What happens when a trustee also has a business relationship with the college? Is the primary loyalty to the college or to the trustee’s own business? A Chronicle investigation of 618 private colleges found that one in four had financial ties with trustee-affiliated businesses — banks, law firms, construction companies — ranging up to multimillion-dollar contracts. Most of the governing boards had conflict-of-interest policies, but they, too, varied — from a 56-page primer at Washington and Lee University to boilerplate language that amounted to “trust us.” If nothing else, said one former board chairman, there can be “an optics problem.”
To continue reading for FREE, please sign in.
Or subscribe now to read with unlimited access for as low as $10/month.
Don’t have an account? Sign up now.
A free account provides you access to a limited number of free articles each month, plus newsletters, job postings, salary data, and exclusive store discounts.
