The American Council of Trustees and Alumni has just released a new report "Metrics For Effective Governance" offering eight simple metrics for gauging "institutional success in attaining agreed-upon goals."

The key measures that ACTA suggests include:

1. Student Characteristics 2. Student Selectivity 3. Cost of Attendance and Financial Aid 4. Financial Resources and Performance 5. Alumni Giving Rate 6. Graduation and Retention Rates 7. Faculty Resources 8. Academic Quality

All of that might sound self-evident, but any attention to the state of college administration will reveal numerous schools which lack processes to evaluate or appriase trustees in some to many of these categories. It's a strong primer on what matters - take a look.