`SUPER BOARD': AREA EDUCATION OFFICIALS SAY THEY OPPOSE CONCEPT

Education officials in Southeast Missouri oppose legislation to set up a state board of higher education that they say would assume the powers now held by individual governing boards of public colleges and universities.

They maintain such a "super board" would make powerless the individual governing boards such as the Board of Regents at Southeast Missouri State University.

"It would be a call for mayhem," said Mark Pelts of Kennett, who serves on Southeast's Board of Regents. "We don't need another bureaucracy in Jefferson City," he said.

"It would actually create a monster," said Carl Ben Bidewell of Poplar Bluff, president of Southeast's board. "I can't see how it would help us at Cape Girardeau."

The president pro tem of the Missouri Senate, James Mathewson, D-Sedalia, has proposed a constitutional amendment that would establish a 15-member state board of education to replace the Missouri Coordinating Board for Higher Education.

The new board would have greater power than the nine-member coordinating board. Its duties would involve governance, control and coordination of all public four-year institutions of higher education in Missouri, as well as supervision and coordination of all two-year public colleges. The constitutional amendment would require voter approval.

Bidewell said similar measures have been brought up in past years with no success. He said he doubts Mathewson's proposal will get out of committee this legislative session.

Pelts also said he doubted the measure would have much success. "I don't think the voters are for it. I don't think it is in the best interests of the university, and I don't think it is going to happen." said Pelts.

Pelts said a state board could not give as much attention to each university as local boards do.

"The end result would be that either someone in Jefferson City would be running Southeast (and other universities) or the president of each university would be in charge without a board to work with.

"I don't think either one of those things are a good idea," he said.

"I am all for cutting the fat off these budgets, but at the same time you've got to keep in mind that the whole idea of a regional university is to decentralize education."

Pelts said regional universities must be able to offer basic educational programs. "I know we can't have a med-school on every street corner, but let's make it possible to get an education without running across the state."

Both Pelts and Bidewell maintained Mathewson's proposal would put more power into the hands of the legislature.

Mathewson discussed the proposal at a meeting of state legislative leaders and the University of Missouri Board of Curators last week in Jefferson City.

John Lichtenegger of Jackson, president of the Board of Curators, said Monday that he opposes creation of a super board. "It would take all the powers away from the local boards," he said.

"I believe that it is absolutely essential to have your local boards of regents and local Board of Curators being governing bodies of the universities," he said.

Lichtenegger said he believes it is "politically impossible and impractical to eliminate them." But he said he and other curators believe that the powers of the state coordinating board need to be strengthened.

"No one likes to give away their power and their duties as they see it, but it's absolutely necessary for us to coordinate higher education throughout the state," said Lichtenegger.

Curator Sam Cook of Jefferson City called last week for establishing a stronger state governing board while retaining the local boards of regents and the Board of Curators.

Lichtenegger said he expects the curators to recommend that the coordinating board "be given the power to approve or terminate programs at all of the (public) higher education institutions in Missouri, as well as to approve mission statements for each of the universities."

This would give the coordinating board the power to eliminate unnecessary, duplicate programs at the state's public colleges and universities, he said.

That idea was a part of Proposition B, the tax-and-reform measure for education that voters overwhelmingly rejected last November.