State: New trustees mostly GOP businessmen

The future of higher education in Florida is in the hands of people with a lot more experience in board rooms and courtrooms than university classrooms.

Almost two-thirds of the 132 people Gov. Jeb Bush has appointed to the state's new university boards are either lawyers or business people, state records show.

Six of the trustees have no college degree, or ended their formal education with a community college diploma.

Fewer than two dozen of the governor's appointees can be characterized as academics -- people who have spent a substantial portion of their professional lives in a classroom or research setting.

Phil Handy, a Winter park businessman and chairman of the new state Board of Education, says that ratio is exactly as it should be.

The primary function of the trustees is to raise money, he said.

"You don't measure success by how many academics you have," Handy said. "One of the characteristics of a great university is its ability to attract private capital. That's what these people can do."

But familiarity with money isn't the only quality shared by most of the trustees, or by the seven new members of the state Board of Education, which will oversee Florida's education system.

Two-thirds of the people Bush has appointed are white. A similar ratio are male. About 60 percent of those who listed a political affiliation are Republican. That's enough to give Bush's fellow Republicans a substantial majority on nine of the 11 boards.

And it certainly didn't hurt applicants' chances of being selected if they contributed money to Republican candidates or causes.

In recent years, Outback Steakhouse founder Chris Sullivan has helped steer more than $1-million to candidates and political parties, the majority to Republicans. Some he gave personally; the rest was contributed through his company and political action committees.

Sullivan was named to the University of South Florida board.

This remarkable transformation of Florida's university system began almost two years ago, when Bush and then-House Speaker John Thrasher began talking over dinner.

Soon they were drawing on a napkin. When they were done, a major experiment in education governance was born.

The state Board of Regents would be abolished. New boards at each university would be created. They would have broad powers, including the authority to set budgets, create programs and hire and fire the school president.

The new Board of Education would oversee the whole public education system, from kindergarten to college.

And Bush would appoint all of the board members, giving him unprecedented influence over Florida's education future.

The governor said he wanted to pick people from diverse backgrounds. He said he was looking for trustees who would "think outside the box," who would shake up a university system long known for being big rather than good.

At least in terms of diversity, the result is noticeably uneven.

The appointments were less partisan than expected. Democrats were named to about 25 percent of the seats, which is considerably better than they did on community college appointments. Bush has selected Republicans to fill 83 percent of those slots.

But several of the university boards -- including USF's -- have only one African-American member.

And it appears no Asians were appointed to the boards, though Asians make up about 5 percent of university system enrollment and are its fastest-growing segment.

Stephen Uhlfelder, a longtime member of the Board of Regents, was named to the Florida State University board. He thinks Bush's appointments are similar in quality to those that Democratic governors made to the regents.

If it were Lawton Chiles or Bob Graham making the appointments, "you would have ended up 80 to 85 percent Democratic," said Uhlfelder, a registered Democrat.

"And I don't remember Graham or Chiles appointing deans or professors to the regents," he said.

The reason, Uhlfelder said, is simple: "Money is the fuel that runs a university. These trustees understand how to raise money."

And how to give it away.

Bush's selections for the board at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton illustrate the role money and connections can play in the appointments.

Nancy Blosser, one of the new FAU trustees, is the wife of Jim Blosser, a lawyer and lobbyist with long-standing political ties to the Bush family.

He was one of the state's leading fundraisers for George W. Bush in 2000, for Jeb Bush in 1998 and for their father, former President George Bush.

FAU trustee Jorge Dominicis is vice president of one of the nation's largest sugar growers, Florida Crystals Corp. of West Palm Beach.

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Florida Crystals was the second-largest donor of soft money in the 2000 election cycle, with $787,400 in contributions to political parties.

The firm has been a major donor to the Florida GOP, and gave more than $160,000 to the party and to Republican legislative candidates in the 2000 election cycle. Dominicis himself has contributed heavily to both Democrats and Republicans, in Florida and across the country.

Rabbi Bruce Warshal of Hillsboro Beach, also an FAU trustee, publishes The Jewish Journal, a newspaper widely read in South Florida retirement condos. The overwhelming majority of Warshal's readers are Democrats, but as Journal publisher, he backed Jeb Bush's 1998 election.

FAU isn't the only Bush connection to the university boards.

FIU trustee Armando Codina of Coral Gables was the governor's former real-estate business partner in Miami. Codina and Thrasher, who was named to the Florida State University board, were Republican presidential electors for George W. Bush.

And Louise Courtelis, who was named to the University of Florida board, is the widow of Alec Courtelis, a major Republican fundraiser in Florida for many years.

Higher education experts around the country have been watching Florida's experiment with considerable interest. They say no state has ever attempted such a massive overhaul in so short a time.

It's not at all unusual to have wealthy or politically connected people on university boards, said Patrick Callan, president of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education.

No board should be without them, he said.

"What Florida needs to determine, probably by trial and error, is what are its expectations for these boards," Callan said. "The job goes beyond fundraising. They are going to be selecting university presidents."

-- Times researchers Caryn Baird and Kitty Bennett and staff writer Stephen Hegarty contributed to this report.

The political connections on the state's new university boards

Armando Codina

BOARD: Florida International University

POLITICAL CONNECTIONS: Former business partner of Jeb Bush. He and his company have donated $95,000 to Republican Party committees since 1999.

Chris Sullivan

BOARD: University of South Florida

POLITICAL CONNECTIONS: Sullivan has donated $160,000 to Republican committees since 1997. His company, Outback Steakhouse Inc., contributed $162,500 to the state Republican Party, and its political action committee gave $974,000 to candidates of both parties.

John Ramil

BOARD: University of South Florida.

POLITICAL CONNECTIONS: Ramil's company, Tampa Electric Co., has donated at least $350,000 through its parent company to Republican committees since 1997. The company's political committees donated another $235,000 to state candidates.