Advocate Online

The Dialogue Question:
Should college and university boards of trustees determine curriculum?

Yes, but the appropriate level of involvement of the board is a matter of degree.
Spencer Davis *

Whether faculty have more to fear from governing boards that are intrusive and micro-managing or from governing boards that automatically approve the curriculum recommendations presented to them is not easy to determine.

A comparison may help. In the last several years, we have seen disturbing examples of how serious corporate mismanagement can become, given the apathy of merely ceremonial boards of directors. Higher education is not the same as the corporate world, but higher education is not entirely exempt from the dynamics evident in the business sector. Many faculties may be right in preferring the “salutary neglect” of their board to an active governing board, but trusting to “salutary neglect” has its dangers.

As the war in Iraq and the war on terrorism continue, pressures to politicize the curriculum, always present to some degree, likely will increase. Incidents at several campuses appear to be examples of such pressure, and faculty can be legitimately concerned that governing boards will become more politically motivated. But in this situation it seems to me better for faculties to challenge governing boards to maintain the highest standards of stewardship rather than to deny governing board responsibility for curriculum.

Governing boards committed to appropriate supervision of academic programs can be expected to recognize the limits of their expertise and make shared governance real by granting substantial assignments to faculty senates. Boards should not try to determine the content of particular courses, but they should carry out their formal responsibilities for programs and degree requirements energetically.

* Spencer Davis is professor of history at Peru State College in Nebraska, where he has been on the faculty since 1983. He has served as an officer of the Nebraska State College Education Association and currently serves on the Association’s negotiating team.

No, boards should only have power to approve curriculum that has been developed by faculty.
Patricia Tamburelli *

When I think of curriculum, what comes to mind immediately is course development. As a full-time faculty member in the Information Technologies Department, I believe that the best-qualified course creators and course developers are department faculty members who are attenuated to what knowledge and skill sets will best benefit students attending their institutions.

What post-secondary educators strive for is student success. In order to ensure this success, professors must be skilled in the classroom, we must be skilled in counseling students, and we must be skilled in predicting what the future marketplace will demand of potential employees. This is the basis of course inception and development, and because faculty members guide this process, they are best qualified to teach these courses. Their vested interest in these courses almost automatically ensures course success, and will ultimately result in student success.

In our institution, practically all the members of the Board of Trustees are appointed, with the exception of one member, who is there by state statute. The Board of Trustees is responsible for establishing degree requirements and approving curriculum. Notice the words “approving curriculum.”

Approve means that curriculum is already developed and established at the departmental level, by faculty, and then that curriculum is passed on to the Board of Trustees for approval. The Board of Trustees should not play a role in establishing curriculum, but because they have full authority over academic programs and capital decisions, they should approve the curriculum once it is established by knowledgeable department faculty members.

* Patricia Tamburelli, a member of the full-time faculty at County College of Morris in New Jersey, has just received tenure approval. She devised the Web Development Certificate that is currently offered at CCM and developed two of the three requisite courses in that program.