may be difficult: “many university boards have not revised their governance models in decades.” This leaves them struggling to deliver on their mission amidst changing or challenging environments.
Moreover, the company found “ineffective board composition and structure can prevent a university from achieving its mission, executing its core functions, responding to emerging trends, and could even adversely affect the school’s reputation and competitive position.”9
Having not revised their governance models in decades, it should come as no surprise that – though some progress has been made – college and university boards are “still not representative of the students they serve.”
According to a recent report of the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges (AGB), “people identifying as racial and ethnic minorities accounted for about 30 percent of board seats at public colleges and universities and 17 percent at private schools.” This contrasts with 41 percent of students at
public institutions and 34.8 percent of students at private colleges identify as nonwhite.
Equally, the research found that “women accounted for 37 percent of public university board seats in 2020 and 36 percent of private
college board seats, up from 12 percent in 1969 when AGB started tracking such metrics.” Yet, “the overall percentage of female board members does not reflect the 59.5 percent of college students in the U.S. who identified as women earlier this year.” And, in terms of age, “76.5 percent of public board members and 81.8 percent of independent board members report being over 50 years old.”10 In other words, boards continue to be predominately white, male, and old.
Taking such considerations into account,
colleges and universities should strategically configure boards not to just gain the most in terms of contributions (financial, political, naming rights, etc.) but to better reflect and thereby understand both the market and the value proposition put forward. Equally, if colleges and universities find themselves
fighting entrenched board interests, they
should install term limits to force change.
Beyond those general prescriptions, McKinsey & Company recommended three best practices
for boards to engage when updating their governance models and improving core functions: improve cooperation between the board and the administration, redefine board structure, and set clear board processes and norms.
Understanding what changes need to be made within higher education from an administrative and not theoretical or ideological perspective requires a person understand the difference between the “practice” of education versus the “business” of education.
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