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Petro Tells Hocking College Board Of Trustees To Back Off
By: Kelsey Borza
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Ohio Board of Regents Chancellor Jim Petro says the Hocking College Board of Trustees needs to let the Nelsonville school's president make the day to day decisions.
Petro met with the trustees last night to give the group guidelines on proper board governance and point the board in a new direction.
The trustees have been under fire in recent months after the controversial dismissal of College President Ron Erickson in June.
Board members rehired Erickson last week.
Petro says he is concerned with the board's past operational habits.
"When I became the chancellor just shy of 7 months ago, I immediately became concerned with Hocking College, when I learned among other things that the board of trustees were meeting every week. That's a mistake," says Petro.
He says the board should let the President do his job.
"The fiduciary role, first and foremost, is to hire the best executive manager they can find and make decisions at the upper end of management but, not the day-to-day decisions," says Petro.
The Chancellor advised the board should plan to meet only ten times a year.
"You cant get into meddling. Nine people can't meet every week and try to make the ongoing operational decisions of a public college and university. It makes no sense," says Petro. "I think we really need to understand the role of a fiduciary is to set a model of good policy making and when that occurs I believe the college or university will thrive."
Petro also prepared a packet of guidelines for the board members, including standards for being a good board member adopted by the Ohio University Board of Trustees and information explaining the powers associated with being a board member.