To justify abolishing the Board of Regents last year, the Florida Legislature pretended that it had become essentially irrelevant to sound management of the state university system. Separate boards of trustees for each of the 10 -- soon to be 11 -- universities could run them as well or better under the more detached guidance of the state's new Board of Education, which would also be responsible for "seamlessly" overseeing the public schools and community colleges. Or so went the theory.

Election chat Tuesday
Join Times political editor Adam Smith for a special online chat this Tuesday at 10 a.m. Smith Adam will take your questions on local, state and national elections and share his thoughts on other campaign issues. If you can't attend this live event, send a question right now.

But in fact, this "seamless" system was badly frayed both in design and execution.

To begin with, the scheme to sack the regents was plainly tinged with malice on the part of House Speaker John Thrasher and other legislators who favored pricey new programs -- a medical school for Florida State University, law schools for Florida A&M and Florida International -- that the regents opposed. For more than 35 years, most legislatures had allowed the regents to do what they were created to do: minimize competition among the schools; get Florida the best bang for a buck. Occasionally, however, legislators tried to get rid of the regents. Finally, they succeeded. Throwing money and caution to the wind, they approved three costly new programs and purged the board that had resisted them.

The Florida Constitution Revision Commission, in recommending that voters supplant the Cabinet and elected education commissioner with an appointed Board of Education, never intended it to oversee the universities. It meant for the new board to govern only the public schools, and the record is dramatically clear on that point.

The new "system," if it can be called that, leaves the 11 universities free not only to hire their own presidents -- which isn't a bad idea -- but also to establish competitive master's programs and fight each other for money from the Legislature. These are bad ideas. Already, there is something of an arms race among the boards to see who can pay the most to presidents. Florida International University gave its president an $83,000 raise, to $285,000, and Florida A&M is paying $275,000 to its new president. With vacancies looming at Florida State and the University of Florida, both of which are larger, this is a competition the taxpayers cannot afford.

Fortunately, the voters have an opportunity to take this all in hand on Nov. 5. Amendment 11, an initiative sponsored by Sen. (and former Gov.) Bob Graham and others, would establish a 17-member Statewide Board of Governors to restore discipline -- and financial reality -- to the university system. The governor would appoint 14 members to staggered seven-year terms, ensuring mission continuity as governors come and go. Three seats would go ex officio to the appointed commissioner of education, a representative of the faculty senates, and the president of the Florida Student Association.

Unlike the law that set up the regents, the Board of Governors would have constitutional status. This would insulate the universities and their respective budgets from legislative meddling. The universities would continue to have their own boards of trustees, but they would not be able to make private deals through influential alumni in the Legislature.

People with a long view of Florida history -- a perspective sadly lacking in present-day Tallahassee -- can recall vivid reasons for ratifying Amendment 11. Creation of the Board of Regents was inspired in large part by the evil excesses of a legislative investigating committee in pursuit of homosexuals, integrationists and other so-called "subversives" on college campuses. For protection, the universities needed a strong board, with extended terms so that no one governor could easily manipulate it. The Board of Control, seven members with four-year terms, had been unequal to the task.

The Board of Regents was also crafted to select and empower a strong chancellor to act on its behalf. Only an independent board can boast a strong chancellor.

"Until recently," Gov. LeRoy Collins wrote to a journalist in 1958, "each institution would look out for its own interests, and the strongest always got pretty much what it wanted out of the Legislature regardless of whether this made sense when considered in light of the state's program of higher education as a whole. Well, this game of tiger-in-the-jungle was all right, I suppose, so long as there were only one or two tigers."

But now, he said, there were three, "growing like wildfire," with another soon to open and two more being planned. Florida plainly needed to tame the tigers.

It needs a tiger tamer all the more now that there not just six universities, but 11. We strongly recommend a yes vote on Amendment 11.

Ballot summary

A local board of trustees shall administer each state university. Each board shall have 13 members dedicated to excellence in teaching, research and service to community. A statewide governing board of 17 members shall be responsible for the coordinated and accountable operation of the whole university system. Wasteful duplication of facilities or programs is to be avoided. Provides procedures for selection and confirmation of board members, including one student and one faculty representative per board.

Back to Opinion

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright

From the Times
Opinion page