TALLAHASSEE — When former Lt. Gov. Frank Brogan became the state university system’s chancellor three months ago, he faced an imposing list of financial and political problems.
Tight budgets have meant enrollment caps at most of the 11 schools. The Bright Futures scholarship program that’s popular among middle-class parents is outstripping the Florida Lottery’s ability to pay for it.
The state’s medical schools are churning out more graduates than Florida has places where they can get hospital residency training. That means new physicians educated largely at taxpayer expense are leaving a state with a doctor shortage.
Brogan’s bosses on the Board of Governors, which oversees the universities, have raised the hackles of lawmakers through a lawsuit challenging the Legislature’s authority to set tuition and make other key decisions affecting universities.
The board hired Brogan, also a former state education commissioner whose last job was president of Florida Atlantic University, because he’s a political and educational insider who can use those relationships to mend fences and find solutions.
“Frank Brogan has all the experience he needs to deal with higher education,” said state Sen. Don Gaetz, a harsh critic of Brogan’s predecessor, Mark Rosenberg.
A Republican who was then-Gov. Jeb Bush’s No. 2 from 1999 until 2003 when he resigned to take over Florida Atlantic, Brogan will need to draw on his political skill to get on the right side of the GOP-controlled Legislature.
“It is very difficult to talk about doing great things together when someone is suing you,” said Gaetz, a Niceville Republican who chairs the Senate’s Commerce and Industry Committee.
The board is part of a lawsuit against the Legislature initially filed by former U.S. Sen. and ex-Gov. Bob Graham and several other private but prominent citizens two years ago.
The lawsuit contends that only the board can set tuition and any related policies.
Brogan said in a recent interview that he expects the board to seek a settlement that would avoid a non-jury trial set for July 6.
Brogan said the board cannot just drop the suit because it concerns other governance issues. Also, Graham and the other plaintiffs would have to agree to any settlement.
A new law the Legislature passed last year has opened the door for such an agreement because it gives both the Legislature and board roles in setting tuition, Brogan said.
The Legislature can approve across-the-board tuition increases.
Each school, with board approval, also raise its tuition. Combined, though, the increases cannot exceed 15 percent per year.
Increases by an individual university can continue until its tuition reaches the national average.
The lawsuit isn’t the only hot issue Brogan inherited.
The merit-based Bright Futures program is such a politically sensitive topic that Rosenberg, now president of Florida International University, and Department of Education officials last year refused to be interviewed about it. Their spokesmen said it’s a legislative, not administrative, issue.
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