# 4. Rethinking Shared Governance for Today's Higher Ed: A Conversation with B. David Rowe and Frank Boyd

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/edup-provost-7039442/4-rethinking-shared-governance-for-today-s-higher-ed-a-conversation-with-b-david-rowe-and-frank-boyd
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/edup-provost-7039442/4-rethinking-shared-governance-for-today-s-higher-ed-a-conversation-with-b-david-rowe-and-frank-boyd.md
Podcast: [EdUp Provost](https://stenobird.com/podcast/edup-provost-7039442)
Published: 2026-09-23T08:27:00+00:00
Episode link: https://EdUpProvost.podbean.com/e/4-rethinking-shared-governance-for-todays-higher-ed-a-conversation-with-b-david-rowe-and-frank-boyd/
Audio file: https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/h6zzrrjfr7kcc3cv/riverside_edit_-_riverside_edit_frank_david_gregor_greg_gregor_thuswaldner_9jbi2.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/edup-provost-7039442/episodes/4-rethinking-shared-governance-for-today-s-higher-ed-a-conversation-with-b-david-rowe-and-frank-boyd
Duration seconds: 2807

## Resource

In this EdUp Provost episode, host Dr. Gregor Thuswaldner sits down with Dr. B. David Rowe, Founder and President of Windermere Consulting, and Dr. Frank Boyd, Vice President of the Higher Education Practice at McAllister & Quinn to discuss how shared governance works, where it breaks down, and how it needs to change. Drawing on their experience as a college and seminary president, trustee, faculty leader, and provost, they examine the president-provost partnership, the provost's position between faculty and board, and how boards and presidents can avoid mutual over-deference. They also explore how governance should function in a crisis, why faculty and board members perceive time so differently, and how a shared governance system can help an institution find and amplify its mission. The conversation draws on the paper they co-authored, which looks at governance through both the presidential and faculty perspectives, and closes with a look at whether current structures are equipped for today's pressures, plus book recommendations from each guest. Takeaways Good governance is fluid and shifts with the season an institution is in, and no single model fits every campus. Governance starts with structure: the bylaws, faculty handbook, and charter should be reconciled and read together before a crisis arrives. Faculty and boards experience time differently. Slower faculty processes are meant to get decisions right, while boards have to weigh the long-term fiduciary consequences of inaction. Provosts do their best work when they hold both the faculty and administrative identities at once, and when they are clear about what they are not working on. Boards are responsible for far more than finances. Fiduciary duty extends to the academic mission, and every academic decision…

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