I am not sure, however, that we public university trustees earn high enough grades for either our policymaking or our advocacy. Too often we do not fully appreciate our statutory responsibilities, are insufficiently knowledgeable about our campuses and higher education issues, and spend our time on peripheral items that fail to address issues central to academic quality, fiscal effectiveness and the public interest. Often we are only marginally involved in developing budgets and the priorities expressed within them. It is not surprising that we are less effective advocates than we should be when state budget issues are decided. In most states, the statutory authority for active trusteeship is unmistakable.
Many trustees are simply unaware of the sweeping nature of their governance responsibilities.
When copies of the pertinent section of the state statutes were distributed at a recent conference for public university trustees in Virginia, many said that they had not realized the scope of their statutory obligations. It was fairly early in my seven-year term as a regent that I began to develop an interest in governance issues. I was told, more than once, that the most important function of a trustee was to ask good questions. Over time, I began to realize that that characterization was profoundly incomplete. State statutes in Wisconsin assign to the board of regents the responsibility for appointing and evaluating system and campus heads.