State Board Deserves Say In Presidents' Evaluations

Today the Florida Board of Governors will consider a proposal to involve itself in the annual evaluations of university presidents.

It's not a popular suggestion among some presidents or local university boards of trustees, but it's needed if Florida intends to build a cohesive, well-coordinated state university system that makes the most of available resources.

University presidents are among the most important cogs in the wheel of higher education, but the current system allows them only to be evaluated by their local boards, a process that often doesn't consider how a president's leadership fits into the overall Florida higher education system.

At its worst, the current system creates parochialism, turf-protection and political tug-of-wars in Tallahassee as universities seek to go their own way rather than working for the good of the state.

Somebody - and it ought to be the voter-created statewide Board of Governors - must keep an eye on the big picture.

Done right, the added review would create an extra element of accountability for taxpayers. The proposal would add the chairperson of the Florida Board of Governors to the president's reviews, but local boards of trustees would still retain the right to hire and fire presidents.

Just this week, the Chronicle of Higher Education released its annual report on salaries paid to university presidents showing compensation for the top executives going up even as universities struggle under severe budget cuts. University of Florida President Bernie Machen - who earns more than $731,000 a year in salary, bonuses and other compensation - was listed as one of the 10 highest-paid chief executives at public research universities in the U.S., and five Florida university presidents received compensation well above the national median of $427,400.

In Machen's case, he is a dynamic leader for UF. But Machen also put his institution's interests above the good of the state university system last year when he recruited Oregon Health & Science University to Florida, where it received $118 million in public incentives at a time when the Florida university system was losing some of its brightest minds to other states because the financial outlook was so dim.

And at Florida State University, President T.K. Wetherell thinks nothing of using his friends in the Legislature to make sure FSU gets more than its share, even at the expense of other universities.

The one thing the public has learned from the financial crisis sweeping Wall Street is that boards of major corporations have a tendency to reward their chief executives excessively and alone are not the best judge of performance.

For Florida's universities to have top-notch leadership, they will have to pay competitive salaries that recognize the responsibilities of running a major university are similar to running a major corporation.

The public is due a more comprehensive evaluation of a president's performance.

This is not about the Board of Governors micromanaging the state universities.

It's about bringing much-needed oversight to what can become a clubby, parochial environment - and keeping a focused eye on the state's greater good.