Colleges need a strong and engaged board, a president with appropriate authority, a dedicated college staff, and a faculty that participates actively in academic and educational governance. If one element of the equation is badly out of kilter, the entire institution suffers. Equilibrium is usually lost when one group tries to do the work of another. That said, the governing board has full legal authority and ownership of the enterprise. Berry's 18-member board includes five Berry graduates, three women, and a minority member.
Most trustees live in Georgia, but others hail from five states altogether.
Board members are civic and business leaders, and almost all of them are at the top of organizational charts at major companies and corporations. A list of board members over the years is a virtual Who's Who in Georgia and beyond. For my first two years on the job, the board chair to whom I reported was H. G. Pattillo, whose firm has been for half a century one of the most successful commercial construction companies in the region. Pat Pattillo was on the search committee that brought me to Berry and was at every step thereafter a confidant, guide, tutor, colleague, boss, and friend. Because of his modesty, I waited until after his retirement to write about him.