Florida Universities' BOG Modeled on UNC System

Under the new system, a 17-member board of governors will make decisions concerning the state's higher education system. Fourteen members will be appointed by the state legislature. The board also will have student and faculty representation.

Each school will maintain an independent board of trustees, but their memberships will be reduced and compositions changed.

The new system will be similar in structure to the UNC system, said Brad Bartel, provost of Florida Gulf Coast University.

The 16-campus UNC system is governed by a 34-member board, including a nonvoting student and a former N.C. governor, who holds a lifetime membership. Each school has an independent board of trustees. System budget requests must be approved by the N.C. General Assembly.

Though the system being established in Florida is similar to North Carolina's, some officials say the UNC-system model is not ideal. The UNC-system BOG has been criticized by some legislators, who think it is too large to be effective. The complaints led to a legislative study commission charged with reviewing the board's structure and function.

Commission Chairman Tony Rand, D-Cumberland, said he thinks the BOG should be much smaller and more decentralized, giving individual boards of trustees increased power. Rand, N.C. Senate majority leader, added that the smaller Florida BOG is a potential model for a revision of the UNC-system board.

Former UNC-system President Bill Friday said size is not the only important difference between the systems. The Florida system is a constitutional body, eliminating the need for the state legislature to approve policy such as university funding, he said. "It's a constitutional body; it eliminates gubernatorial control."

Friday, who was in charge of the UNC system when it was formed more than 30 years ago, is acting as a consultant for Florida as it crafts its new system.

Friday said he thinks the UNC system is a good model because it has prevented duplication of degree programs, led to wise use of money and increased colleges' rankings.

Bartel said Florida Gov. Jeb Bush still must cement the structure of the new system before it goes into effect Jan. 7.

Florida previously had a governing system similar to the UNC system, but the structure, implemented by U.S. Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., also a two-term Florida governor, was reversed under Bush.

Graham, who voiced enthusiastic support for the amendment reinstating the system, criticized Bush's elimination of the university governance system.

Floridians, including Graham, became more concerned with the effectiveness of higher education's governance three or four years ago when new, expensive medical and law schools were approved by the legislature, Bartel said. "That was the straw that broke the camel's back."

Public opinion was roused enough to ensure the passage of the amendment Nov. 5, effectively reinstating the displaced university governing board.

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