Governing Boards in Higher Education

I came across this article in Inside Higher Ed within minutes of reading about newly appointed board members to my institutions Board of Trustees. I have not really given much thought to the selection process of the board members before this, but in reading the article “A New Tea (M) on the Field”, I began to wonder a lot about the details that go into the selection of a college or universities governing board.
To summarize the article, in case you did not read it, members of the Tea Party are attempting to gain access to seats on the three largest institutional governing boards in Michigan. They are doing this by flooding the caucuses, trying to get their people on the ballot for election. Because most voters tend to vote party-line, and the Tea Party is making large strides in the state, there is a good chance voters will elect Tea Party affiliates to the governing boards. Advocates of the Tea Party argue that new blood is needed on the governing boards of University of Michigan, Michigan State University and Wayne State, arguing that the change in political affiliation will help bring college down to the “average man”. Opponents worry that those elected will not be invested in higher education due to the anti-government philosophies and practices of the Tea Party.
I learned that it is a rare practice/policy/law that voters elect members to a governing board through a yearly ballot. I know that Colorado voters decide who will be on the Board of Regents for the University of Colorado, but I assumed it was typical for states to vote on the leadership at that level for flagship institutions, while other schools had members directly appointed by the Colorado Governor. As it turns out, only 3 schools in the nation have governing boards that are voted on by the public (arroding to the article). In addition to CU, the University of Nevada and the University of Nebraska’s governing boards are elected.
The benefit to an election process is that members of the board would be more likely to reflect multiple political parties, rather than all coming from the same one, which could happen when appointed by t he same public official. The risk of gubeterial appointment, is that boards will start to only represent one side of political thought- the one in which the governor subscribes, which could affect the direction of the institution. In Texas, as the article describes , all members of each of the 6 governing boards are republican because they were all selected and appointed by the current governor, a republican, for example. However, even though this appointment process could skew the political make -up of boards, it is still the preferred method over general elections. I wonder why that is?
Going back to Michigan, one of the candidates running for the board is running on a platform that would encourage high school students to stay in the state of Michigan to pursue higher education. This is one example of a hot issue in Michigan, where a candidate for the board makes their opinion clear and the voters can pick if they support that or not.
Reading the article got me thinking about a variety of aspects pertaining to governing boards. I wonder if board members who are appointed are more or less likely to have an opinion about certain issues in higher education than their elected counterparts? I wonder if there are differences in education and career fields? I wonder, how do faculty get along with the Board? Is that relationship contingent upon election veruses appointment? In general, I am curious about the actual involvement of governing boards on the day-to –day as well as the overall direction of the institution. Does that change based on type of institution?
I looked at the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges website. Having not looked at this site before, I was more curious about the kinds of resources available to members of governing boards. It appears as through the Association subscribes to 5 values: Strengthen, Define, Guide, Identity, and Foster. There is a national conference as well as regional workshops, where the topics are related to educational quality, board assessment, and athletic involvement.
I am curious how many boards, or individual members of boards, participate in this association. Is there training for this type of role? Definitely an area I would have an interest in learning more about. I would also be interested to hear if any of you have sat on the board for any organization. It would be interesting to see how the leadership required for one industry would or would not translate to the skills needed for an institution of higher education governing board.