|
are two points, and I think these points
should be borne in mind by everyone. First
of all, this report does not advocate consti-
tutional autonomy for higher education. It
advocates legal autonomy, and it specifi-
cally says that the Committee recommends
either a constitutional amendment or a
statute that would include the following
provisions.
Now, we of the minority cannot under-
stand why in their meorandum and in their
presentation today this is cited as author-
ity, because it simply is not; if we carry
this to its logical extreme, the University
of Maryland makes no case whatsoever by
citing this authority, because it has the
very thinking that is recommened in this
booklet.
Now, secondly, and more importantly,
when considering the community colleges
and the state colleges, certain standards
are set out in here for what types of
institutions should be given this statutory
or constitutional autonomy, and I will read
from a footnote on page 30 :
"Some state-supported institutions be-
cause of inadequate staff or the inability
to guarantee a program and staff of ex-
cellence may not be prepared for legal,
I repeat, legal autonomy, but in all cases
autonomy should be the ultimate objec-
tive, and states should actively work to
strengthen the managerial and educa-
tional capacities of smaller institutions
so that they can assume their place as
institutions of higher learning worthy of
the name."
Now, in addition to not being authority
for the principle of the constitutional au-
tonomy, the report makes it clear by this
language that it is simply not authority
for across-the-board autonomy for everyone.
Let us apply the standards, and these
standards are the ones that the majority
must agree to or it would not have cited
this report to this Board of State Colleges.
This board has been in existence for ex-
actly four years. It has never requested
statutory autonomy from the legislature. It
comes to this Constitutional Convention for
the first time and requests constitutional
autonomy for all time.
The board has a staff, and a total budget
of $80,198; it has one executive director
and three staff specialists to run six full-
blown colleges in this State. They simply
do not meet the requirements set out in the
Eisenhower Report. Perhaps some day they
will, and we of the minority certainly hope
that when they do, they will present their
|
case to the General Assembly, where cer-
tainly it would be appropriate, and will
withdraw this rather vague pie-in-the-sky
notion that this Convention will see fit to
incorporate in the constitution — autonomy
for these types of institutions. The idea
for the Board of State Colleges came out
of the famous Curlett Commission Report
in 1962.
Now, what is does, is take all of the old
teachers' colleges or normal schools and
create State colleges out of them. The prog gress has been astonishing in the four
years. They are not research institutions.
They do not have the problems that begin
to measure up for even making a case for
statutory autonomy, and I would hope that
nothing more need be said on the subject.
We do move even to a slightly more diffi-
cult area with the community colleges.
Once again, this is very difficult to under-
stand because community colleges are not
state institutions. They are creatures of
local boards of education. They are spring-
ing up all over the State to meet the need
of people who want more education after
going to high school, but for some reason
do not want to attend the college or a
university.
(President H. Vernon Eney resumed the
Chair.)
THE CHAIRMAN: You have five min-
utes, Delegate Lord, for your presentation.
DELEGATE LORD: Nine counties and
the City of Baltimore now have these in-
stitutions. I would like to read from the re-
port at page 7 of the Majority Report.
It says:
"The public community colleges by
whatever name they may be hereafter
known shall be controlled by local boards
in accordance with law, and shall be
under the general supervision of a State
board. The local board of trustees shall
have general supervision over local insti-
tutions and control and direction of all
expenditures from the institutions' fund."
This is the same autonomy that has been
given to the other two branches of the
state system of higher education. It is just
plainly unjustified at this point. Not only
is there a Legislative Council bill to be re-
ported out in the next session of the Gen-
eral Assembly favoring the creation of a
statewide, more or less coordinating board
for higher education, and certainly this
board if it were created might, after a
period of years, be able to make a case for
some sort of a statutory autonomy; but
|
