FRANKFORT — A few ambitious but misdirected regional universities, aided by their legislative patrons and with the acquiescence of the Patton administration, are undermining higher education.

        That is the message implicit in the parting shot of Gordon Davies, the first president of the Council on Postsecondary Education who has been shown the door at the end of his contract in June.

        “Reform is not dead, but a few dominant political persons have made it very clear that they intend to protect their respective universities regardless of whether they produce good results and meet the needs of the state.

        “More than they want change and improvement, they want to bring home the bacon,” Mr. Davies said in a 23-page report.

        Mr. Davies said only the Universities of Kentucky and Louisville, along with the Kentucky Community and Technical College system and Northern Kentucky University are remaining true to the ideals of the 1997 legislation that overhauled higher education.

        Those four are filling the niches for which they are most suited, collaborating on programs and are mostly avoiding turf-building and -protecting.

        “They accept as a given that their reasons for being is to serve the people of Kentucky and they will pursue that end,” Mr. Davies said.

        Other universities are “playing at reform,' he said.

        “In the end, more than getting better, they want certainty about their appropriations. As a result, they are likely to remain stuck in the mediocrity that has characterized Kentucky postsecondary education for generations,” said Mr. Davies.

        It is precisely the kind of blunt assessment that made Mr. Davies an ideal first president of the council, made him a lightning rod for legislators and university officials alike, and ultimately led to his departure.

        Mr. Patton told the Louisville Forum last week that Mr. Davies and the council staff riled too many people.

        In budget matters, Mr. Patton said record appropriations went unappreciated because of budget policies set by Mr. Davies and the council.

        “What we chose to do was to recommend that the council try to get new leadership that it could get in place, give it an opportunity to learn Kentucky ... to learn the legislature, to learn the legislative process, and give it some hope (that) when a new governor comes into office, they've got a leadership in the council that has credibility,” Mr. Patton said.

        Mr. Davies, though, said the entire philosophy of the reform was based on the budget and rewarding universities that performed.

        For example, Mr. Davies noted that Eastern Kentucky University's enrollment declined by 3 percent since 1998 while Northern's increased by 3 percent. Both got $2.6 million added to their budgets in the legislature. “One produced; one didn't. But it didn't make any difference,” Mr. Davies said. “The idea of rewarding performance went out the window.”

        Mr. Davies does not name names in his report, but the connections are well-known.

        Rep. Harry Moberly, D-Richmond, is the protector of Eastern in the General Assembly from his position as chairman of the Appropriations and Revenue Committee. Mr. Moberly is also employed by Eastern and has been among Davies' harshest critics. House Speaker Jody Richards, D-Bowling Green, is the benefactor for Western, which comes in for some special criticism from Davies.

        The irony is that such legislative meddling and campus empire-building were exactly the arguments Patton put forth on behalf of the 1997 reforms.

        Since 1997 and Davies' hiring, enrollments have increased dramatically, graduation rates are improving, UK and UofL are on the way to becoming significant research institutions and the community and technical college system has seen improvement.

        Mr. Patton said getting rid of Mr. Davies will protect the fundamentals of reform in the next administration and the General Assembly.

        Mr. Davies argues that the legislature, along with ambitious universities, are the greatest threats to reform.

        The dangers are not limited to higher education, Davies warned. The Office for the New Economy, which is supposed to lead the state out of the economic backwater, had nearly half of its construction pool during this two-year budget taken for buying a shopping center in Bowling Green and building a business center in Richmond. “They are pork, pure and simple,” Davies said.

        Davies also warned about the lack of a clear direction for the six regional universities, compounded by misplaced ambitions at some of them. It is a special problem at Western, which “shows signs of trying to assume a research and doctoral level mission.” If it happens at Western, other regional schools will probably follow. He called it “mission creep.”

        Davies said there is “nothing demeaning or dishonorable” about serving the education needs of a region. “Kentucky cannot afford more research universities.”

        For proof, Davies pointed to the one shining example of a state that Kentucky often uses for comparison, usually in the negative. “Remember Mississippi,” advised Davies. That state has five research universities and 3 million people. There is no way the state can adequately finance them all, “so all remain on a low-nutrition diet,” Davies said. “So does the state of Mississippi.”

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