Board of Regents: No merge of chancellor, president in progress

By: Meagan O'Toole-Pitts

Posted: 6/3/09

Discussions among Board of Regents members about a possible merger of the chancellor and president positions are not new, said the spokesperson for the Board of Regents and for the chancellor Tuesday.

"There is an ongoing, long-standing conversation about a merger," said Rod Davis, spokesperson for the Board of Regents and for the chancellor, and director of communications. "It was mentioned at a routine meeting, but it's been mentioned many times."

The possibility of a merger of chancellor and president has come up in discussion before and has come again to try to get the system through hard economic times, Davis said.

"Because of the economy they've been looking at a lot of options," Davis said. "But it would require board action; it's not on their agenda."

A merger of the two positions has not been proposed or approved by the Board of Regents, Davis said, and therefore doesn't exist.

"There's nothing happening other than a discussion, and it's an old conversation," Davis said. "Talking about a cost-cutting idea doesn't mean it's anything near what you should call a reality. If any changes were to occur, it would require a formal proposal and it's nowhere near that. If anything were to change we would post it on our system Web site, send out a news release, and we don't have any reason to post it to our Web site."

It is legally required that the Board of Regents post a proposal on the system Web site, www.tamus.edu, Davis said.

"It was brought up at a working meeting, around May 20, in which they were talking about budgetary ideas," Davis said. "Rudder and Williams both shared those duties."

The chancellor and president positions at the University have been merged twice before in the past."It's not like it hasn't happened before," Davis said. "[The Board of Regents] is trying to keep education quality high at A&M. The next legislative session, 2011, will be a lot tougher.

Everyone's concerned about the state budget and how it will affect the universities. If it dropped, everyone would have to tighten their budgets so they're looking at how to keep education at top quality at A&M."

It is unknown if the merger in discussion would be temporary or permanent, or what it would entail, Davis said.

"There's no evidence that this would even happen," Davis said.

Local media reporting has led students, faculty and staff to consider as factual what is, for now, speculation, Davis said.

"It's just a lot of talk, which is okay in a blog but not in journalism much," Davis said.

At the Board of Regents last meeting, a tuition increase of four percent was discussed.

"The governor asked all state agencies to make budget cuts last fall," Davis said. "There is a reason to prepare for hard economic times."

A faculty survey, polling faculty opinion on a merger of the chancellor and president positions, had more than 850 responses, largely from College Station but also from Galveston and Qatar, said speaker of the faculty senate and geography professor Robert Bednarz. Of those polled, 85 percent opposed a merger.

"[We conducted a survey] because faculty senate was trying to develop policy or a response to the possibility, the combining of the chancellor and president, and we wanted to represent the faculty accurately," Bednarz said. "We wrote a statement from the executive committee of the faculty senate expressing faculty's feelings about combining positions."

Bednarz encourages student input on the matter, and said it would be very valued.

"I would think … the student senate would be in a similar situation. I think the Board of Regents would be interested in knowing what all University stakeholders think," Bednarz said. "So however you could gather students' attitudes would help the regents make a wiser decision."

Though an email from President Murano, addressed to all faculty, students and staff stated, "On issues of this magnitude, we all agree that an open dialogue is critical," an open forum discussion with Murano is not planned, said Jason Cook, vice president for marketing and communications.

"There have been numerous faculty, staff and students that have provided input to Murano via email, phone calls and personal conversations," Cook said. "Input will be provided to the regents and the chancellor."

A balance between cutting costs and maintaining the reputation of Texas A&M is necessary, Murano said.

"While we are all concerned about the pressures of the current economic situation, I know that we are simultaneously mindful not to sacrifice academic quality, or our national reputation," Murano said in her e-mail.

A merger of the chancellor and president positions is the best way to save the University money, said human resources management graduate student Josh Leonard.

"With the current state of the economy, a lot of entities, corporate, private and academic are looking to cut costs," Leonard said, "and I think A&M following that pattern, being a government-funded entity, is an excellent idea."

It is naturally a discussion of great interest to media and University stakeholders, even though it is only a discussion, Leonard said.

"When looking at combining responsibilities at that level, it's going to bring a lot of attention," Leonard said.