Given the relatively few positions on the governing boards of public colleges and universities, every trusteeship is important. Along with the respect appropriately afforded trustees and regents comes special obligations, responsibilities, and high expectations from many sources. How boards can cope with the expectations and ambiguities inherent…

This article argues that the debate over the public's right to know versus a public college or university's need to make some decisions in private often generates more heat than light, and that the most important interactions put at risk by open-meeting acts and sunshine laws involve board dynamics. Some suggestions are made for minimizing this…

Public colleges and universities increasingly raise private funds through institutional foundations. A healthy relationship between governing and foundation boards requires open communication, regular interaction, and shared information. The fulcrum of this relationship is the college's president, who has specific responsibilities toward each…

Critics have condemned the state higher education coordinating board model as excessively bureaucratic, unresponsive to market demands, and indifferent to legitimate campus aspirations. Systems that prevail are those that collaborate in setting a statewide agenda; earn political support; present clear, meaningful missions; manage and resolve…