Stephen Downes

I spent some time on university Boards of Governors (two years on the University of Alberta's, and one on Athabasca University's Governing Council). What I recognize in this article is the 'by the book' description of Canadian board members' duties and challenges, a description members would endorse, even while knowing it's not exactly accurate. For example, Alex Usher writes "Boards are expected to act as a conduit of information from the community to the university." Well, yeah, except that 'community' members do this by governing the institution (that's why they're always in the majority), and by 'community' we mean government, because that's who selects the members. And yes, Board members are volunteers, but they are typically from a (business) demographic that expects some return for their volunteerism, generally nothing overt like outright graft, but, you know, friendly relations between the business community and the government. Image: CAUT.