College and university faculty sometimes regard initiatives by trustees as ill-informed meddling in their business, while trustees often think that the faculty is making a terrible mess of the school. Is there a way of bridging this divide?
In today’s Martin Center article, Professor Michael Behrent argues that there isn’t. The two groups for the most part come from very different backgrounds and see the world from different perspectives.
He writes:
Trustees and faculty often take diverging positions on the key challenges facing the modern university: salaries, funding, educational priorities, student activism, viewpoint diversity, and shared governance. In recent years, the longstanding tensions between trustees and faculty have been absorbed into the polarization that defines national politics. At many institutions, trustees align with the Republican Party, while faculty generally identify with the Democrats.
Okay, but why is that? Behrent explains that trustees tend to come from business backgrounds and feel that they’ve earned their status in life. Faculty, on the other hand, are from academic backgrounds and they often feel that they are underpaid given their exalted level of education.
Behrent continues:
But while academics are highly motivated by status, they are also aware that faculty compensation is stagnating. As a 2026 report by the American Association of University Professors puts it, faculty live “in the long shadow of compensation erosion.” To many trustees, this might sound like a small-minded complaint. Plenty of faculty earn relatively high salaries. At some institutions, faculty earn six figures. Trustees who run businesses like restaurants and hotels often pay employees a good deal less than faculty. Why do professors whine so much?