This commentary is by Rich Clark, professor of political science at Castleton University and co-editor of “Polling America: an encyclopedia of public opinion,” second edition (2020).
This is an open letter to Vermont legislators: My faculty colleagues and I profoundly disagree with the direction that the current administration of the Vermont State Colleges System is going as they prepare for the launch of Vermont State University on July 1.
While some think that the discord is based on the administration’s Feb. 7 decision about libraries, that announcement was merely the straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back. Many of us who work closely with students at Castleton University, Northern Vermont University, and Vermont Technical College feel that the best interests of our students are not met by the transformation process.
We are also concerned about the massive expansion in administrative personnel. This is why we voted “no confidence” in the top administrators and in all members of the board of trustees, except the student representative.
The faculty are urging the Legislature to act to save public higher education at this precipitous moment. Often, we hear from legislators that they do not want to micromanage or serve as “super-trustees,” preferring to defer to the body with statutory responsibility for governing the state university system (Title 16, Chapter 72, §2172).
In most cases, I believe that is the proper impulse. Vermont is generally served well by legislators who exercise forbearance from interfering with day-to-day policy.
However, what recourse do citizens have when a board is captured by the administrators that it was installed to oversee? Vermont does not have a state commissioner for higher education to whom we could turn like Massachusetts does, so the Legislature and the governor are the last resort.
This raises a broader question about board governance in a democratic system. Boards are not like legislatures. They are insular, largely immune from external pressure. Often, they are not elected by citizens and not accountable to the public like legislators are.
Board members can come to their positions without expertise in the policy area they oversee. This is true of the Vermont State Colleges System Board of Trustees. Consequently, they rely on the chancellor, the senior executive that they are installed to supervise, for all of their information about the organization, including its purpose. (Just imagine how different board meetings would be with faculty and staff in the conversations).
This is not a problem unique to the Vermont State Colleges. Many school boards, library boards, and other nonprofit boards suffer from the same deficit. There are no clear criteria to measure competence to oversee the organization, so the board relies on the top administrators whom they should regulate.
Furthermore, the nature of board governance, which seeks consensus and stifles dissent once a decision is made, leads to groupthink and conformity. Alternative views are not welcome, and the administrators are seldom challenged by inquisitive board members. In fact, skeptics rarely make it into the room, as board appointments usually go to those with connections — to people like those already serving. This leads to a lack of diversity in thought and experience.
When the administration works with the professional employees and keeps board members fully and honestly informed, the system works well enough. But when the professional staff is ignored and the board is uninformed or misinformed, then board governance has limited capacity to right the ship — especially when all of the board’s information comes from administrators seeking the board’s approval of their agenda. In these instances, board governance fails the entity for which it has fiduciary and stewardship responsibility.
What is the remedy? Regarding Vermont State University, the Vermont State Colleges faculty are turning to the democratic alternative — reaching out to the elected leadership of Vermont to intervene. We are not asking the Legislature to be a “super-trustee.” We are asking the Legislature to explore the degree to which this public good — the state college system — has proper stewardship in this critical time, and to ensure that taxpayer dollars are being used effectively for this purpose.
To some extent, the Legislature is already involved by requiring that all campuses remain open and the system address its $25 million structural deficit by cutting $5 million each of the next five years.
I hope that the Legislature weighs in again to examine the effectiveness of board governance of the Vermont State Colleges System and to reconsider legislation that would add to the board staff and faculty representation so the board is not solely reliant on the administration for information.
Watch a Vermont State Colleges System board meeting. Ask yourself if the questions and decisions would be different if those working most closely with students had a seat at the table. If so, the conversations regarding the libraries would have been about how students learn, why increasing digital access is important, and how print books remain a critical part of contemporary research.
We all should consider the efficacy of board governance generally and how boards are constituted. But in this dire moment, we need to examine the Vermont State Colleges board’s ability to challenge and assess the merger of the state college system in light of what is best for our students and Vermont.
