Governor Nathan Deal and Chancellor Hank Huckaby’s actions troubling
Grady L. Cornish

In a recent article in the Athens Banner Herald titled, “No doubt who is running the University System,” Walter Jones, Morris News Service bureau chief, noted that Governor Deal and Chancellor Hank Huckaby “sat all the presidents of the State colleges and universities down at the Governor’s Mansion to give them marching orders regarding graduation rates and budget matters.” The article also noted that “Deal ordered every state agency, including the University System, to cut 3 percent of its current budget by targeting low-priority programs and when Huckaby read the cuts each president proposed, he lowered the boom on them.”

Article VIII, paragraph 1 (b) of the State Constitution states that “all appropriations made for the use of any or all institutions in the university system shall be paid to the Board of Regents in a lump sum, with the power and authority in said Board to allocate and distribute the same among the institutions under its control in such way and manner and in such amounts as will further an efficient and economical administration of the university system.”

The mandate is clear and unequivocal. Deal is a lawyer and an honorable man who knows the dictates of the State Constitution. Hank is a competent administrator who knows that such meddling by a Governor puts the University System at risk with its accreditation body. It is beyond mind boggling that both would be so reckless with the power entrusted to them and disrespectful of the will of the people, which they have sworn to uphold.