How should HBCU board members be selected?


jsupop33

jsupop33

Loyalty & Respect
We see the issues Bama state has had with their board and I read Southern posters complaining about their boards all the time. In MS we don't have our own board.

Do you think each school should have their own board members and if so, how should they be selected? Should the governor be able to appoint them or should the alumni be able to elect them. Should alumni have the power to impeach board members?
 



I think the board should be composed of representatives from EACH school in this state- MS. Now EACH board member should be selected by a widespread alumni vote AND they should be in place no longer than 5 years at a time.
 
It will/always/ and shall be a political move. I look at the University of Louisiana System that GSU is a part of and they have their own agenda depending who the governor's party may be.

If you examine when GSU had it's greatest success was when Edwin Edwards was governor:

1972-1980
1984-1988
1992-1996

Since then we have had two Republicans and that lady who, for choice of better words, secretly didn't give a shit about HBCUs as governor over an almost 20 year period that greatly affected the climate of stability with GSU.
 
I get how it is now but should it be like that. I don't think politicians should be in charge of our boards.
 
jsupop33 said:
I get how it is now but should it be like that. I don't think politicians should be in charge of our boards.
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Politician in the sense of "elected"? To be curt many of the individuals not elected are more "political" than those elected. The issue at the end of the day would be who would nominate them and how would they be allowed to serve via elected or appointed?
 
The Founder said:
Politician in the sense of "elected"? To be curt many of the individuals not elected are more "political" than those elected. The issue at the end of the day would be who would nominate them and how would they be allowed to serve via elected or appointed?
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How about this. Board members could be nominated by either the faculty, alumni or the Governor and a rep from each entity would have voting power on whether or not that person makes the board. Also, if a rep from the 2 of the entities decided to impeach a board member, they would have the power to do so.
 
jsupop33 said:
How about this. Board members could be nominated by either the faculty, alumni or the Governor and a rep from each entity would have voting power on whether or not that person makes the board. Also, if a rep from the 2 of the entities decided to impeach a board member, they would have the power to do so.
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Still political. What if the faculty did not like the president and pushed the committee to oust the president? What if the alumni had beef with the president for firing a certain coach or the AD?
 
The Founder said:
Still political. What if the faculty did not like the president and pushed the committee to oust the president? What if the alumni had beef with the president for firing a certain coach or the AD?
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That happens now. I don't think the Governor should be able to freely put people on our boards. At least in this method, there are checks and balances.
 
In Mississippi's case yes. As previously stated, we don't have own our boards but the IHL who is appointed by the governor. The current board right now does NOT have a Valley, JSU or Alcorn rep on it (only HBCU rep is a Tougaloo alum (Tougaloo is private)). After the ousting of the Ole Miss president earlier this year for political reasons, there was serious talk of giving each school their own board (pushed by the Ole Miss alums of course).

It's going to be political no matter what. In our case, whatever problems might arise from our own board would problem be better than the current IHL issues (they couldn't even get a president for months because that position is toxic. MUW's current president and a former MSU employee both rejected it). I'd feel a lot better about the dorm situations at Valley and JSU if we had our own boards and we had the power to submit proposals to the state for money instead of waiting on Phil Bryant's lackeys on the IHL to do so
 
In_The_662 said:
In Mississippi's case yes. As previously stated, we don't have own our boards but the IHL who is appointed by the governor. The current board right now does NOT have a Valley, JSU or Alcorn rep on it (only HBCU rep is a Tougaloo alum (Tougaloo is private)). After the ousting of the Ole Miss president earlier this year for political reasons, there was serious talk of giving each school their own board (pushed by the Ole Miss alums of course).

It's going to be political no matter what. In our case, whatever problems might arise from our own board would problem be better than the current IHL issues (they couldn't even get a president for months because that position is toxic. MUW's current president and a former MSU employee both rejected it). I'd feel a lot better about the dorm situations at Valley and JSU if we had our own boards and we had the power to submit proposals to the state for money instead of waiting on Phil Bryant's lackeys on the IHL to do so
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I had a coworker leave here and go run his homestate's Postsecondary Governing Body. That seems like a cool job. I don't know if I would stick around here long enough to qualify for that though. One thing I have learn over these 3 years working in Postsecondary Education policy, is how important it is to have people on your board who take the business of college very serious. Also, states can basically kill a school. I know SC State did mismanage some money but what the State of SC did to them would have crippled any of our schools.
 
