[Alumni-chat] Trustees

[Sistersara at aol.com]

In a message dated 1/11/2008 6:58:22 A.M. Central Standard Time,  
aadole at roadrunner.com writes:

Under b,  what should be considered in creating a BOT for the revived Anioch?
How  might it operate in relation to its stakeholders  (especially
students,faculty, administration, and staff) to the purpose of  the college,
to fiscal matters? How important is the affluence and  generosity of its
members, not to forget their power and their experience  in higher education?



Art -- great topic for discussion, and yes, time to take it up  seriously.
 
I think you have to make an outline of all necessary structures and  
functions before you can fine tune what you expect of any one part of it.  
 
In terms of law, most States (and I would assume Ohio) are interested in  the 
incorporation process for what will be a non-profit entities that hold  
property in trust dedicated to a particular educational purpose.  They will  want 
to see by-laws that conform to the rules for non-profits and that clarify  the 
board's fiduciary responsibility.  They will want to see by-laws that  
recognize the importance of the Board of Trustees as a degree granting entity,  
recognition of the function of the Ohio Education Regents, of North-Central and  
the like, and probably if the college is to participate in Government Loan and  
Grant Programs -- conformity with these norms.  In other words, a BoT is  the 
legal face of the college, and intent and resources to conform with all such  
legal requirements has to be in place.  Simply said, one of the first  things 
that needs to happen is to collect a good sample of by-laws, get a lawyer  to 
review them, and then craft appropriate ones after full discussion of the  
implications.  
 
The normal things a BoT does are to select and appoint the top  
administrative level -- President, perhaps a VP who serves as Dean of Faculty, A  VP who 
serves a Dean of Students and Student Services, a Chief Financial Officer  who 
may also serve as, or supervise a Development Officer.  While the  President 
probably should appoint his/her own cabinet, all of these functions  should mate 
up with BoT committees, and the relationship should be both  oversight and 
assistance in the quality functioning of the administrators.  
 
One way or another all the necessary functions need to properly fit into  
these Administrative Officers portfolios.  For instance, a VP Dean of  Students 
and Student Services would employ an Admissions Officer who would be  
responsible for developing a recruitment strategy, and executing it.   Likewise, campus 
housing would be a student service, so would dining halls, so  would 
classroom buildings, so would library, so would technology for all student  matters.  
One thing that really concerns me is the need to give the Faculty  ownership 
of curriculum, thus the position of VP and Dean of Faculty is in my  mind a 
very critical position.  This person would work between the BoT,  which would 
have oversight, and (hopefully) very active Faculty committees  building out a 
full Liberal Arts Curriculum.  
 
This by no means covers everything -- but hopefully I have made my point  
that we need to start with a full outline of functions and responsibilities, and  
only then can we get serious about the specifics as to the kinds of people 
that  need to be recruited for the BoT.  We want find people who can both  raise 
money and nurture these functions through BoT committee work.  Then  the BoT 
needs to be able to recruit and support the major administrative  officers.  
Obviously the BoT needs the ability to fire for cause if an  administrative 
officer is dysfunctional or just not doing a competent job.   Obviously the BoT 
needs legal advice for writing contracts and job  descriptions for all of these 
officers -- administrators should not necessarily  have tenure, but since 
above all the College is going to  need administrative personnel willing to make 
a multi-year commitment,  (Staff churning has clearly not been healthy for the 
college) this needs to be a  consideration in initial hiring.  You would 
want, in my mind, a President  willing to commit to let's say a seven year 
contract, with performance reviews  at set times, and a decision about extension of a 
contract after perhaps five  years.  If a new President is to be appointed, 
this leaves adequate time  for a proper search and transition.  
 
Given the interest in Student Participation in all this -- I think much  
attention should be given to whether to restructure AdCil as perhaps the primary  
way in which Students are included in committee work.  AdCil will need a  new 
charter, I suspect, that will clarify just exactly how this would work, and  
how it would fit in with the Administrative Officers responsible to the  BoT.  
I always thought that giving AdCil the responsibility to review  
recommendations going to the BoT provided a good means for including both  student, staff 
and faculty concerns as these recommendations are finalized  and pushed up for 
decision.  Done properly, it could make decisions very  transparent -- and 
hopefully end the culture of secrecy that has so damaged  trust among various 
parts of the college.  My notion of somehow  incorporating BoT members in the 
AdCil review process might be a way to enhance  communication.  Say the BoT has a 
sub-committee that deals with Admissions  Strategies, and AdCil similarly has 
a committee dealing with this -- having a  BoT member sit in on some of the 
committee work just might avoid some of the  terrible divides and 
non-communication of past years.  Anyhow, someone  needs to draft a comprehensive outline 
of all this, set tasks, try to put the  ideas into budget terms, and then look 
at how each of the parts connect into the  whole structure.  
 
Some years back the College hired a consultant to look at Antioch's  
governance, and the report apparently concluded we had one of the most complex  
governance systems in existence and that this contributed to our (comparatively)  
huge budget for administration, and made clean decisions nearly  impossible.  
Someone needs to go to the archives and find that report and  look at the 
recommendations, and see if this isn't an opportunity to streamline  and simplify 
things without any loss to the value of community engagement.   Put simply, for 
the foreseeable future, I doubt if the College can afford a huge  and 
expensive administrative apparatus, and I rather doubt if donors  will be all that 
interested in supporting it.  I suspect they will be more  interested in Teaching 
Faculty, Academic Programs and the necessary repair  and rebuilding of 
infrastructure -- all of which are critical to whether we can  grow the student body 
to the point that makes the college sustainable long  term.    



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