Public Higher Education Governing Boards Composition and Regional Difference in U.S.

Using The Public Higher Education Boards Database designed by Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges (AGB) in 2008, this paper reviewed prior studies of governing boards and investigated regional differences of boards' characteristics including board type, selection method, board composition, provision condition, term length, supervision, and meeting frequency. The results show tha: (1) highly centralized state university governance with more political control exist in West and Middle West; (2) governing boards in Northeast are more autonomous with high percentage of alumni and self-perpetuating members and less political affiliations; (3) more faculty participations appear in South and West, and most Middle West boards do not have removal process and longer length of term.