NASHVILLE – Tennessee Board of Regents members on Tuesday defended their hiring of Democrat John Morgan as chancellor as Republicans on the state Senate Education Committee grilled them over the decision.
“John will be an outstanding chancellor,” Regent J. Stanley Rogers of Manchester, a former Democratic state legislator, told committee members.
Before being hired to head the Regents system, Morgan was Gov. Phil Bredesen’s deputy governor.
The Board of Regents oversees six universities, 13 community colleges and 26 technology centers. It has more than 200,000 students.
Regents Vice Chairman Greg Duckett said that, in naming Morgan, a former state comptroller who has no Ph.D., he and other Regents “felt there was a stronger need for an individual with an understanding of state government” as the state implements higher education reforms.
Their comments came as the Republican-controlled Senate panel held the first of two days of hearings on the hiring of Morgan, who has been in state government in various positions since 1974. He is expected to take office Friday.
Republican lawmakers criticized the Board of Regents about a selection process in which members first changed a provision requiring the chancellor to have a “terminal degree” such as a Ph.D. or law degree. Morgan has no advanced degree
There were six other applicants, but Morgan was the only candidate interviewed by the Regents’ search committee.
“The perception was, I’ll use this terminology, it was sort of a rigged process,” said Sen. Jim Tracy, R-Shelbyville.
But Regent Fran Marcum of Tullahoma said other candidates couldn’t stack up against Morgan.
“They just seemed to fall short of the standards,” she said.
Morgan was involved in this year’s successful effort to persuade lawmakers to pass the Complete College Act, which puts more emphasis on graduating students and elevates the role of two-year community colleges.
Regent Steve Copeland, of Cookeville, agreed with Republicans that “it is perceived there was a fix” to install Morgan, but said that was not the case. He said he had no problem with doing away with the terminal-degree requirement, noting, “you don’t need to know how to fly a 747 to be the CEO of an airline.”
Morgan is not the first Regents’ chancellor to have no Ph.D. In the 1980s, a Republican-dominated board tapped Tom Garland, a former Republican legislator with no Ph.D., as chancellor.
Sen. Bill Ketron, R-Murfreesboro, and colleagues, however, closely questioned two Bredesen administration officials over why the governor failed to abide by a state statute requiring at least three members of the 18-member board to be members of the opposite party.
The governor’s director of community affairs, Bill Mason, assumed blame, saying, “I did not point that out to him. I did not know that.”
Contact Andy Sher at asher@timesfreepress.com or 615-255-0550.