Explaining Why Few University Board Of Trustees Members Have Higher Education Experience
Sarah Gonzalez / StateImpact Florida
Students from around the state protest tuition increases. Students and professors say financial decisions made by boards of trustees trickle down to impact academics.
Editors note: This post was written by WLRN reporter Georgia Howard.
Every state university in Florida has a board of trustees that makes all the big financial and academic policy decisions.
But most of the trustees don’t have any background in education.
That raises a question: Is management experience or a background in higher education more important to overseeing a state university?
The powers and duties of boards of trustees include everything from handling school money to choosing its policies for student admissions.
Two of the 13 members of each university board have close ties to the school — the faculty president and student body president.
The rest are appointed by the Board of Governors or the governor’s office, and few of those appointments have university experience.
Only three of the 121 appointed trustees at Florida’s 12 universities have worked in higher education.