ABSTRACT
The twin institution of executive presidents and boards of trustees represents an innovation which lends vigor and independence to the governance of the American university that is absent in virtually all other academic systems. In the United States, university presidents are chief executives with relatively long tenure, not short-term appointees who rotate out of office after barely learning the ropes. And boards of trustees are independent custodians of the academy, not the extended arm of a government, church, or political party.
