密歇根新闻广播 谁的工作是监督大学的受托人

One of the central problems of any government or corporation is this: Whose job is it to keep an eye on those in charge? Political science professors are fond of quoting the ancient Greek philosopher Plato, who supposedly put it this way: Who will guard the guardians¹?

Well, Plato never actually said that; some Latin poet did, hundreds of years later. Plato did, however, worry about it. Americans used to think we'd solved the problem.

We have, after all, a democracy in which we elect our leaders, and three branches of government that share power and keep an eye on each other. That's what we were taught in school, and I more or less believed it for years.

Except the problem is this:

It isn't enough for the guardians to guard each other; we have to pay attention, too. The notion that we can safely rely on voters to choose the guardians in every case is also deeply flawed. I am well educated, for example, and probably reasonably intelligent, but I'm not competent to decide who should lead the Centers for Disease Control.

Our average voter also doesn't have the time, training and background to decide who should run our major universities, and my guess is that most people would admit that.

However, guess what: We do elect them, even though a lot of people who voted probably don't realize it. Most Michigan public universities, like Northern, Eastern, Western and Central, have their governing boards appointed by the governor.

But our most important giant research universities – the University of Michigan, Wayne State and Michigan State – are governed by eight-person boards elected by a vote of the people.

The candidates, however, are nominated by the two major political parties. Now, I'd like to tell you that the parties strive to choose candidates who are experts in issues of university governance, but that would be a lie. They pick either politicians on the way up or way down, those who have ties to politicians or other important interest groups, or those with famous names.

Debbie Dingell was a hard-working and conscientious² member of Wayne State's board before she was elected to Congress, but she wasn't elected to a university board because of that.

She was elected because her last name was Dingell. If you don't have a famous name, your chances depend on whether it is a good year for your party. I'm talking about this today, because what happened at Michigan State was in part an epic³ failure of the board of trustees.

Last night, someone intimately familiar with the process told me they never met as a body without President Lou Anna Simon being there; they accepted her assurances, and they don't seem to have even considered calling for an independent investigation⁴.

This is a board that includes a couple former football players and an 83-year-old ex-football coach whose term has another five years to run. It's not hard to imagine we'll see another system failure at one of our major universities again.

Yet passing a constitutional amendment⁵ to change and improve this isn't likely, because that would take a lot of work. However, eight years from now, the voters will be asked if they want to call a convention to overhaul⁶ Michigan's constitution.

And I'm not planning to vote no.

Jack⁷ Lessenberry is Michigan Radio's Senior Political Analyst⁸. Views expressed in his essays are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Michigan Radio, its management or the station licensee, The University of Michigan.

1 guardians   

监护人( guardian的名词复数 )； 保护者，维护者

参考例句：

• Farmers should be guardians of the countryside. 农民应是乡村的保卫者。
• The police are guardians of law and order. 警察是法律和秩序的护卫者。

2 conscientious   

adj.审慎正直的，认真的，本着良心的

参考例句：

• He is a conscientious man and knows his job.他很认真负责，也很懂行。
• He is very conscientious in the performance of his duties.他非常认真地履行职责。

3 epic   

n.史诗，叙事诗；adj.史诗般的，壮丽的

参考例句：

• I gave up my epic and wrote this little tale instead.我放弃了写叙事诗，而写了这个小故事。
• They held a banquet of epic proportions.他们举行了盛大的宴会。

4 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

5 amendment   

n.改正，修正，改善，修正案

参考例句：

• The amendment was rejected by 207 voters to 143.这项修正案以207票对143票被否决。
• The Opposition has tabled an amendment to the bill.反对党已经就该议案提交了一项修正条款。

6 overhaul   

v./n.大修，仔细检查

参考例句：

• Master Worker Wang is responsible for the overhaul of this grinder.王师傅主修这台磨床。
• It is generally appreciated that the rail network needs a complete overhaul.众所周知，铁路系统需要大检修。

7 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

8 analyst   

n.分析家，化验员；心理分析学家

参考例句：

• What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务？
• The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。