The Tennessee Board of Regents named Deputy Gov. John Morgan to head the state’s largest higher education system on Friday, and local college leaders have high hopes his political background will give the system an edge with legislators.
“Morgan knows the players already,” said Cleveland State Community College President Carl Hite. “He’ll help secure some of our lost (state) funding.”
The full board voted in Nashville to hire Morgan, and only one regent, Barry Gidcomb, a faculty representative from Columbia State Community College, voted against his appointment.
Morgan, 58, begins work at the end of September with an annual salary of $385,000 and succeeds Regents Chancellor Charles Manning, who led the system’s 13 community colleges and six universities for the last decade.
“We talk about faith or providence … I am blessed to have this opportunity,” Morgan said when addressing the board. “This is a great system that is poised to be even greater.”
Morgan comes to the post of chancellor having worked for more than 30 years in state government. He was instrumental in crafting recent higher education reform legislation that eliminated remedial courses at universities, mandated clear transfer policies among state colleges and overhauled the state’s higher education funding formula.
He now inherits a challenged college system balancing pressures to improve failing graduation rates and to cut an unprecedented amount from the system’s budget.
ABOUT JOHN MORGAN* Appointed as deputy governor in January 2009.* Served as Tennessee comptroller for 10 years.* Instrumental in passing the Complete College Tennessee Act 2010.
“I’m confident that, under John’s leadership, the institutions under the Board of Regents system will increase degree and certificate production and ultimately produce a better, more highly educated work force,” Gov. Phil Bredesen said in a statement.
But not everyone thinks naming Morgan was a smart move.
Senate Education Committee Chairman Delores Gresham, R-Somerville, wrote a letter to the 18 Board of Regents members opposing his candidacy because she said he lacked experience necessary for the job.
Morgan, who has a bachelor’s degree from Austin Peay State University, will be the first system chancellor in recent history without a doctoral degree. The board changed its policy on hiring only candidates who had doctoral degrees shortly before it began the chancellor search this year.
Sen. Gresham, who did not speak at Friday’s meeting, sent a statement later in the day, congratulating Morgan on his appointment but said she doesn’t regret bringing her concerns forward.
“I felt it was my duty to register my serious concerns regarding the process taken by the board in reducing the education requirements,” she said. “Those reservations having been expressed, I am very hopeful that the newly appointed chancellor will be successful.”