Types of University Governing Boards

Multidimensional scaling of the decision natterns of 20 university boards of trustees placed them on two dimensions that differentiated among boards showing the following general patterns: (1) decisions concentrated on highly specific personnel matters; (2) decisions spanning a raLje of policy levels, from those setting broad policy through management decisions establishing administrative practices to highly specific administrative decisions, but concentrated on matters concerned with the physical plant and business and finance; and (3) decisions spanning all levels of policy and concerned with a wide range of topics other than the ones that typically absorb the attention of boards of trustees. (Author) I