In order to play a proper role in the making of sound academic policy, the Board of Trustees must begin by taking itself seriously, and the first place for that is the choice of its members. It is essential that some members of the Board should be present or recent members of the professional academic community--teachers, research workers, librarians, or administrators. A judiciously constituted Board should be involved in such pivotal matters of admissions, curriculum, graduation requirements, selection, retention, promotion, tenure, and sabbaticals of faculty, leave policy, and compensation scales. In all, the role of the trustees should be policymaking, not administration, although in practice each one feeds the other. The most immediate way in which a trustee can verify the quality of faculty is being attentive to conditions of employment. Trustees must be accountable to faculty, in that they must accept the work and the often unpleasant decisions it entails. (Author/PG)