Basnight Names Senate Members To Study Group

Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight, D-Dare, recently made five appointments to a legislative commission that will examine the structure of the UNC-system Board of Governors.

Legislation passed by the N.C. General Assembly in December provided for the 10-member UNC Board of Governors Study Commission.

Basnight appointed Senate Majority Leader Tony Rand, D-Cumberland, to be the co-chairman of the commission. His other four appointments are Sen. Linda Garrou, D-Forsyth; Sen. John Garwood, R-Wilkes; Sen. Jeanne Lucas, D-Durham; and Sen. R.C. Soles, D-Columbus.

Basnight's five appointments are expected to be complemented this week by the five selections from House Speaker Jim Black, D-Mecklenburg.

To ensure that the UNC system is being well-managed, the commission will evaluate the size of the board, the member election process and the term particulars. Basnight stated in a press release that the BOG's structure is more than 30 years old and that with 32 members it is far too large.

Amy Fulk, Basnight's press secretary, said Rand was selected as a co-chairman in large part because he proposed the study during the last session of the legislature.

Rand noted that only having legislators on the commission will give the body's recommendation weight within the legislature and speed the evaluation process.

The December legislation calls for the commission to conclude its work by next January, the start of the 2003 session of the General Assembly.

Garwood said his colleagues are well-qualified to examine the BOG. All five members serve on committees that are responsible for funding or overseeing the UNC system.

Garwood noted that he is especially qualified to study the BOG because he served on the board for more than 11 years. "I know a lot of things have changed," he said. "But on the other hand I served on the BOG -- only person in the Senate."

Rand said that because the General Assembly instituted the BOG, it has the right to tinker with it. "We'd be the proper body to look at how it's done," he said. "We set it up, and now we're going to look at it again and get it right."

But the operating specifics of the commission remain unclear.

"I suppose we'll talk with people who have done research in human dynamics -- if you can call it that -- on the proper size of a board, what size is unwieldy and how many people would an optimum number be," Rand said.

Earlier opposition voiced by UNC-system leaders about the commission seems to have evaporated.

BOG member Ray Farris said the board's prior objections have been amended because the purpose of the inquiry has been altered.

"Initially the scope of this inquiry was much broader to see whether or not the board was functioning as it was intended," he said. "This one is to examine structure."

Farris also said he was disappointed to see that the BOG had no say in the appointment process, although he is pleased with Basnight's selections.

"I don't really have an opinion on whether I like the group or I don't like the group," Farris said.

"I just wish there was someone with some institutional memory or knowledge."

BOG member Brad Wilson said he thinks the views of board members will be properly represented on the commission.

"Number one, we'll probably be asked our opinions," he said.

"Number two, all of us are elected by the General Assembly, and both individually and collectively we'll make our point heard, whether it's wanted or not."

Fulk confirmed this notion. "Even though (the board) might not have an appointed seat in the commission, they'll have a seat at the table."

The State & National Editor can be reached at stntdesk@unc.edu.