The Board of Trustees, for all intents and purposes, holds the most amount of decision-making power on Bryn Mawr’s campus. Although only on campus three times a year, and with many of the trustees living out of state, the board determines whether to functionally implement plenary decisions and green-lights campus-wide initiatives. Decisions for accessibility changes or amendments to the budget, for example, must be heard by the board before being deliberated upon and then put to a vote. More information about the Board of Trustees can be found in the “How Does the Board Work?” section.
The President, for all intents and purposes, exists to facilitate the relationship between on-campus administrators, the student body, and faculty with the board. Additionally, the President serves as the face of the college. Although the President does not often have final say in large college-wide initiatives without prior approval from the Board of Trustees, the President serves as an important face within the institution, both privately and publicly.
With this in mind, it is important to understand that when fighting to make institutional change at a college like Bryn Mawr, the Board of Trustees and the President’s Office are where the power is. They have control over what is deemed an actionable “issue” on campus, they have control over where money is spent and what departments are prioritized, and they have ultimate control over the direction of Bryn Mawr College.
Historically, appeals for divestment, racial justice initiatives, and other campus-wide advocacy issues have been resolved with major input from the Board of Trustees and the President’s Office. And, historically, Bryn Mawr’s administration has benefitted from the institutional turnover of administrators, staff, and students that remains endemic to higher education.
Take the demands of the 2020 Strike, for example. Many of the demands of the strike, which were agreed upon by former President Kim Cassidy’s administration, have not been fulfilled simply because we have a new administration and the main organizers of the strike have graduated. This institutional turnover decreases accountability for the College and the Board; the discontinuity of student presence within our community makes it easier for the institution to withhold or not deliver on previous promises, simply because the people pushing those initiatives either graduate, move on to other jobs, or, in some cases, are pushed out of the school.
Read through this section to learn more about how the Board of Trustees and the President’s Office work.