The key to establishing an “engaged” board of trustees—one that is involved in the academic sphere—is “to capture the board’s enthusiasm and energy without diminishing their positive engagement or without relinquishing duties that you more properly should do yourself,” said Richard Morrill during a roundtable discussion of “Strategic Leadership in Academic Affairs: Clarifying the Board’s Responsibilities.”
    Morrill also opened the conference with a keynote address on the subject of strategic leadership. The full text of his speech will be included in a pamphlet to be mailed to CIC members in April.
    Morrill led an interactive group of 25 college and university presidents in a broad-ranging discussion during which participants described how members of their board were engaged in the academic affairs of the campus. Board members have helped presidents “clarify for the faculty members their roles in economic downturns,” “confront practical options when retention losses grew too large,” and “handle economic shortfalls that arrived from enrolling too few students or suffering investment setbacks,” participants said. One institution’s trustee assisted the president by prodding faculty members on the board’s academic affairs committee to seek departmental reviews for all units and to upgrade outdated course offerings; another pleaded for curricular review at the school, allowing the president to plead for other enhancements elsewhere.
    However, a poll of those in the room revealed that presidents were concerned that trustees are becoming more engaged in campus academic affairs than they had been in the past, perhaps portending micromanagement. For example, a president said a member of his board had recently questioned the benefits of outside consulting contracts and appeared to be on the verge of screening future consulting contracts that were normally routine management decisions. Corporate veterans on the board at another college, “stung by Enron and the nation’s accounting scandals, were scrutinizing more closely everything at the college that might be seen as a possible conflict of interest,” said another participant.
    Morrill stressed, “You need to move toward a concept of a board that makes significant contributions to your campus’ strategic decisions. To that end, one of your first and most important tasks as president is to teach trustees that there are two distinctly different types of decision-making—administrative and academic—on a campus. The administrative system of decision-making is very comfortable for most trustees. The academic system of decision-making is uncomfortable for many. You must help your trustees see that this system is also a healthy system, and deserves their respect.”
    The engaged board, Morrill says, can contribute critical dimensions in campus academic affairs, such as:

• understanding the culture of academe;
• knowing broad strategic trends in education;
• actively monitoring strategic goals for the academic program;
• evaluating programs and policies, assuring assessments and evaluating against the goals;
• ensuring accountability by holding groups and individuals responsible for reaching the goals; and
• making decisions on policies and programs.

    Morrill noted that too many campuses waste time arguing about whether the faculty or the trustees is the final governing authority on academic matters. The campus leadership should, he believes, work closely together for
everyone’s benefit.
    Morrill said that he had arrived at many of his conclusions about engaging trustees during the development of his book, Strategic Leadership in Academic Affairs. The book was published recently by the Association of Governing Boards, and is available for $34.95 from the AGB, at www.agb.org or (202) 296-8400.

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Last updated: March 2003
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