Many women trustees just don't get the equity agenda.

Governing boards hold tremendous power in universities and colleges. They control the budget. They set and approve policy. They sign off on presidents and promotions.

"Trustees hold the university in the public trust," said Dr. Diane Dean, assistant professor of higher education administration at Illinois State University. They check that initiatives are legally and financially sound. Do they also call on schools to live up to their ideals of diversity and gender equity? If not, would more women trustees help?

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That depends who they are and how they're empowered, she said at the American Education Research Association conference in Chicago in April. She and Dr. Judith Glazer-Raymo, lecturer of higher and postsecondary education at Teachers College NY, interviewed women trustees at eight universities.

More than half of today's college students, lecturers and instructors are women. Yet women are less than one fourth of full professors or presidents. "What are women trustees' views on the unfinished equity agenda?" they wondered.

Perhaps equity and diversity are elusive on campus because leadership isn't diverse. Women and minorities haven't reached a critical mass. Less than 30% of trustees are women; less than 20% are racial minorities.

Not all trustees are equal