State: Panel scripting new rules for university governance

The state Board of Regents is doomed. The only question left is the date of execution. But a task force working on the board's demise has a lot of other changes in mind for Florida's 10 universities.

The panel, for example, thinks each university should be able to set its own tuition and fees. It wants to allow universities to create new degree programs without seeking state permission. It says the schools, and not the state, should make the final decision about which of their professors deserve tenure.

Those are some of the proposals outlined in draft recommendations now circulating among educators. The task force says it would vest the new powers in university boards of trustees, local bodies that also would have a major say in the hiring and firing of their presidents.

The goal is to move much of the operating authority in the university system from the state to the institutional level, says Philip Handy, chairman of the Education Governance Reorganization Task Force, the 11-member panel charged with creating an education system unlike any in the United States.

Handy says he has been trying to persuade university leaders, especially University of Florida President Charles Young and Florida State University President Sandy D'Alemberte, that a power shift is in their best interest.

"I told them they should see this as an opportunity. I told them it will make it easier for their universities to be distinctive," says Handy, a Winter Park financier and longtime Republican fund-raiser who was appointed to the task force by Gov. Jeb Bush.

Exactly when the changes might occur is unclear.

The task force could vote on its final recommendations as early as this week, when it meets in Miami. Handy has promised that a new governing structure will be submitted to state lawmakers no later than March 1.

That's almost two years earlier than the January 2003 deadline for making the changes. But even the regents want that timetable accelerated. They say the uncertainty about what will replace them is making it harder for the university system to function.

The task force now is expected to ask state lawmakers to put the regents out of their misery as early as next July. If that happens, their duties would be split between the university boards and a new state Board of Education, a seven-member panel appointed by the governor that will be given final say over every aspect of education in Florida from kindergarten through postgraduate work.

But nothing is set in stone, says Laurie Cain, the task force's deputy director.

"We're still in the review stage," she said. "We still need to get input from a lot of different areas."

The draft recommendations, however, offer the clearest outline to date of what may be Florida's higher education future.

The biggest change is the university boards, panels whose nine members will be appointed by the governor.

Cain says local boards are better positioned to respond to the needs of their local universities. It's easier for them to identify problems with access and course offerings. They can set tuition rates and admission standards that correspond to local circumstances.

"This way, none of the universities will have to stay within the confines of what the others are doing," she says.

The university presidents who responded to a recent survey done by the regents are not entirely convinced. Several said they would prefer to see the establishment of a statewide coordinating board, which they think could reduce the parochialism and turf wars likely under a more local structure.

Not surprisingly, the presidents also wondered whether it was a good idea to give the university boards a major role in their evaluations and in the selection of new presidents.

Some said local boards are invariably political. Some worried about the time and energy required in dealing with them.

Handy says the task force is likely to recommend that the university boards be allowed to nominate up to three candidates for president, with the state Board of Education making the final decision.

He concedes, however, that there is nothing to prevent a university board from nominating just one candidate.

The push to allow universities to create their own academic programs also is raising eyebrows. The concern expressed by some is unnecessary duplication and its potential cost to taxpayers.

The task force was careful to take high-priced doctoral and professional programs, such as medical colleges and law schools, off the table. The new freedom would extend only to undergraduate and master's-level offerings.

But those still involve substantial costs.

"What if every university decides it needs to offer a master's in business administration? Or in the classics?" asks Keith Goldschmidt, a university system spokesman.

"What if they do?" responds Handy. He says universities would be able to create a program only if there is money in their budget to pay for it.

"The universities should be deciding how best to allocate their resources," he said.

There appears to be little disagreement about letting universities set their own tuition, though it is unclear exactly how much freedom each institution would have. State law already allows universities to charge different rates within a range set by the Legislature.

Before any changes are approved, Cain says, the task force will need to determine the potential impact on financial aid, and especially on huge scholarship programs such as Bright Futures, a merit-based plan that subsidizes the tuition of thousands of Florida students.

One of the more intriguing elements of the draft recommendations is a proposal to decentralize collective bargaining.

Bargaining currently is done on a statewide basis, with the United Faculty of Florida on one side, representing about 11,000 university system employees, and a team for university system Chancellor Adam Herbert on the other.

The final product is not uniform, says Rosie Webb Joels, UFF's state president. Some of the differences between universities reflect cost-of-living concerns; others are rooted in market pressures, which can affect salary scales in high-demand disciplines such as computer science and engineering.

But the recommendation to end statewide bargaining represents an entirely new world.

"We think it will create competition, which we support," Cain says.

Joels is still on the fence.

"We just aren't clear on all the implications," she says. But she says there is a plus side.

A local bargaining team is likely to be more sensitive to the unique working conditions at a particular school, Joels says.

"All 10 universities have very different conditions, some minor and some very major," she says. "This would eliminate the need to deal with all of those idiosyncrasies collectively."

Recent coverage

College presidents: If regents must go, don't delay (November 17, 2000)

Regents to recommend their own replacement (September 16, 2000)

Education task force begins job (September 14, 2000)

Regents vow to fight board's demise (July 21, 2000)

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Lucy Morgan

From the Times state desk