While there are currently no formal mechanisms for the evaluation of the Board, an informal measure of effectiveness may be the observation that more items of business are being addressed and resolved at each meeting. The vice presidents and key staff persons serve as resource personnel for these standing committees. The Board is required by its bylaws to meet at least three times per year and its meetings are open to the public, except when it meets in executive session. Before each regularly scheduled meeting, the President prepares and mails a report to the Board, describing the accomplishments and challenges of the University since the last meeting. Members of the Board are kept apprised of higher education issues and informed on matters of trustee responsibility in several ways.
New trustees participate in an orientation workshop.
University publications and clippings of relevant higher education articles are routinely sent to trustees. Furthermore, the President confers with the new faculty and student trustees before their first meeting to orient them to their new responsibility. It is expected that the faculty and student trustees will make formal reports to their constituents. A number of the significant changes at the administrative level are a consequence of the vision of the President who assumed office in October 1990 and was inaugurated in March 1991. Together, the President and vice presidents form the Cabinet, initiated in 1991.