{"id":61,"date":"2016-02-26T17:33:02","date_gmt":"2016-02-26T17:33:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.tntech.edu\/aaup\/?p=61"},"modified":"2016-02-26T17:33:02","modified_gmt":"2016-02-26T17:33:02","slug":"tennessean-article-john-morgan-testifies-against-haslams-college-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.tntech.edu\/aaup\/2016\/02\/26\/tennessean-article-john-morgan-testifies-against-haslams-college-plan\/","title":{"rendered":"Tennessean article: John Morgan testifies against Haslam’s college plan"},"content":{"rendered":"
Gov. Bill Haslam’s plan to overhaul Tennessee’s public college system easily cleared another legislative\u00a0hurdle Tuesday, despite strong words from one of its harshest critics.<\/div>\n
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The bill won the support of\u00a0the House\u00a0Education Administration & Planning Committee\u00a0on Tuesday after more than an hour of debate spurred on by the testimony of\u00a0John Morgan, the\u00a0former chancellor of the Tennessee Board of Regents college system.<\/div>\n
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Morgan\u00a0has been outspoken<\/span><\/a> in his critiques of Haslam’s plan, which would create independent governing boards for six universities overseen by the Board of Regents.\u00a0Morgan\u00a0resigned in January because he thought the plan was “unworkable,” and on Tuesday he elaborated on his problems with the bill.<\/div>\n
Morgan\u00a0called the move a “mistake” that would amp up competition between colleges that had been partners under the Board of Regents system. He said that competition would ultimately\u00a0weaken colleges such as Tennessee State and Tennessee Tech\u00a0universities.<\/div>\n
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“I don’t think this is a particularly good way of changing our higher education system in Tennessee,” Morgan told the lawmakers. He later added,\u00a0“A generation from now, I think we’ll see a less effective higher education system than we have.”<\/div>\n
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The plan has broad support from Republican leadership in the\u00a0General Assembly and several university presidents, but\u00a0Rep. Craig\u00a0Fitzhugh, D-Ripley, asked that the committee hear from Morgan before signing off\u00a0on the bill. It appeared that\u00a0Fitzhugh and\u00a0Rep.\u00a0Kevin Dunlap, D-Rock Island,\u00a0were the only members of\u00a0the 13-member House panel\u00a0to vote against it on a voice vote.<\/div>\n
Morgan might not have changed any minds, but his testimony did generate\u00a0conversation between lawmakers and state officials, mostly concerning the likelihood that Haslam’s plan would generate corrosive competition between\u00a0universities.<\/div>\n
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He has said that if those six universities, which include\u00a0Middle Tennessee State, Tennessee State and Austin Peay State, had their own boards,\u00a0they’d be more likely to\u00a0fight statewide initiatives that might\u00a0threaten their individual enrollment or other goals.<\/div>\n
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But\u00a0Tennessee Tech\u00a0President\u00a0Philip Oldham told lawmakers he disagreed with Morgan, his former boss.\u00a0Oldham said that although\u00a0“competition exists now, and it’s fierce,” the desire to collaborate between institutions is\u00a0“somewhat in our DNA,” a fact he said would not change under the new structure Haslam has proposed.<\/div>\n
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Haslam’s plan, included as part of the Focus on College and University Success Act, known as FOCUS,\u00a0easily cleared votes in other committees earlier in the session. It will go to the House\u00a0Government Operations and Senate Education committees next.<\/div>\n
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\u00a0After the vote, Morgan said he had hoped to slow the bill’s progress so that lawmakers would have time to consider its scope.\u00a0But he doubted his criticism would blunt the bill’s progress.<\/div>\n
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“I think the bill passes pretty much the way the governor wants it,” Morgan said.<\/div>\n
Under the plan,\u00a0the\u00a0local university boards would be allowed to set tuition, hire presidents\u00a0and decide their own priorities.\u00a0The\u00a0Board of Regents would continue to manage the state’s network of 13 community colleges and 27 technical colleges.<\/div>\n
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Reach Adam Tamburin at 615-726-5986 and on Twitter @tamburintweets.<\/i><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gov. Bill Haslam’s plan to overhaul Tennessee’s public college system easily cleared another legislative\u00a0hurdle Tuesday, despite strong words from one of its harshest critics. The bill won the support of\u00a0the House\u00a0Education Administration & Planning Committee\u00a0on Tuesday after more than an hour of debate spurred on by the testimony of\u00a0John Morgan, the\u00a0former chancellor of the Tennessee … Continue reading Tennessean article: John Morgan testifies against Haslam’s college plan<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.tntech.edu\/aaup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.tntech.edu\/aaup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.tntech.edu\/aaup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.tntech.edu\/aaup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/53"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.tntech.edu\/aaup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.tntech.edu\/aaup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62,"href":"https:\/\/sites.tntech.edu\/aaup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61\/revisions\/62"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.tntech.edu\/aaup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.tntech.edu\/aaup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.tntech.edu\/aaup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}