In the book "What College Trustees Need To Know", by George J. Matthews, Norman R. Smith and Bryan E. Carlson 2013, iUniverse Publisher, they write: "In the end, the success stories will be at those institutions where Presidents and their Boards believe in each other, and symbiotically work together with the genuine desire for each other's success." That is completely on point and accurate.
What is crucial to the symbiotic working relationship is the annual board self evaluation. This is not done at all institutions, however it is crucial to institution success and effective board governance.
Each year universities and colleges normally perform an evaluation of the president. Sometimes it is more comprehensive and sometimes it is more informal. The campus communities are always most attentive to what the board says in these presidential evaluations--and always debating what is not said in the evaluation. In any case the presidential evaluation is very effective and is being done and thought to be crucial to institutional success.
It is often said that everyone on a campus is evaluated by a supervisor or a constituency, except the board of trustees.
Every board should find an effective self evaluation tool and process. It should fit the culture of the institution and the board. The board should seek input from the president on content of the evaluation and about how to get campus input into the board self evaluation process.
The self evaluation needs to be about how the board works together as a group and how individual board members perform their duties and how they work with other board members.
The board self evaluation should include questions such as:
Do we effectively communicate and work with the president and her/his team? Are our communications methods with the president, the campus community and institutional constituents (alumni, donors, etc.) effective? Are we micromanaging? Do we focus on policy and not on administrative operations? Are we at cross purposeless at any time with our institutional administration and faculty? Are we asking challenging questions that are based on our understanding of our institutions culture, challenges and threats? What could we do better? What could we change? Are all the board members individually adding value to the board and the institutions and are we doing the same as a board, as a group. There a many, many more questions and concepts to add to each board self evaluation. Many will be based on the history, culture and challenges/threats facing the institution.
There should be a self evaluation process for each individual board member to complete based on their individual performance as a board members. Board members should evaluate their performance: Are you adding value to the board and the institution? Have you at any time been inappropriately "disruptive" and negative in performing your board duties? Have been effective at communicating with your fellow board members and with the President? Have you inappropriately attempted to micromanage by communicating with administrators, academics and athletic leadership, etc., without discussing your questions and issues with the board chair and the president prior to any contact with this type of leadership? Have you in addition to attending board meetings have you participated in alumni, athletic, academic, donor and community events and have you coordinated your participation thru the presidents office? Are you a financial donor to your institution? There are obviously lots and lots of the questions to ask and processes to evaluate for individual board members.
Some questions on the overall evaluation process are how do you get campus and campus constituency input into the process and the outcomes of the evaluation? Do individual board members see their colleagues self evaluations? Do they discuss them at a board meeting (open or closed)? Lots more here also to include and to discuss.
What is important is to begin the process of designing and implementing a board self evaluation tool and process. Board effectiveness and institutional success depends on you doing a board self evaluation. Start it now. We in higher education are facing tremendous challenges in the next several years. Many believe that we are losing the faith and support of federal and state policy makers, institutional donors and taxpayers. Board self evaluation can only help the institution as it works its way thru the next several challenging years.