November 1, 2002

Flip-Flop in Florida?

Ballot question would let voters ditch an experiment in university governance

By Peter Schmidt

Fort Myers, Fla.

U.S. Sen. Bob Graham may not be to blame for turning the governance of Florida's public universities into a political football, but he is bent on taking it and running the opposite way.

The Democratic senator is the driving force behind a campaign to amend Florida's Constitution to establish a new governing board for the state's public universities -- a move intended to undo sweeping changes in university governance adopted by Gov. Jeb Bush, a Republican, and the state's