Keyser Soze said:
witchmo said:
Mitch Henessey said:
Regardless, 40 is an absurd size for a board at a university. It should be less than half the size it is currently.
Based on what I have heard and seen, the BOR is making strides away from oligarchical control of the past while instituting needed corrections toward becoming the effective and competent governance board needed. Livingstone is directly involved in those efforts as is Allison. Time will tell if this plays out well but the indicators are in place. There are some good new people on board. Hopefully, they have the wherewithal to withstand manipulation and a possess a frame of reference for good governance principles. That said, a board of 40 is twice the size needed but it does dilute individual influence. The new chair and Livingstone have a lot of work to do.
Agree
Have seen plenty that the most productive and efficient BOR size is smaller - that said larger sure helps prevent concentration of power. While I am the opposite of the conspiracy theorist around here, it is a heck of a lot harder to keep nefarious secretes with a larger group. You want more transparency - a larger BOR is good for that.
There is a saying in business...."if a board of governance can't share a large pizza it is to big"
Most professional big state schools have maybe 10-15 members.
Some I have seen have as few as 7 members.
But Baylor... like TCU and other private schools..... has to let lots of alumni on because its a way to reward those who give money or who share ideological views.
How do you think a non-baptist like Clifton Robinson got on there? reward for lots of money given.
Also, at private schools like ours the leaders want to get their long time personal friends, professional relations, sunday school classmates, ex-KOT frat brothers, etc on the Board to serve with them or after them.
These means we have a massive Board of Regents.....with many factions on it.
Its just the way it is.
My problem is that for whatever reason TCU seems to be able to have leaders who grow the campus, grow the endowment, rise in the rankings, not fight with their alumni association, win Rose bowls in football, and not have a major scandal every 8 years.
Our Regents keep screwing up.
Something is very wrong with the culture of the Regents.