The Chronicle: 2/17/2006: When Trustees Blunder: "s inept governance contagious? Has the germ that infected corporate America contaminated colleges and universities, too? For every Enron, Tyco, and WorldCom, we seem to have an academic equivalent.
But there is both less and more to the story.
There's less because novelty is always newsworthy. 'Board bites college' articles are still the exception, not the rule. The most egregious errors make the news, and the news frequently makes trustees look foolish. In reality nearly all board members work diligently and contribute constructively, especially at independent colleges, where partisan politics rarely affects the appointment or motivation of trustees. Those efforts, however invisible to people on the campus or to the public, are hardly insignificant. No one can make a credible case that academe has an epidemic of outright ineptitude in the boardroom.
Nor should we conflate unpardonable behavior and unlawful behavior. The conduct of some college governing boards lately has been troublesome, even disgraceful, but not criminal. Indefensible decisions and irresponsible actions are one thing; indictments and convictions are quite another."
No comments:
Post a Comment