King wants to be chancellor

Back in 2005, the Florida Board of Governors put the brakes on one of state Sen. Jim King’s pet projects: a chiropractic school for Florida State University. During the previous year, King had used his power as senate president to put the $9 million item in the budget.

FSU professors and medical doctors across the Florida launched a fierce lobbying campaign against the proposal. Many denounced chiropractic as a “pseudoscience.”

The BOG’s “no” vote was a not-so-subtle jab at King’s judgment on higher education matters.

What a difference four years makes. Today, the buzz is that the BOG might actually think King is the best person to lead the entire State University System.

The hints are overwhelming. The St. Petersburg Times, which tends to give the BOG its most sympathetic coverage, was the first to be tipped off about King’s interest in being chancellor. Former chancellor Mark Rosenberg eagerly heaped praise on the senator.

"Jim King gets the challenges we have,” Rosenberg told the Times. “He understands the issues. He has a passion."

Rattlers know King best for his recent attempt to give FSU 100 percent control of the joint College of Engineering it shares with FAMU.

Still, FAMUans won’t be alone in viewing “Chancellor” King with suspicion. The chiropractic school blunder could become a major public relations stain for the BOG if he is hired. King and the other chiropractic school supporters failed to engage FSU’s faculty before they tried to push the new college. Professors across the entire state are likely to question his commitment to transparency and shared governance.

The King-for-chancellor talk appears to be the latest effort to fix the BOG’s credibility problem with the Legislature.

In 2007, the BOG sued the legislature for control over tuition rates. Also, in response to SUS budget cuts, the board froze freshmen enrollment at a number of public universities. The moves prompted an angry backlash from lawmakers; the BOG has been a political outcast ever since.

By appointing King, the BOG could begin mending fences with the legislature. However, its old credibility problem will be replaced with a new one: Florida’s public university faculty and the national academic community are likely to see the BOG’s self-proclaimed commitment to high academic standards as nothing but hot air.

But from the looks of things, the BOG might be just fine with that trade-off.

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