Boards of Trustees

The phrase board of trustees is synonymous with governance in higher education and is the most common name for groups of individuals who serve as the legal agents for and have authority over two-year colleges, four-year colleges, and universities in the United States. While several other types of boards provide similar governance, depending on their own unique institutional histories, they may have different names. Some examples of the other most common terms for these structures are board of visitors, as used by the Commonwealth of Virginia; board of regents, as used by New York, California, and several other [Page 62]states; board of curators, as used in Missouri; and board of governors, as used in North Carolina to describe the management of the entire university system ...