Departing members of State Board of Higher Education cite stress of workload, criticism
April 22, 2012 at 2:30 am in Grand Forks Herald
It’s been a rocky road lately for the State Board of Higher Education, as two members say stress and a tough workload contributed to their decisions to step down, and the board president worries about the ability to find qualified candidates in the future. Continue Reading
In addition to all the major blunders committed by the SBHE over the years, no matter who is on it, it may also suffer from a problem of appearances. If one reads the news stories about it, one could easily infer that it is made up of two people: Shaft and Espegard. They are always quoted, while the others remain silent. This, then, leads to the conclusion that they run the show. And since they are the most obvious beneficiaries of political patronage, questions will be raised.
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When the decision to drop the nickname was made, I called UND. They referred me to the SBOHE.
The poor ladies that were there to answer the phone were being really worked over by callers that day, but tried to be helpful. Problem was, there was no one there to answer public questions. They had no communications policy or plan in place even after a decision on an issue they had to have known would draw intense interest. No one in a position of authority was tasked with being a public contact after a hugely controversial decision was made.
So I asked who ran the outfit. Was told Grant Shaft was the person to talk to. Call him at his business in Grand Forks. Several times, left a message–no call back. One really got the impression people at SBOHE and his own business thought this was a sideline. He didn’t have to talk to people–that’s not the way it works. They make decisions, those decisions get implemented, and that’s that. No communication.
They are a decision making body. How do they take input from the public? They have no process for that. You can read this in their policy direction. There is no process for taking public input, student input, or citizen input.
Check out their agenda’s. Every public decision making body I know of has time for public questions somewhere in the agenda. It might be responding to those questions as a group, or it might be allowing individuals to speak. Nothing there either. I don’t know if it’s even possible for a regular citizen to attend their meetings?
Transparency and willingness to engage the public is very, very low with this public decision making institution. That status quo can survive when it’s decisions are largely non-controversial when implemented. When a real controversy comes along, it’s going to be trouble no matter what the issue.
Some blame the republicans in the legislature for bringing politics into the issue. I am no fan of theirs, and think there is some blame to be placed.
But the issue of how they work and how they don’t engage the public is real. It’s highly uncommon, and if they want to maintain their non-political status and retain decision making authority, I believe they have to come out of the shadows with their work!
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Republican appointees/lackies…all. Nope, no political agenda here!
Hot debate. What do you think?
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This story shows why the SBHE needs to be an elected position. Statewide elections for all members on a rotating basis. 4 year terms. The linchpin is the SBHE stays constitutionally mandated to run the schools. The legislature appropriates but the SBHE administrates. Sorry Uncle Al, your shenanigans have got to stop.
I was also dismayed to hear that at least one person on the board thought that it was a part time gig, similar to serving on the Board of Directors for some charity. Maybe the Board needs to be full time? At the very least the political hacks have got to go.
Did you notice how many members actually have anything to do with education? That might be part of the problem.
I believe the SBHE needs to be insulated from the Legislative and Executive Branch, but accountable to the people. How do you do that? You elect them. I find no reason to have the Insurance Commissioner elected (completely a function of the Executive Branch) but the SBHE controlled by patronage.
As for the present board, if there were elections, they would not have a job. I think we can all agree on that.
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Always thought it was strange that school boards are elected, but the SBHE is appointed. Also, Shaft’s statement, “the board president worries about the ability to find qualified candidates in the future,” is particularly humorous. His only qulification, like so many others over the years, was to be a former Republican legislator.
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flyingnurse: I agree with most of your comments, but I very much prefer appointed positions. I prefer appointing and empowering qualified people over electing popular people. This is very, very unpopular in North Dakota where their right to vote trumps everything, including their interest in hiring good people. It’s a very inefficient way to run a Republic. Regardless of how pathetic the ND system is, it is popular with the vast majority.
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I agree with you Alvin. The board was created to avoid the polticalness of what was happening at that time, and for future generations. To elect those positions would put it right back into the political arena and have those people licking the ring of a specific state legislature that is frothing at the mouth to get this group under his control.
Why i say this.. You look at the state legislature and all of the positions that are elected, but yet they toe the Carlson political line.
