June 11, 2008

FSU TRUSTEES RESPOND TO BOARD OF GOVERNORS PROPOSAL

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- The Florida State University Board of Trustees has responded to a proposed regulation sent to FSU by the Board of Governors regarding Board of Trustees powers and duties.

FSU Board of Trustees Chairman Jim Smith on Monday sent a letter to Carolyn Roberts, chairman of the Florida Board of Governors, asking her to use her authority to delay any BOG action on the proposed regulation until the university administrators and boards of trustees have had an opportunity to study the proposal and coordinate a response. The BOG will consider the proposed change at its meeting June 19 on the University of Central Florida campus.

“It is our view that several of the revisions reflect a serious departure and retreat from the concept of devolution that has existed since the 2003 reorganization of higher education in the State of Florida,” Smith wrote. “These revisions reflect an unreasonable and needless micromanagement and interference with several of the university board’s most important powers and duties.”

Smith’s letter was written in response to a May 30 request from Chancellor Mark Rosenberg for the university boards of trustees to comment on the proposed regulation that codifies -- and revises -- the powers and duties initially delegated to the university boards of trustees in 2003.

In his response, Smith said the FSU trustees “strongly object to being given only two weeks to comment on the regulation that will prescribe the powers and duties of the university boards of trustees for years to come.”

Smith argues that the proposed involvement of the BOG in the selection and evaluation of a university president far exceeds the oversight role of a governing body. Furthermore, a university board of trustees is in a much better position to evaluate the president’s performance.

“By becoming involved in the evaluation of the president, the Board of Governors blurs the lines of authority between the board(s) of trustees and the Board of Governors,” Smith wrote.

In addition, the proposed BOG regulation calls for university boards of trustees to obtain approval from the Board of Governors prior to acquiring real property to be used for instructional or research sites. Smith questioned the legal authority of the BOG to involve itself in the approval of real property transactions by direct support organizations (DSO). As independent, not-for-profit corporations, each DSO exercises separate independent legal authority to consummate real property transactions by purchase, donation or gift.

Smith noted that the trustees must have time to fully examine other proposed revisions to the regulation.

“We believe that action by the Board of Governors to adopt the regulation is wholly premature,” Smith wrote. “The university boards of trustees have operated under the present Resolution of January 7, 2003, for more than five years. To give us a mere two weeks to comment on such an important regulation with significant revisions is totally unacceptable.”

NOTE TO MEDIA: Board Chairman Jim Smith’s letter is attached. (Click to view PDF.)

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