ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, November 2, 1996 TAG: 9611040023
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-9 EDITION: METRO
THE ALLEN administration's assault on Virginia's tradition of nonpartisan, professional management of its higher-education system has not gone unnoticed nationally.
The Nov. 1 issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education outlines the story State Council of Higher Education a direct gubernatorial appointee, to bypass the council in higher-education budget-making and to slash the council's funding.
... of the subsequent partisan - and micromanaging - tenor of the governor's appointments to the 11-member council.
... of the two dissenting votes on the council in June 1995, including the vote of Abingdon lawyer Elizabeth McClanahan, against extending the contract of long-time Director Gordon Davies.
... of the coup d'etat a year later, in which McClanahan secretly lined up five other votes, including those of three brand-new members, to elect her chairman - by which ended the nonpolitical custom of elevating the vice chairman (himself, in this case, an Allen appointee) to the chairmanship.
... of the formation of a new committee system in which McClanahan or her allies dominate the important executive, planning, budget and outreach committees.
... of McClanahan's going behind the backs of the council's professional staff, to the governor's Department of Planning and Budget, to get enrollment-forecast methods more to her liking.
Virginians who know this story may be less familiar with the national reputation that the commonwealth's traditional method of higher-education management had earned. For example, the enrollment-forecast procedures, though not without flaws, have been lauded as exemplary by the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems. More generally, reports The Chronicle:
"The complaints about interference are significant because the council is seen as a model for the nation. It has worked with the colleges in a restructuring effort that has saved a total of $100 million in administrative costs and eliminated more than 80 academic programs. The agency has a seasoned staff, led for the past 19 years by ... Davies, a respected leader in higher education."
Though the plunge in Virginia's financial support for higher education dates to recession-induced cutbacks before Allen was governor, doubts remain about his commitment to the state's colleges and universities. Partial restoration of earlier funding levels has come only after pressure from the General Assembly and from a forward-looking coalition of business leaders.
But even if Allen were Mr. Higher Education, the politicization of higher-education management would still pose dangers. It tends to substitute ever-shifting short-term aims for more durable, long-term goals. It tends to introduce inappropriate criteria into, and thus corrupt the quality of, higher-education decision-making. And depoliticization is damnably difficult: The next governor should try, but to succeed must do so in a way that avoids looking like the second inning of the same game.
LENGTH: Medium: 58 linesby CNB