Five Boston University Board of Trustees members will join board Vice Chairman Dexter Dodge on a now fully formed committee to examine the efficiency of the board in making decisions for the future of BU, especially concerning the presidential search.
Trustees Karen Elliott House, Robert A. Knox, Alan M. Leventhal, Sir Brian Mawhinney and Sharon Ryan will sit on the committee, according to a Friday press release. Dodge will chair the body, and President ad interim Aram V. Chobanian will be a non-voting member.
Trustees created the committee during their Oct. 31 emergency meeting called after the board’s Executive Committee voted ‘no confidence’ in then-President-elect Daniel S. Goldin just four months after selecting him.
All of the members of the committee have ‘broad-based experience in both the business and philanthropic worlds,’ according to the statement.
Board spokeswoman Nancy Sterling said the committee will meet ‘fairly regularly’ and examine ‘all aspects of the Board of Trustees’ structure and regulation.’
‘The committee was set up for two purposes,’ she said. ‘First to review the governance of the university and … to assist and oversee the design of the presidential search.’
Faculty Council Chair Herbert Voigt said establishing the committee is ‘a very good thing in light of what happened’ with the board’s decision to give former NASA chief Goldin a $1.8 million settlement two days before he would have become president. However, he said he thinks the committee may have problems with objectivity.
‘I think it is a common problem for boards to try to govern themselves,’ he said. ‘I hope that the board will reach out to faculty for assistance.’
Voigt also said it is ‘not impossible’ for the governance committee to be effective as long as ‘outside sources guide them.’
David Palmer, an international relations and political science professor, said having board members examine themselves can be seen as both an advantage and disadvantage.
‘There is always tension in naming people involved in the problem to find a solution to it, but, on the same token, they’re the people that are most aware of how the problem arose,’ he said.
Palmer agreed that outside faculty input would ‘add an element of objectivity.’
Sterling said the committee will meet via telephone and video conferences in its efforts to repair a board that is physically separated by hundreds of miles most of the time. For example, Mawhinney is a member of Parliament in London.
Mawhinney, Dodge and Knox did not return phone calls Tuesday.
Voigt said regardless of the methods of conferencing, he assumes the committee will meet rather frequently since the Faculty Council is expecting a report from them at its January meeting.
Brandon Bettencourt, a School of Engineering junior, said he knew little about the committee but doubts it will be effective and said the Trustees are trying to ‘save face’ after the Goldin imbroglio.
‘I don’t see them improving the efficiency of the presidential search considering they took part in screwing up the whole situation with Goldin,’ Bettencourt said. ‘Most of the trustees are in Silber’s pocket and as long as they stay there, they won’t get anything accomplished.’
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