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Tough. That’s what I say to those SBHE members who complain about the stress and hard work. What were you expecting? A few meetings a year? Your chance to feel ‘powerful’ rubber-stamping some issue compliant with whatever political force made you a member to begin with? Maybe some nice meals? Definitely a feather in your ‘community service’ cap?
Well, of late, you’ve gotten more than you bargained for haven’t you? Not so comfy-cozy as you expected is it?
Earn your keep. Or quit and/or move on like some of you are doing. I’m not sure the value of a SBHE to begin with — but I REALLY think it’s sad to hear the complaints about the work. Really sad.
There’s a new chancellor coming to town. I wish him all the luck in the world.
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Job interviewer: “Why did you leave your last postiton?”
Answer: “I couldn’t handle criticism and the work load was to much for me.”
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Many of the comments on this board indicate that the SBOHE has simply acted as a rubber stamp for the interests of higher education officials. I agree that in many instances that has been true. However, turning the SBOHE into elected positions has the potential for even greater deference to the interests of higher education officials. One recent example occurred in Grand Forks and another in St. Paul. In Grand Forks the elected school board increased the salary of the superintendent after he’d already announced his retirement for the stated purpose of increasing his retirement benefits. In St. Paul the local teachers’ union has started to “endorse” candidates for the school board raising the obvious question of how those candidates, if elected, could ever be impartial in contract negotiations. I don’t have a solution, but I think that there is an inherent deficiency in large blocks of voters being able to influence the election of individuals who will subsequently use tax dollars to provide compensation for that same block of employees. Elected officials don’t negotiate compensation with their own dollars like private sector employees; they negotiate with tax dollars.
If you don’t think that local school district employees can determine an election I suggest you take a look at the Grand Forks school District. While someone who wants to “tighten the budget” may get elected for one term, they are never reelected once they voice those opinions; e.g. C.T. Marhula. On a larger scale this is being played out in Wisconsin where efforts to shrink public employee benefits result in a ground swell of adversity from public employee unions. I’m not commenting on who is right or wrong, it just seems to me that there is an inherent deficiency that didn’t use to exist; a much larger portion of the population is now employed by political subdivisions.
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I call for STATEWIDE election (very important, regional elections have too much possibility of cronyism, at least statewide you have to work a little harder than Uncle Al does in his insulated 30,000 person district) because right now the system is a farce:
Uncle Al puts forward a list of names from which the Governor chooses. I am not certain, but from what I read earlier, I do not believe the Governor can add to that list, but like I said, I may be wrong on that point.
What you get in effect is Uncle Al choosing the board. Nothing personal but I want him recalled, not choosing the direction of the board for the foreseeable future.
Also, elections, especially state wide ones, are less political than people think. We are not talking the US Senate or House here. Most lower tiered elections are much less controversial.
For the sake of argument, lets take the present board and the FS issue. I want a anti-nickname candidate. Always wants a pro nickname candidate. Under the present system it does not matter what either of us want, because it is in Uncle Al’s hands. The only thing that matters is what he wants.
In an election Always and I can support, campaign for, and eventually vote for the candidate of our choosing.
There is no doubt elections are not perfect, but they beat appointments 100% of the time. The only reason we have appointed positions is the general public does not have the time or inclination to hire everyone on the payroll. It is a nod to efficiency, not a recommendation on how to run a railroad.
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Really FN? And how does one get selected to run for a political office in North Dakota? Right now they may ‘announce’ that they are running for office, but they don’t get to run for office until after the official convention of their governing party. Each party has rules that are a little bit different, but it either boils down to that you
1) Get the blessing of the powers that be and win the nomination from your party
2) you purchase enough delegates to get you nominated to run for the position.
You don’t do ANYTHING in this state without being part of the good old boy club and one of the leaders is Al Carlson..
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Can you think of a better reason to break that system? Right now we have two people running for office who decided to go around the party convention. They are worth voting for simply for that reason alone. Will they win? Who knows. The fact that one of them made Uncle Al melt down in public and show himself for the petty tyrant he is made me write a check to the gentleman’s campaign, even though I doubt I will vote for him.
You do not fix the system by supporting the status quo.
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You also don’t fix a broken system by creating more systems for it to control.
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Mav: how does leaving the appointment choice in Uncle Al’s hands fix the system. If they said the governor appoints whomever he/she wants & the legislature confirms, I might be more sympathetic. Right now the legislature puts forth the names. No bueno.
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