One of our favorite writers, Stephen Pelletier, tackles committees for Trusteeship magazine. This is what your boards are reading:

As governing boards have become more sophisticated and polished in their oversight of colleges and universities, they have also become more intentional in the way they organize themselves to meet their missions. Some boards have evolved entirely new structures. Even within the parameters of fairly traditional constructs, many boards have made important tweaks. But when it comes to committee structures, there is no one-size-fits-all approach: Boards organize themselves distinctly to best fit their needs and those of the institution. And that may be precisely the key to success. ...

“It’s not so much a focus on committees as it is a focus on where committees ought to be focused,” says Thomas C. Longin, [SCUP president, who is] an AGB senior fellow and a former vice president for programs and research at AGB, who also served as provost at Ithaca College. “It’s about getting a strategic orientation to committee work.”