Tracy, Ketron dislike Regents appointment

State Senators Bill Ketron (R-Murfreesboro) and Jim Tracy (R-Shelbyville) said Thursday they have asked Senate Education Chairman Dolores Gresham (R-Somerville) to schedule a meeting of the Senate Education Committee "as soon as practicable" to hear testimony regarding the appointments of members to Tennessee Board of Regents.

The call comes one week after the board appointed John Morgan as chancellor despite a request from the Senate Education Chairman to broaden the search to consider applicants with advanced doctorate degrees and managerial experience in a higher education setting.

Ketron said Tennessee law requires appointed members "shall be subject to confirmation by the Senate." The Senate has not acted on the appointments in recent years. The law states appointments "shall be effective until adversely acted upon by the Senate."

"We have a duty under Tennessee law to look at members appointed to the Board of Regents, which was obviously put into place to explore their qualifications, education ideas and other relevant matters to that position," said Ketron, a member of the Education Committee in a news release. "Therefore, this is something that we have a statutory duty to examine. We have been far too lenient in this regard and need to take a look at these board members who are serving approximately 200,000 students across this state in a position of high authority."

"I am very concerned about the Board's action to drastically increase the new chancellor's salary from $305,000 to $385,000 at a time when our state employees did not receive a raise and when we are looking at increased tuition rates for our students," added Ketron, who is also chairman of the legislature's Fiscal Review Committee. "The legislature made many difficult cuts to state government programs this year. The public, rightfully, has a good reason to complain when such action is taken by a state government board or agency, especially when the education requirements for the position were lowered by the Board."

The Tennessee Board of Regents supervises all state-owned higher education institutions except for the University of Tennessee system, including four-year colleges like Middle Tennessee State University; community colleges like Motlow State Community College; and Tennessee Technology Centers like the one in Shelbyville.

The institutions governed by TBR do not have their own board of directors or trustees at the campus level, leaving the TBR with the ability to hire or promote various positions in the state's colleges and universities, a system which Ketron and Tracy say differs from most other states.

"The Tennessee Board of Regents has a huge impact on our higher education system," said Tracy, who is also a member of the Education Committee. "Although the Senate cannot act as a body until next year on this matter, we are asking the chairman to begin the process of looking at the members appointed as we are statutorily required."