State: Ballot issue evokes N. Carolina model

"They didn't have any influence," said Marc Basnight, North Carolina Senate president pro tem. "That's the way it should be. We're not going to let them tell us what to do."

A proposal on Tuesday's ballot in Florida would create a higher education governance system similar to North Carolina's. The aim: protect Florida's 11 universities from the political whims of the Legislature.

Even in North Carolina, which has one of the most highly regarded higher education systems in the nation, universities aren't immune from political interference.

Still, educators there say it's far less of a problem than in other states and could remember only a handful of times in three decades when lawmakers disregarded the Board of Governors.

"I'm not telling you that every now and then it doesn't happen, but we've been able to manage that," said Benjamin Ruffin, a Board of Governors member for 11 years. "That's the way it is. You're dealing with politicians, and you will have that."

Amendment 11, promoted by U.S. Sen. Bob Graham , would create a two-tier system. A Board of Governors would spend money and establish policy, while a board of trustees would oversee each university.

Perhaps the biggest change would allow the Board of Governors to collect some of the state's higher education dollars from tuition, fees, contracts and grants without the Legislature's approval.

Just over half the states have some kind of two-tier system, but they vary greatly in who runs the boards, what powers the boards have and who oversees the boards.

Republican Gov. Jeb Bush created a board to oversee all education in Florida, from kindergarten to postgraduate studies. Only Idaho has a similar "seamless" system. It has far fewer schools. Other states are studying it.

Graham, a Democrat, adamantly opposed Bush's change, which included abolishing the Board of Regents that ran universities for 36 years. So he crafted a measure that strikes a compromise.

Some experts say governance doesn't matter as much as the amount of money spent on higher education.

Florida paid faculty members at four-year universities an average of $62,464, while North Carolina paid them $74,562 in 2000-2001, according to the Southern Regional Education Board.

Florida spent $7,520 per student in 1999-2000, while North Carolina spent $7,862. In the five years before that, Florida had decreased its per-student spending while North Carolina increased it.

A recent St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald poll showed 49 percent of likely voters supported the initiative, but about a fourth hadn't decided or didn't understand it.

Gov. Jeb Bush , running for re-election largely on his education record, opposes the amendment but isn't spending as much time campaigning against it as he is an amendment to reduce and cap class sizes.

North Carolina created its system 30 years ago after a study showed a weak governing board left the universities subject to legislators who pumped more money into their alma maters: the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University.

"The great, great advantage now is we don't have a free-for-all," said Richard Veit, chairman of the North Carolina Faculty Assembly. "The Legislature respects the university system. You won't really see a partisan political agenda. That's worked out well for smaller campuses."

The Board of Governors submits one budget for all universities to legislators. Sometimes, the budget is cut, but only occasionally does a legislator add a pet project.

"When the board has truly gone to bat for something, it has not failed many times," said James Holshouser Jr., former North Carolina governor and a member of the Board of Governors.

Graham said higher education in Florida has become subject to "inappropriate, political intrusion" over the years, and that has led to greater infighting among universities. He cites as an example the decision to decrease funding for agriculture research in Florida while spending money on new law and medical schools.

The structure advocated by the Florida amendment closely resembles North Carolina's, with some key differences:

The Board of Governors would have 17 members, most appointed by the governor -- instead of 32, most appointed by the Legislature.

Each board would include faculty and student representatives with voting power.

The structure would be included in the state Constitution and could be modified only if voters amend it again. (Other states are split on putting higher education in the constitution).

The Board of Governors would have the power to set tuition and to appropriate some money, duties usually left to the legislature in both states.

Opponents, including Education Secretary Jim Horne, worry that trustees of individual universities would have less power. The Board of Governors would decide how much power to delegate to the local boards.

In North Carolina, local boards are weaker than the ones in Florida, though North Carolina's Board of Governors has expanded their authority in recent years.

Trustees in North Carolina oversee tenure, student discipline, capital investments, parking rules and admission standards. They can't hire or fire the university president but have a say in the process.

In Florida, trustees already have those duties and more, including hiring the president.

"The boards of trustees are weak as dishwater," Basnight said. "The Board of Governors likes that. If they get a good balance between the two, that would be good."

"There's not a single model of higher education governance that would fit nicely for every state," said Roy Carroll, an Appalachian State University board of trustee and former vice president for North Carolina's higher education system. "I don't know if our system would work anywhere else, but it works for us. I think we strike an amazingly good balance."

-- Times researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.

Here are the highlights of Amendment 11:

Creates a 17-member Board of Governors to establish statewide higher education policies.

The board would have the power to spend money from tuition, contracts and grants without legislative approval.

Each of Florida's 11 universities would have 13-member boards of trustees to oversee individual school decisions, such as tuition increases and presidential searches.

The Board of Governors would set the powers of the local trustees.

The governor would appoint 14 of the 17 members of the Board of Governors and almost half of the 143 trustees.

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Lucy Morgan

From the Times state desk