University Board of Visitors member Dr. Edward D. Miller recently quit his position one year before his term was up, citing frustration with rising tuition and falling research dollars. While Miller pointed to issues he had advocated for that he felt were not being sufficiently addressed, he also addressed internal frustrations with the Board — frustrations that indicate broader transparency problems both within and outside the Board.
We have previously written about the lack of transparency in the Board, especially as it pertains to the recent tuition increase stemming from the Affordable Excellence plan. According to Miller, the Board “wasn’t given an adequate amount of time to digest [the plan].” Moreover, Miller told The Daily Progress, “I had no idea what the plan was going to be until the day of the meeting.”
Keeping information in the hands of only a few Board members is problematic for obvious reasons. But if it was so egregious as to lead to the resignation of a prominent Board member, transparency within the Board must be an even worse problem than we anticipated previously.
Miller has been on the Board since 2011, as an ex-officio member, though he became a regular member in 2012. If after four years he has both not seen discernible impact as a member of the Board and was kept out of the loop in as important a decision as the University’s tuition plan, the Board clearly is not the inclusive entity it needs to be for members to participate equally and present the useful information they were appointed to present.
Miller’s resignation should serve as a sign for other members of the Board: our governing body cannot continue to operate in the secretive way it currently does. The two concerns Miller resigned over — tuition and research — are significant concerns for members of our University. If he as a Board member felt these concerns were not sufficiently addressed, or that he at least was not clued in to those discussions, the Board has failed at its primary job.
Transparency within the Board is the first step to achieving transparency between the Board and our school — and this is a praiseworthy goal.
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