Higher Ed Governance: Stewardship or Sham?

Campus controversies in the last few years have gained national attention. In 2005, American University president Benjamin Ladner resigned amid accusations that he had misused university funds for personal expenses. In 2006, Dartmouth College alumni voted overwhelmingly against changes to their historically significant role in governance--but the following year, the board of trustees at Dartmouth College voted to increase its size and diminish alumni input, kindling a national dialogue on the role of alumni and trustees in college governance. In 2007, student loan and study abroad scandals raised concerns that higher education administrators were receiving kickbacks for steering students toward particular lenders and programs.

In light of Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings’s Commission on the Future of Higher Education, increasing concern over the state of colleges and universities, and a post-Enron focus on best practices for corporate governing boards, several questions emerge: Would management and governance practices in higher education pass muster in the corporate world? What are the roles of college and university trustees in resolving and preventing these controversies? AEI director of education policy studies Frederick M. Hess and American Council of Trustees and Alumni president Anne D. Neal will host a conference on these and other questions.

About the Author

 

Frederick M.
Hess



  • An educator, political scientist and author, Frederick M. Hess studies a range of K-12 and higher education issues. He is the author of influential books on education including “The Same Thing Over and Over,” “Education Unbound,” “ Common Sense School Reform,” “ Revolution at the Margins” and “Spinning Wheels,” and he pens the Education Week blog, Rick Hess Straight Up. His work has appeared in scholarly and popular outlets such as Teachers College Record, Harvard Education Review, Social Science Quarterly, Urban Affairs Review, American Politics Quarterly, Chronicle of Higher Education, Phi Delta Kappan, Educational Leadership, U.S. News & World Report, National Affairs, The Washington Post, New York Times, The Atlantic and National Review. He has edited widely cited volumes on education philanthropy, stretching the school dollar, the impact of education research and No Child Left Behind.  He serves as executive editor of Education Next, as lead faculty member for the Rice Education Entrepreneurship Program, on the review boards for the Broad Prize in Urban Education and the Broad Prize for Public School Charters as well as on the boards of directors of the National Association of Charter School Authorizers, 4.0 SCHOOLS and the American Board for the Certification of Teaching Excellence. A former high school social studies teacher, he has taught at the University of Virginia, the University of Pennsylvania, Georgetown University, Rice University and Harvard University. He holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in Government from Harvard University as well as an M.Ed. in Teaching and Curriculum.


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  • Email: rhess@aei.org
  • Assistant Info

    Name: Lauren Aronson
    Phone: 202-862-5904
    Email: lauren.aronson@aei.org
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