Our governor Bentley cheats on his wife, pays his mistress 400k and hired her husband, but is investigating us over 6k in moving expenses. White Southerners are the devil.
 
jsupop33 said:
I get how it is now but should it be like that. I don't think politicians should be in charge of our boards.
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There are pluses and minus to political boards. Look at private schools, where most boards are made up of entrenched church leaders, which is not a good thing, such as the case in Morris Brown in Atlanta and St. Paul's in Virginia. What I do like about SU's board, it's totally separate from the other two university boards in Louisiana (LSU and UL), which somewhat give some power to the alumni since majority of the board members are graduates of Southern University. I personally know the two boards members from my hometown that is on the SU System board and I attended high school and college with one of them. Also, he is my family insurance agent and his mom grew up across the street where my dad grew up. Basically, anyone in my family can pick up a phone and tell him how we feel about how things are going. But we do understand a lot of their decisions are politically motivated, which is why Southern University needs a president that can work with politicians and the board.
 
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Our board composition:
10 members (not counting the Governor as President).
3 alums

Things had been quite calm until recently.
 
The current IHL board system we have in place now isn't perfect by any means. But having our own governing board comprised of alums would be 100% worse. At JSU we would have a new president everytime the football team had a losing season. Having a board that's somewhat detached from the day to day mess normal at any school has been to our benefit.
 
JSU/99 said:
The current IHL board system we have in place now isn't perfect by any means. But having our own governing board comprised of alums would be 100% worse. At JSU we would have a new president everytime the football team had a losing season. Having a board that's somewhat detached from the day to day mess normal at any school has been to our benefit.
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A BOT full of AAMU alums would be (and has been) a mess too. It would have to be the perfect storm of selfless individuals with nothing to gain to make it work.
 
I often do wonder, if LSU did not have the branch schools in there system and only the research centers and the hospitals, would a SUBR campus thrive,, in the LSU system..

One of the biggest issues my view with SU board is that they really don't get anything done,, and i feel is scared to think outside the box..

One example " SU has a branch in Shreveport, Nola and BR, it has been talked about many times including brought up doing the search for the dual president/Chancellor job why SU is not getting research or doing research on minorities issues in the state, whereas LSU and Tulane does and gets millions, and when it was brought up.. it was almost like some member of the board especially the ones in the governors pocket was like, without saying it,, we don't want to step on LSU AND Tulane toes, meaning Money.

And I can talk about facilities all day, but that is another topic... SU needs another DR . SPIKES, she was not scared of the board nor legislators and she let it be known her Job was the success of the system. . I will give Belton time, but I feel he is just saying what u want to hear, but they did get the Vice President right, So hopefully he will bring something to the table.
 
xxx01 said:
I often do wonder, if LSU did not have the branch schools in there system and only the research centers and the hospitals, would a SUBR campus thrive,, in the LSU system..

One of the biggest issues my view with SU board is that they really don't get anything done,, and i feel is scared to think outside the box..

One example " SU has a branch in Shreveport, Nola and BR, it has been talked about many times including brought up doing the search for the dual president/Chancellor job why SU is not getting research or doing research on minorities issues in the state, whereas LSU and Tulane does and gets millions, and when it was brought up.. it was almost like some member of the board especially the ones in the governors pocket was like, without saying it,, we don't want to step on LSU AND Tulane toes, meaning Money.

And I can talk about facilities all day, but that is another topic... SU needs another DR . SPIKES, she was not scared of the board nor legislators and she let it be known her Job was the success of the system. . I will give Belton time, but I feel he is just saying what u want to hear, but they did get the Vice President right, So hopefully he will bring something to the table.
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From what I've heard from a SU grad on this board is that Dr. Dpikes and Governor Buddy Roemer didn't get along. I know Governor Edwin Edwards was somewhat fair to SU. If John Bel Edwards get elected, I'm sure he will try to establish some close relationship with SU leaders.
 
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