NC budget strips governor’s community college board appointments, gives to legislators
Through the state budget that passed Friday, legislators voted to strip the governor of the power to appoint members to the state board that governs community colleges — a move that will essentially give the General Assembly complete control over that process.
The 625-page bill also allows legislators to appoint a majority of members to the local trustee boards of the state’s 58 community colleges and gives them final approval over the selection of future presidents of the state community college system.
The move mirrors other changes made to other governing boards across the state, both in this year’s legislative session and in prior years, in which legislators have reduced or entirely stripped the governor’s ability to appoint board members and given the power to their own body or other state leaders.
Republicans, who control the General Assembly with a supermajority, have said such changes allow for a balance of power that better aligns with the state constitution. Democrats, including Gov. Roy Cooper, have called the moves unconstitutional and likened them to power grabs.
“I think if you look at the constitution, the constitution places responsibility for higher education with the legislature,” Senate leader Phil Berger told reporters in May. “And it’s my belief that the legislature is in a good position to make those kinds of decisions.”
The community college provisions previously passed the state Senate through a standalone bill, but were eventually added to the state budget, where they passed both chambers this week. Senate leader Phil Berger told reporters after the final budget vote Friday that although the House did not pass the Senate’s bill on the issue, “it was clear in the conversations that we had that it was something that’s supported by folks in the House as well.”
The budget is being sent to Cooper’s desk. He indicated Friday he will let the bill become law without his signature, which will take 10 days.
Jordan Monaghan, Cooper’s deputy communications director, told The News & Observer by email that the provisions are an example of Republican efforts to bring “their culture wars to the classroom.”
“It’s tragic that Republican legislators have passed a constitutionally questionable law that hurts the strength and independence of the best community college system in the country all to satisfy their egos and lust for total power,” Monaghan said. “Our community colleges have relied on bipartisan collaboration to become a major economic driver in our state’s rise to the top of the business world and Republican legislators are breaking that successful model.”
Legislators will make all 18 appointments to state board
Under current state law, the State Board of Community Colleges has 22 members. Eighteen voting members are appointed to the board, with the governor appointing 10 members and the General Assembly appointing eight. Three state elected officials — the lieutenant governor, the state treasurer and the state labor commissioner or their designees — serve on the board in ex officio capacities.
The provisions in the state budget remove the state leaders’ ex officio positions on the board, and give the General Assembly all 10 of the governor’s appointments. That means legislators will appoint all 18 voting members to the board.
The president of the state Comprehensive Community College Student Government Association, who currently serves as a non-voting, ex officio board member, will remain on the board under the changes.
At the local community college level, the General Assembly will also gain eight of at least 12 appointments to each of those 58 trustee boards, up from none under current state law. Those appointments are being stripped from the governor and local school boards, which each make four appointments.
Local county commissioners would retain their power to appoint some members to the trustee boards. Commissioners in counties where main campuses of a community college are located will make four appointments, while commissioners in other counties providing “plant funds” to a college will make two. Commissioners may choose to delegate their appointments to be made by local school boards.
Legislators will approve state community college president
In addition to gaining more power over community college governing boards, legislators have also given themselves final approval of future presidents of the state community college system through a legislative confirmation process.
The process, as outlined in the budget bill, would require the State Board of Community Colleges to submit its choice for system president to the General Assembly, where the two chambers would adopt a joint resolution to confirm or deny the nominee.
The state board in April elected Jeff Cox, then-president of Wilkes Community College and an educator of 30 years, as the system’s president. He assumed the role this summer. Lawmakers, when previously debating the standalone bill, have said the confirmation provisions would not be applied retroactively to Cox.
Speaking to The N&O after the state board announced him as system president in April, Cox said he viewed the changes to community college governance — which at that time were being considered as the standalone bill — as a debate over the balance of local autonomy with state control over the colleges.
“It sounds like our legislators are feeling like we might need to pull a little bit more of that authority to the state level,” Cox said. “And having been a community college president, still a community college president for another little while, I understand that delicate balance of accountability.”
Other changes to board appointments
The budget’s changes to community college boards aren’t the only time this legislative session — or in the past several years — that lawmakers have voted to give themselves appointment powers that previously belonged to the governor, including in higher education.
Senate Bill 512, which passed the General Assembly last month, made swaths of changes to how members are appointed to a range of state boards, from the state Department of Transportation board to the state Utilities Commission. The bill would increase the size of trustee boards at UNC-Chapel Hill and NC State University, with legislators making the additional appointments.
Cooper vetoed the bill, calling it unconstitutional. Berger previously told reporters he disagrees with that notion. The disagreement could set up a court battle over the issue.
In 2016, after Cooper, a Democrat, defeated then-Gov. Pat McCrory, a Republican, lawmakers voted to strip the governor of appointment powers to trustee boards at UNC System universities. Those powers are now shared between the two chambers of the state legislature, which have been controlled by Republicans since 2010, and the UNC System Board of Governors, which consists of 24 voting members appointed by the legislature.
Citing signs of perceived political influences on the state’s universities, due in part to appointments made to the governing boards, Cooper last year formed a commission to assess university governance and offer potential reforms. The commission released its report in June, recommending some of the governor’s appointments powers be restored. No changes suggested by the commission have been considered or adopted by the legislature.
Reporter Dawn Baumgartner Vaughan contributed to this story.
This story was originally published September 22, 2023 at 1:13 PM with the headline "NC budget strips governor’s community college board appointments, gives to legislators."
