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DRAFT 1
(03/02/01) Presented to Advisory Council of Faculty Senates and Rep. Perry McGriff By Richard Briggs, Chair-Elect, UF Faculty Senate Recommendation:
Separate coordinating boards are needed for K-12 (Board of Education)
and the State University System (Board of Higher Education). These Boards should meet periodically
to ensure that efficiency and interleaving are optimal from student, faculty,
and administrative perspectives.
The Board of Higher Education should have no fewer than 13 members,
including a voting student representative and a voting faculty representative
elected by their respective constituencies. Terms of members should be no less than ten years. Rationale: Different missions, scope,
geographical context, and access.
Size, complexity, and special characteristics of each demand separate
boards for adequate oversight, comprehensive planning, and proper attention
to details necessary to achieve success. Longer, staggered terms provides a
buffer from excessive influence by a single Governor or Legislature and also
carryover of board memory and experience when new members are selected. Recommendation: Both the K-12 (Board of Education)
and the State University System (Board of Higher Education) coordinating
bodies should be granted constitutional status to provide as much isolation
as possible from direct political interference and micro-management. Rationale: 1998 constitutional amendment
intent. (See
William C. Cramer, Jr. paper on "Jurisdiction of the State Board of
Education Under the Consitutional Revisions of 1998".) Recommendation: To maximize governance stability
during the transition, the current Board of Regents should be maintained as
Interim Board of Higher Education, and its composition, operation, and
jurisdiction modified as deemed appropriate. Rationale: The size and complexity of the education system,
especially the higher education system, and the myriad intricate operational
details necessary for it to function properly, are immense. This demands a slower, deliberative,
evolutionary, incremental change that builds upon the system that we have,
modifies it, improves it, rather than totally scrapping it and starting from
scratch. Adequate time needs to
be allowed for proper input and debate from all (e.g., faculty, staff,
students, parents, administration, education experts, legislators, citizens),
with a stable system in place while changes are being debated. We have already seen the chaos,
confusion, and uncertainty that accompany such radical and unnecessary
change. Lack of time to give
proper attention to the essential details of change will lead to more, and
longer lasting, difficulties. Recommendation: A new Interim Task Force on Higher
Education Governance should be established in place of the current Education
Governance Reorganization Transition Task Force to recommend the ultimate
higher education governance structure and associated details. This Interim Task Force on Education
Governance should be composed of five members appointed by the ten SUS Presidents, three
members appointed by the state's community college Presidents, two members
appointed by the state's non-public universities, and the current Interim and
past Chancellors of the SUS. Rationale: To
establish credibility and ensure the best proposals possible, qualified and
objective individuals are needed for this important group. Recommendation: Separate Boards of Trustees should be
established for each of the SUS institutions. Membership on each Board of Trustees should be no fewer
than 11, and include Presidents (or Chairs) of the Student Senate and Faculty
Senate as ex officio, voting members. Rationale: Both
student and faculty input is important for balanced institutional views. Recommendation: Neither the Governor nor the
Legislature shall have the power or authority to remove members of the
coordinating for K-12 Board of Education, the State University System Board
of Higher Education, or the Boards of Trustees for individual institutions. Rationale: This offers some protection from
excessive and direct political interference with the operation of the
respective governing boards. Recommendation: Qualifications and selection
procedures for the K-12 Board of Education, the State University System Board
of Higher Education, the Boards of Trustees for individual institutions, and
the Presidents by the Interim
Task Force on Higher Education Governance (see above) with consultation from
the teachers and faculty. Rationale: The best guarantee of well-qualified
and objectively selected board members is to have qualifications and
selection procedures clearly articulated. The faculty should have significant input. Recommendation: Tenure and academic freedom should be
guaranteed. Rationale: These are cornerstones of quality
education and unhindered enquiry. Recommendation: Adequate funding of education at all
levels should be provided by the state to guarantee that Florida is in the
upper 10% nationally. Special
funding sources such as the lottery and the tobacco fund shall be used solely
as supplementary and not complementary or substitutive sources of funding for
education. Rationale: All indications are that it is
impossible to have a top-notch education system without adequate state
funding Recommendation: Authority for establishment of new
programs and institutions should be vested in the coordinating Board of
Higher Education. Rationale: This
will minimize programmatic and institutional proliferation and duplication
and establishment of programs or institutions with inadequate funding. Recommendation: Accountability issues are summarized
in the report of L. Doty, J. Earle, B. Talmadge. Rationale: Accountability measures should be
objective, uniformly quantifiable, and peer-evaluated. Recommendation: Lump-sum budgeting to the university
system from the Legislature is recommended. Rationale: This
will minimize both excessive and counterproductive internal competition and
inappropriate micro-management of budgets by the Legislature. It will give individual institutions
more flexibility to manage their budgets to adapt to circumstances and needs. Recommendation: Greater tuition flexibility than
+15%, -10%. Rationale: Since Florida now has the third lowest tuition in the nation, this small range of flexibility will do little to provide significant improvements in the level of tuition funding realative to better funded states.
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