This guide, updated in 2019, outlines some of the key questions trustees should ask regarding the academic and financial operations of their institutions. Institutions vary significantly in terms of size, audience, and purpose. But by asking questions and following up, trustees can play a pivotal role in ensuring that the next generation receives a quality education at the lowest possible cost.
There are few positions that offer challenges and rewards comparable to those of a college trustee. As a trustee, you have the legal and fiduciary obligation to ensure the academic and financial health of your institution—while serving the best interests of the state. This brochure, a new edition, will help you do your job.
Trustees face complex choices related to costs and efficiency as they navigate new accountability policies, financial headwinds, and a changing global marketplace for college education. The latest release in a series of trustee guides from ACTA’s Institute for Effective Governance, Bold Leadership, Real Reform 2.0: Improving Efficiency, Cutting Costs, and Expanding Opportunity identifies innovative approaches college […]
Governance for a New Era, a blueprint for higher education governance, is the product of a summit facilitated by ACTA and chaired by Benno Schmidt, past president of Yale University and former board chairman of the City University of New York. Signatories to the statement, a diverse group of 22 distinguished national leaders, include college […]
The American Council of Trustees and Alumni and the Mississippi Center for Public Policy presented their findings earlier this month from a recently completed audit of higher education in Mississippi. The report is broken into four major sections: academic strength, intellectual diversity, cost and effectiveness, and governance. Academic strength Ole Miss and all seven other […]
Trustees have grown significantly more concerned about the future of higher education in the last year, according to new polling released today that points to financial sustainability and the prices students pay as top sources of anxiety. And trustees aren’t just worried about the sector as a whole. A majority are also concerned about the […]
American higher education seems to be in a permanent state of crisis. Almost monthly, a federal court has occasion to reprimand some college or university for improperly chilling speech, even as some students continue to complain that campuses are too friendly to the wrong kind of speakers. Many institutions have cut back on faculty hiring, […]
Launched in 1995, we are the only organization that works with alumni, donors, trustees, and education leaders across the United States to support liberal arts education, uphold high academic standards, safeguard the free exchange of ideas on campus, and ensure that the next generation receives an intellectually rich, high-quality college education at an affordable price.
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