ANALYSIS: TRUE. University Boardrooms Need Corporate Governance-Style Reform.

Universities are in many ways the worst run institutions in our society, with basically lousy governance.We see this in the way administrative bloat drives university tuition increases at well above inflation rates. We see it in the way the inmates are all too often allowed to run the asylum. We see it in how hiring emphasizes every kind of diversity except for ideological and intellectual diversity.

Maybe the answer has been staring us in the face; namely, bringing corporate governance reform to the university. . . .

Some of these reforms go beyond what I think is appropriate for corporations, but the reason should be obvious. Firms operate in host of markets that constrain managers and discipline poor ones. Imperfectly, to be sure, which is why governance is important, but surely better than the virtual absence of market constraints on universities.

The entire nonprofit sector is way overdue for reform.