UNIVERSITY TRUSTEES TO RETAIN POWER
Palm Beach Post
January 8, 2003
By LARRY KELLER Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Trustees at Florida’s 11 public universities will continue to exercise broad powers even though a newly created statewide university governing board began work on Tuesday.

Florida’s Board of Governors met for the first time Tuesday and passed a resolution defining the powers of the local boards of trustees.

Trustees will have the authority to acquire and sell property on behalf of their universities, to establish or abolish degree programs, set fees and prepare a budget that must be approved by the Board of Governors.

Trustees also will be entrusted to do a presidential search and to name a new president, but their choice has to be approved by the Board of Governors. Florida Atlantic University has a search committee screening candidates for the school’s presidential vacancy. Trustees are scheduled to name a new president on Jan. 31.

The Board of Governors – which named Gov. Jeb Bush’s transition team chairman and GOP contributor Thomas Petway III as its chair – can rescind any of these responsibilities, but Florida Board of Education spokesman Bill Edmonds said that likely won’t be done cavalierly.

“It was clear from the meeting they are philosophically comfortable with . . . moving authority downstream,” Edmonds said.

The Board of Governors will deal with higher education issues of statewide importance, but discussed no such issues on Tuesday. The board was created when voters approved Amendment 11 in November, which created a university governing board similar to the Board of Regents that was abolished by the state legislature.

The board of trustees governing FAU changes little. Bush appointed five members and the Board of Governors named six. The other two members consist of a faculty member and a student representative, as a result of Amendment 11. All will serve staggered five-year terms.

FAU’s board Chairman John Temple is the only FAU trustee who won’t be back in 2003, having been named by Bush to serve on the 17-member Board of Governors. A new chairman will be chosen at FAU’s trustee meeting on Jan. 15. Temple’s spot on the board will be taken by Fred Hoffman, a math professor who is chairman of FAU’s faculty council.