Towards Voluntaryism (Part 10)
2.6. Education: Reforming the Board of Trustees
Towards Voluntaryism (Part 10)
What is a Board of Trustees?
A board of trustees (or board of regents) is typically vested with the powers necessary to oversee and enact the strategic direction of a university, including educational policy, financial operation, mission and overall institutional health. A board of trustees is generally divided into various committees vested with authority in certain specific areas of university administration; some decisions can be decided in committee, others must be voted on by the board as a whole. Many boards also include student representatives in an advisory capacity.
Typical committees of a board of trustees include:
Executive committee: Management and operation of the university. Oversight of president and other officers and employees.
Academic Affairs / Program Development / Graduate Education: Formulate academic mission, develop and modify academic programs, faculty development, strategic academic planning.
Audit, Risk and Compliance: Statutory and fiduciary obligations. Internal financial control and external reporting. Auditing, regulatory compliance, conflicts of interest, risk management.
Business and Finance / Budgeting: Financial stability and health. Budgeting, financing, financial reporting, managing financial reserves.
Facilities and Environment / Infrastructure: Expansion, construction, maintenance of grounds. Acquisition and disposition of property. Buildings, grounds, roads, walkways, parking, utilities, environmental sustainability etc.
Human Resources: Hiring and firing policies and practices. Upholding employment, labor and workplace laws. Internal dispute management.
Institutional Advancement / Public Affairs: Public and government relations. Alumni affairs. Philanthropy, fundraising and community affairs.
Undergraduate Education: Academic, social, ethical and personal development of undergraduates. Undergraduate curriculum, residence life, student governance.
Extra- or Co-curricular Activities: Non-educational athletics programs, clubs, societies, teams etc.
Universities with law schools, medical schools or other specialized departments also frequently have committees dedicated to their needs.
Who Sits on a Board of Trustees?
Boards of trustees are largely populated by "wealthy alumni and political appointees" and the "governing panels of private universities are elected by alumni or are self-perpetuating; those of public institutions are typically appointed by governors and legislatures" source. The political route frequently elects one trustee or regent from each county, congressional district or other constituency/representational unit in a state via ballot with a handful drawn from the state at large.
The power of a Board of Trustees can hardly be overstated. Recently, Chris Hedges (a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist) adequately distilled the total corruption and failure of the academic environment in just a few sentences, with an eye to the institutional capture of the governing boards by corporate and political interests:
"The corporate state has made it very hard to make a living if you hold fast to this radical critique (i.e. the system is the problem, not the marionette politicians -CZ). You will never get tenure. You probably won’t get academic appointments. You won’t win prizes. You won’t get grants. The New York Times, if they review your book, will turn it over to a dutiful mandarin like George Packer to trash it—as he did with my last book. The elite schools, and I have taught as a visiting professor at a few of them, such as Princeton and Columbia, replicate the structure and goals of corporations. If you want to even get through a doctoral committee, much less a tenure committee, you must play it really, really safe. You must not challenge the corporate-friendly stance that permeates the institution and is imposed through corporate donations and the dictates of wealthy alumni. Half of the members of most of these trustee boards should be in prison!
Speculation in the 17th century in Britain was a crime. Speculators were hanged. And today they run the economy and the country. They have used the capturing of wealth to destroy the intellectual, cultural and artistic life in the country and snuff out our democracy. There is a word for these people: traitors." source
Candidates for politically appointed trustees are typically curated or nominated to the legislature by a Trustee/Regent Candidate Advisory Board or a group of some similar denotation and function. Generally speaking, ca. two-four candidates are nominated for each position on a board of trustees. The period in office for each regent varies, with 4-6 years being a common duration. Generally speaking, terms are staggered, with new (or returning) trustees being elected to office every other year, meaning that ca. 1/2 to 1/3 of trustees are replaced or begin a new term in office after every election. As can be surmised, a seat on the Trustee Candidate Advisory Board can exert considerable influence on the ideological makeup of a board of trustees and the governance of a state university.
Further, universities typically have a 'University Senate', comprised often of the university vice president, the deans, chief operating officers and a number of elected faculty and student representatives. The senate generally advises the board of trustees and its committees in regards to university ordinances and regulations. Most importantly, the senate supervises faculty and makes recommendations to the board of trustees about academic appointments (hiring, firing). As with the board of trustees, the senate is also comprised of various committees roughly in keeping with those of the board of trustees that lie within their purview.
Reforming the Board of Trustees
The most influential role one can have in restructuring a board of trustees is to achieve a position on the relevant Trustee Candidate Advisory Board. Frequently the composition of the board is determined through state legislature, one example can be found in the Minnesota Statute 137.0245, subdivision 2:
Membership: The Regent Candidate Advisory Council shall consist of 24 members. Twelve members shall be appointed by the Subcommittee on Committees of the Committee on Rules and Administration of the senate. Twelve members shall be appointed by the speaker of the house. Each appointing authority must appoint one member who is a student enrolled in a degree program at the University of Minnesota at the time of appointment. No more than one-third of the members appointed by each appointing authority may be current or former legislators. No more than two-thirds of the members appointed by each appointing authority may belong to the same political party; however, political activity or affiliation is not required for the appointment of any member. Geographical representation must be taken into consideration when making appointments.
The process varies widely from state to state and varies again if it is a private or public university and may even vary within states from university to university. Frequently some portion of public state university trustees are appointed by the state governor with a selection of elected faculty and/or student representatives. Further, there is often an alumni or students' association representative.
As can be gleaned from the above, this means that public university governance is largely tied to the political and corporate environment of the respective state. Given that some trustees are appointed by the state governor, it is likely they can be dismissed or pressured to resign for failing to fulfill their task, oath of office, uphold universities rules or regulations or adequately pursue the university mission. Here a careful reading of the university charter, constitution, rules and regulations as well as state and federal law etc. can be extremely helpful in restructuring university boards of trustees.
The feasibility of this line of approach will vary based on each university's charter, constitution and rules, but it is the best way to change the course of universities today aside from declaring them unfit for purpose and shuttering them entirely.
It is worth noting that as a taxpayer and constituent of a state government, one does not need to be enrolled in a university or be an alumni, faculty or staff member thereof in order to exercise influence on the institution. State universities are run with state and federal taxpayer moneys and thus subject to the court of public opinion, an opinion that is not heard nearly enough. If the local population allows the universities to be overrun by radical ideologues inimical to their way of life, it is because the local population is unaware of its power to hinder such outcomes (I tend to believe a majority of the population is moderate centrist). If you live in a "conservative" state and the state university campus is a hotbed of radical leftist ideologies, you have the ability to intervene, no matter who you are. On which side of the fence is your local community?
To affect change, one must organize and understand the laws, rules and regulations of the local university. Engage with the system and actively promote candidates to occupy positions of authority that can affect change (think Ron Paul's 2012 campaign and how it successfully occupied much of the Republican party's functionary positions). Go guerilla in the information war and reveal the crimes and anti-reason bias of the radical leftists occupying campus.
Once sufficient leverage is gained in the university heirarchy/board of trustees, cut the funding and drop the axe. In the following sections, I will provide suggestions as to how to do just this.
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Next: Towards Voluntaryism (Part 11) - 2.7. Education: What Can I Do as a Member of the General Public? (1)
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