BOG's Role Might Face Scrutiny

The Senate passed the bill last week to eliminate quotas in the selection of BOG members. But a provision inserted into the bill earlier that day by the Senate Education Committee calls for the creation of a commission that will examine all aspects of the BOG.

The bill, which passed 37-2, will now head to the House.

No date has been set for when a House committee will hear the legislation.

The 10-member commission would examine the length of members' terms, the number of terms a member may serve, the size of the BOG, the scope of the BOG's governance powers and the effectiveness of the present structure.

The commission will report its findings to the General Assembly next summer, when the legislature convenes for its 2002 session.

Gov. Mike Easley, Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight, House Speaker Jim Black and BOG Chairman Ben Ruffin each will appoint some of the commission's 10 members.

Sen. Howard Lee, D-Orange, vice chairman of the Senate Education Committee, said that 30 years after the creation of the present system structure, it is time to examine the BOG, especially because both the system and the board have become larger over the years, possibly making the University more difficult to operate.

Lee said he also wants the commission to determine whether the system's structure hurts the effectiveness of its two flagship institutions -- UNC-Chapel Hill and N.C. State University.

"I'm not interested in seeing the UNC system dismantled," Lee said. "I am interested in seeing if it can operate more efficiently, especially for our two flagship institutions.

"I think Chapel Hill and State really find themselves down the ladder of effectiveness when compared to peer institutions nationwide."

The structure of the BOG and the UNC system was established in 1971 and has remained largely unchanged since then.

In the state budget passed two weeks ago, the General Assembly handed some of the powers previously belonging to the BOG to the individual campus boards of trustees -- including the hiring of senior personnel and control over information technology.

BOG member Brad Wilson said he welcomes the study and that he does not think the commission would find anything that would cause drastic changes to the UNC-system's governing structure.

Wilson said, "I'm not personally concerned about the study or afraid of it, but I don't know why they felt the need to do this all of a sudden."

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