State policymakers and the public at large have a vested interest in the successful governance of their higher education institutions. The citizens who are appointed or elected to serve as board members of a state's colleges and universities oversee valuable public assets that they hold in trust for the state and for current and future…

From national initiatives that aim to broadly reform education to local efforts to pair children with tutors, corporations are increasingly involved with schools. The idea of business-school relationships is not new. However, the confluence of several powerful currents--corporate advocacy on education policy, cash-strapped public schools,…