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Elimination
of the Current State University System Governance Structure and Its
Replacement With... A Novel and Untested System of Governance First
Press Release by the Faculty Senate of the University of Florida During
the last legislative session, the Florida Legislature proposed [House Bill
2263] the elimination of the State University System’s Board of Regents
and Governor Bush signed it into law.
For the past several months, the Governor’s Educational
Reorganization Transition Task Force has held hearings on this issue.
At their next meeting, on the 5th and 6th of
December, the Transition Task Force is set to vote to create a novel and
untested system of educational governance that will be sent to the
Governor for approval. This
system will put the management of the State University System--the crown
jewel of the State’s system of education--into the hands of the State
Board of Education, the same people who manage Kindergarten through grade
12. The
Faculty Senate of the University of Florida, the deliberative body of the
University, welcomes discussion on how to improve democratic governance of
our University System. We
welcome, and will take part in, any discussion whose end is to improve the
workings of the educational, discovery, and service processes of our
University. We are supportive
of all attempts to improve the articulation of the educational system of
the State of Florida. Although
we and other thoughtful educators and leaders from Florida and the nation
have been involved in open sessions with the Transition Task Force, we
wish to point out once again our areas of major concern with the proposed
system that will be put into place to govern the SUS.
These include: 1.
Lack of true consultation by the Transition Task Force in the
development of this system; 2.
With the Transition Task Force proposed governance system, the
potential for political manipulation of new program and facility
development throughout the SUS; 3.
With the Transition Task Force proposed governance system, the
potential for
political manipulation of students, faculty and staff throughout the SUS; 4.
With the Transition Task Force proposed governance system, the
potential for--especially given the differential legislative delegation
strengths in the North versus South of our state--political manipulation
of funding to each campus in the SUS. The
Board of Regents--the present governance structure--was written into
existence in the late 1960s by the same legislative body that now seeks to
disband it. Among the many
reasons that the Board was created, a desire to limit politically
motivated manipulation of programs and facilities was one of major
significance. Additionally,
the State may have been embarrassed by revelations that an official
committee of the Legislature had manipulated the Board of Control, the
predecessor to the Board of Regents, and was investigating the private
lives of faculty and staff. The
heirs to that state body now seek to dismantle the only existing
"firewall" that exists between the State University System and the
Legislature. Since
its inception, the present governance structure has been tasked with
planning for the needs of the State University System.
Perhaps most importantly, this body has been charged with
developing goals and objectives for the entire State University System,
and creating a statewide strategic plan for the development of higher
education in the State of Florida. Although
all of the functions of the Board of Regents are important, it is the
process of state-wide planning, with a minimum of political interference,
that is put at risk by the abolition of the present governance structure.
This is especially worrisome, as the system being prepared to
replace the present governance structure appears to have no SUS
coordinated planning function. Although
we have seriously and profoundly disagreed with some of the actions of the
Board of Regents, the Faculty Senate of the University of Florida opposes
the hasty elimination of the present governance structure.
We again call upon University of Florida students and Alumni, as
well as friends, colleagues and educators in other states to send Governor
Bush [jeb@jeb.org], the Transition Task
Force leaders John Winn [john.winn@laspbs.state.fl.us]
and Phil Handy [FPHandyman@aol.com],
and the Florida Legislature a message that the State University System
should not be recklessly manipulated.
The governance structure that is put into place for our SUS should,
at a minimum, address each of the above-mentioned concerns.
Time is short, the risk is real, and if nothing is done what we
lose may take decades to recover. UF
Faculty Senate Contacts: A.
Joseph Layon, MD Richard
Briggs, PhD |