BOARD OF REGENTS
An independent governing body that oversees a state’s public COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES.
All 50 states have governing bodies that oversee the administration of public education.
A number of states call the body that administers the state college and university system the board of regents. The word regent is an English term that originally meant ruler. In the British university system, a regent presided over academic debates; this association with higher education increased over time. Some states refer to their educational bodies as boards of trustees, which suggests the type of role such boards play
in education. In a few states, including New
York, the board of regents also oversees elementary
and secondary education. Most boards of
regents, however, deal only with post-secondary
education institutions.
Boards of regents gain their authority from
either state constitutional provisions or statutes.
States that create a board of regents through
constitutional means grant these boards great
political independence. For many states such a
provision creates a “fourth branch of government,”
insulated from direct interference by a
governor or legislature. Board members, however,
are selected by these branches. They are
either nominated by the governor and confirmed
by the legislature, or elected directly by
the legislature. Regents serve for specified terms
of office and are selected as at-large members or
drawn from particular regions of the state.
A board of regents has a number of duties it
must perform. It must do short-range and longrange
planning, develop and articulate the
vision and mission of the university system, hire
and oversee the university chief executive and
other top leadership, and make broad policy
decisions. Regents are not expected to be
involved in day-to-day administration, but they
do serve on standing committees that review all
aspects of university life. In addition, they are
often called on to lobby the governor and legislature
for funding. Though these boards meet
monthly or bimonthly, the work is constant.
This is not surprising, as the annual budgets of
state college systems rival those of midsize corporations.
Unlike corporate directors, regents do
not receive compensation for their service.
Boards of regents approve policies that may
be challenged in court. For example, numerous
university systems have implemented student
codes of conduct, which ban certain types of
speech and behavior because they are considered
to be “hate crimes.” These policies sometimes
result in lawsuits alleging the restriction of
FIRST AMENDMENT rights (UWM Post, Inc. v.
Board of Regents of University of Wisconsin, 774
F.Supp. 1163 [E.D.Wis.1991]). Boards of regents
also have been involved in controversy over
AFFIRMATIVE ACTION admission policies. Some
policies have generated litigation that has
reached the Supreme Court (Gratz v. Bollinger,
__U.S.__, 123 S.Ct. 2411, __L.Ed.2d__ [2003]).
Because of such high profile issues, boards of
regents have been attacked by those who have
opposing viewpoints. In some cases, a new governor
or a displeased legislature will replace
regents with whom they disagree. In general,
however, boards are usually diverse bodies, composed
of business executives, doctors, labor
leaders, farmers, lawyers and, in some cases, a
member of the student body. Historically, the
independence of boards of regents has been
respected.
FURTHER READINGS
Birnbaum, Robert. 2001.Management Fads in Higher Education:
Where They Come From, What They Do,Why They
Fail. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
—. 1988. How Colleges Work: The Cybernetics of Academic
Organization and Leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-
Bass.
Duderstadt, James J. 2000. A University for the 21st Century.
Ann Arbor: Univ. of Michigan Press.
