BY MICHAEL HAWTHORNE
Enquirer Columbus Bureau
COLUMBUS -- Women account for more than 50 percent of the students attending Ohio's state-supported universities, but less than 20 percent of the trustees who oversee the schools, records show.
State Sen. Linda Furney, D-Toledo, wants to change that. She has introduced legislation that would require at least four of the nine voting trustees on university boards to be women.
"I don't think we should ignore half the population of the state and more than half the student population at our universities," Ms. Furney said.
Among other things, university trustees oversee multimillion dollar budgets, have the final say on who gets tenure and help set policies on everything from sexual harassment to student enrollment. Of the 115 voting trustees Republican Gov. George Voinovich appointed to university boards between 1991 and 1997, 22 -- or 19 percent -- were women, according to an Enquirer review of records provided by the governor's office.
By contrast, former Democratic Gov. Richard F. Celeste boosted the representation of women trustees from 13 percent to 25 percent during his eight years in office, Ms. Furney said.
One woman serves on the nine-member University of Cincinnati board. There also is one woman trustee at Ohio State University, the state's largest. At Miami University, three of nine trustees are women.
At the same time, women account for 53 percent of the students at the state's main university campuses, according to the Ohio Board of Regents.
Critics contend Ms. Furney's legislation would establish a quota system.
"I'm opposed to quotas," Mr. Voinovich said. "I do the best I can to appoint the best people for the job."
Four-year universities have nine voting trustees appointed for nine-year terms by the governor. Terms are staggered so one vacancy occurs every year on each board.
The only criteria governors are required by law to follow in selecting the trustees is that some come from the region where the university is located. UC, for example, requires that five of its trustees live in Cincinnati.
After Ms. Furney first introduced her legislation two years ago, Mr. Voinovich selected a woman trustee for the OSU board: Tami Longaberger, president of the Longaberger Co., a manufacturer of handcrafted baskets.
The latest version of Ms. Furney's measure is stalled in the Senate Education Committee.
She said governors should welcome her proposal as a means of freeing them from pressure to appoint people to the prestigious posts based on political connections.
"I think qualifications aren't the overriding reason why these people are appointed," she said. "I think it's impacted by campaign contributions, especially to the governor."
More than half of the university trustees appointed by Mr. Voinovich have contributed to his campaign fund. Along with immediate family members, they gave the governor $466,387 between 1990 and 1996, according to reports filed with Secretary of State Bob Taft's office. UC Trustee Joan Herschede said one's sex shouldn't determine who is appointed, but she conceded that her political connections helped persuade Mr. Voinovich to appoint her in 1994.
Ms. Herschede, owner of Herschede Jewelers, listed among her qualifications more than 25 years as a UC volunteer and fund-raising work on behalf of the university. She also has raised money for the Hamilton County Republican Party and the Ohio Republican Party. "If there is a qualified female interested in an appointment, I don't think she should be prevented from serving," she said. "But appointing a woman just because she is female doesn't solve the problem."
Eleanor Irwin, a self-employed financial consultant on the Miami University board, said she thinks Mr. Voinovich selected her in part because she is a Republican and a woman.
"You want to at least give that appearance of diversity," she said. "If we had a Democratic governor, I'm sure they could have found a Democratic candidate with credentials as good as mine." Four months after Mr. Voinovich appointed her to the Miami board in April 1993, Ms. Irwin attended a fund-raiser for his re-election campaign. Her husband, Kevin, contributed $5,000 to the governor's political fund.
"We get fund-raising letters every week," she said. "But we made a point of going to personally thank him for appointing me."
