- Mississippi’s postsecondary governance consists of two boards: a governing board that manages the state’s eight four-year universities (Board of Trustees of the Institutions of Higher Learning) and a coordinating board that coordinates the state’s 15 community colleges (Mississippi Community College Board).
- There is limited information about best practices for reorganizing postsecondary governance. Therefore, when considering restructuring postsecondary governance state leaders should: focus on the ends, not the means; identify the core issues the state is trying to address; examine options within the existing governance; and note that a change in governance of institutions managed and controlled by the IHL Board of Trustees would require an amendment of Section 213A of the Mississippi Constitution of 1890.
To change the current postsecondary governance model, state leaders should consider:
- Should Mississippi have an overarching/unifying postsecondary governance structure (e.g., an overarching coordinating body for community colleges and universities)?
- Which approach does Mississippi want to utilize to govern its universities and/or community (e.g., maintain existing structure, governing boards for each university, a multiple-university system that has its own board, or one merging into a single, centralized board) colleges?
To change UMMC’s governance model, state leaders should consider:
- Can Mississippi identify sufficient cause to change the existing UMMC governance (e.g., adjust involvement of IHL Board in decision-making)?
- Does Mississippi want a single entity to govern UMM (e.g., eliminating half of UMMC’s current dual governance [UM and IHL Board] and requiring UMMC to report only to one board)?
- Does Mississippi want UMMC to be governed by a UMMC-specific board (e.g., removing UMMC from its current dual governance and reconstituting UMMC under a single board)?
- Does Mississippi want to separate UMMC’s clinical enterprise (i.e., hospitals, clinics, and telehealth) from UMMC’s academic and research components (e.g., creating a separate governing arrangement for the clinical enterprise with a non-profit or other healthcare providers)?
