John Morgan, chancellor of the Tennessee Board of Regents, announced he would resign in a scathing letter that slammed Gov. Bill Haslam’s plan to dramatically restructure the state’s largest public college system.
In a letter sent Thursday to Haslam and Board of Regents Vice Chair Emily Reynolds, Morgan called Haslam’s plan “unworkable” and added that it will “seriously impair” the colleges’ abilities to work toward state goals. Morgan had planned to retire in January 2017, but he said he fast-tracked those plans after Haslam announced his proposal in December.
“I cannot, in good conscience, continue as chancellor for another year,” Morgan wrote. He will step down Jan. 31.
Haslam’s proposal, which will be included as part of the “Focus on College and University Success Act” this year, calls for the creation of independent boards for six state universities governed by the Board of Regents. The governor has said that model would allow the universities to get more attention from their own boards while allowing the Board of Regents to focus on community and technical colleges, which have experienced significant growth under the Tennessee Promise scholarship and other state programs.
The plan has won praise from the state’s top lawmakers, although an expert who testified before the Senate Higher Education Subcommittee in December cautioned that such a plan likely would lead to additional costs for state colleges.
“I believe the path being proposed is the wrong one for many reasons,” Morgan wrote in his resignation letter. “I would not be in a position to help implement a proposal that, in my view, will do nothing to further TBR’s work to accomplish the state’s goals.”
In past comments to reporters and state lawmakers, Morgan had stopped short of criticizing Haslam’s plan directly. Instead, he has said the Board of Regents is successful in its current structure, in which one central board oversees the six universities, 13 community colleges and 17 technical colleges. (continue reading at Tennessean)