Board of higher education
Call it what you like, retribution by any other name is retribution. Two supporters of Dr. Robert L. Carothers were removed from the Board of Governors of Higher Education – one because he’s moved out of state, the other because he’s retired from his job, says the governor.
Alfred Budnick’s retirement as president of Cherry Semiconductor does not make him less committed or knowledgeable about the state’s public higher education system.
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Maybe this is the review and reform of the Board of Governors that we expected after the Carothers’ debacle last year. That occurred when the board didn’t want the URI president back, then relented to extend his contract for a year. Then when it was evident that many in the university and non-university communities believed that Carothers’ major sin was caring too much about the university he was overseeing, they added a third year.
On public college campuses throughout Rhode Island the board of governors is seen as often out-of-step with the community it purports to serve. Many within the professorial community question board members’ knowledge or commitment to the public education system. Instead they suggest that board members’ positions are often formed out of personal or political concerns.
Whether or not the replacement of two Carothers’ supporters is retribution, it looks that way. Couple that with the failure of the board itself, the governor or legislature to do anything meaningful to change the way this board operates, and you are certainly left with the perception that the two board members were replaced because they had supported Dr. Carothers.
Why is this important? Because the continuity and excellence of our higher educational system in Rhode Island is essential to the development of a skilled workforce. Because our higher educational system is at the center of what we promote as an exceptional quality of life in Rhode Island.
When the Board of Governors finally resolved the Carothers matter by giving him a three-year contract, some legislators said reform of the board was essential.
We had hoped that the first movement we would hear concerning the board, would not be the exodus of two pro-Carothers board members, but rather efforts at making the board less political and more responsive to the needs of all three of our public higher education institutions – Rhode Island College, Community College of Rhode Island and the University of Rhode Island.
It was clear after the Carothers affair last year that a complete review of the board, its activities, its purpose and its goals was in order. It still is.
South County
We would presume that among those items making South County the fastest growing area of Rhode Island is its proximity to beaches, and the opportunity to live in an area that has yet to be ravaged by huge housing developments, an endless sea of strip malls and the like.
We suspect that quaint villages and open space, farmland and woods are all enticements to move from the urban centers into a quieter different lifestyle.
But how long will it last? How many commercial developments will evolve like the 86-acre Village at South County Commons to be built on open space along Route 1/ Tower Hill Road in South Kingstown?
The danger of a burgeoning area is that by attracting larger numbers of residents, more support services will follow and the very reason that the area was attractive in the first place will be lost. Quaint shopping areas will be replaced by Wal-Mart type stores and malls, and open spaces will fall to housing and retail development.
Planners and town officials in each community must see themselves as preservationists and environmentalists, ensuring that development is consistent with the character that has made South County among Rhode Island’s treasures.
