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One of the first big "reforms" by Gov. Jeb Bush and the Legislature was to abolish the old Board of Regents, which ran the state university system. Each university would get its own local board, handpicked by Bush.
The voters of Florida rejected this scheme. Last November, they overwhelmingly voted to re-create an independent university system under a new Board of Governors. Bush's local boards would stay, but the state board had final power.
But, who got to name the new state board? Jeb Bush, of course. So he chose a board with the tacit understanding it would not do its job. The 17-member board barely even met its first few months, let alone did very much.
That inaction created a power vacuum in Florida higher education. In the early months of 2003, the presidents of the 11 state universities stepped in to fill it. Officially, the presidents had no status as a group. Unofficially, they began to make their own joint pronouncements about policy.
About a month ago, on July 15, the presidents made their biggest headline yet. They agreed in concept to freeze enrollment in Florida's state universities beginning in 2004. The presidents were reacting unhappily (and rightly so) to the Legislature's lousy budget.
But the presidents had crossed a line. They had violated one of the essential rules of Jeb Bush's Florida, which is this: Everything Is Fine. Everything Is Always Fine. The state is not in a budget crisis, no sir. We don't need no dang money to have good universities. What are you, a liberal?
Or, as the governor himself declared of the universities:
"I hope the flexibility that they have and the reserves that they have will allow them to get through this year, just as we have had to do in state government."
Just suck it up, you know.
The result was that the state universities had to accept about 22,000 new sons and daughters of Florida this fall without getting an extra dime of state money. That required taking a hit of something like $66-million from other resources.
But after July 15, it was clear the presidents were not going to suffer silently. Florida might actually have to face the consequences of its bad policy. Of course, we couldn't have that.
This brings us to the Really Big News.
Last week, the Board of Governors, that outfit hired by Jeb Bush to do exactly nothing, shook off its cobwebs and actually did something.
It shot down the university presidents.
It voted that there sure as heck were NOT going to be any enrollment caps next year. The board is gonna fix everything. It's just going to march over to the Legislature and get some more money, sure. (No doubt the Legislature is atremble.)
"The decisions on enrollment caps," declared chairman Carolyn Roberts, "will be made by the Board of Governors."
And not by any riffraff presidents.
So, the upshot of all this is that Bush's board knocked off its rust and acted only to enforce the Bush gospel - Everything Is Fine.
Still, those who supported the re-creation of a central, independent university board saw this action, and smiled knowingly.
For the first time, this infant Board of Governors has asserted a little of its rightful power. The structure is in place. Over time, the board will learn its way.
"Remember, we have been in a one-time situation," Robin Gibson told me. He is a lawyer from Lake Wales, and a supporter of U.S. Sen. Bob Graham, who led the petition drive to create the Board of Governors.
"Everyone on this board has been appointed by the same governor," Gibson pointed out. But the board was intentionally designed to have staggered terms.
"As we roll through time, we're going to have a mixture of people up there who are increasingly distant from the Senate that confirmed them, and the governor who happened to appoint them, and much more aware of what their duty is.
"I think what we're seeing," Gibson concluded, "is the very first twitches of a sleeping giant."