Board of Trustees should be privatized
The big push for the College of Medicine and, more recently, the hush-hush stance on budget cuts are not making fans for the Board of Trustees or Central Michigan University's executives.
They certainly hasn’t sat well with me.
Maybe the state should change things so that the Board of Trustees are elected — like the University of Michigan, Michigan State University and Wayne State University. The idea is there would be more accountability on the part of the Board.
Maybe even throw in the ability for a recall to cement the point.
The problem, though, is would we really know who’s running? I have to admit I really don’t know the people running for control of other universities.
So that wouldn’t help much.
How do we ensure accountability to the stakeholders of CMU (as well as other higher education institutions) — students, faculty, and taxpayers — if voting for a Board of Trustees is not really feasible?
Privatize.
The board of directors for private organizations, profit and nonprofit alike, are forced to analyze the potential consequences of their decisions. If they make a big mistake, they get ousted.
Such incentives don’t exist for board members of Michigan’s universities, who are appointed by the governor and confirmed by the senate.
Let’s use the medical school debacle for an example.
The idea could bomb, cost CMU millions of dollars it can’t afford to lose and nothing would happen to the board members pushing for it.
That’s a warm and fuzzy thought, isn’t it?
Of course, people are going to cry that the state universities would fail if they were privatized.
Maybe, but that’s exactly why privatization should happen. In fact, the sooner underperforming institutions fail, the sooner resources are released to better performing ones.
Heavy research institutions such as U-M and MSU should have no issue of producing income and staying afloat by research and marketing of intellectual property. On merchandise licensing alone, I’m sure they make millions of dollars.
Flip the coin, and universities such as CMU would survive based on the quality and value of their education.
CMU would be forced to focus on areas it is good at, such as education, business, etc.
Failure serves as a good incentive to assess decisions to the best of one’s ability.
Privatize higher education so that board members are less likely to engage in their pet projects, leaving taxpayers and other stakeholders on the hook if they fail.
