The Unknown Rulers

University presidents, outspoken professors, even rebellious students--all have a knack for getting noticed. Yet, except in rare moments of acute controversy, the men and women who are technically at the top of the nation's huge state-university systems are the least known figures in academe's power structure. And the least rewarded. The state-university regents read reams of reports, worry endlessly over their university's business, scurry to meetings and ceremonies. In return they get only free campus parking, a few choice football tickets, and perhaps their names, in fine print, on a building plaque.

As states expand their higher-education systems, the role of the regents--some universities call them trustees, others governors--looms larger. They direct increasingly huge expenditures, decide where to build branches, determine expansion priorities, pick new presidents. When professors take unpopular stands or students protest, the regents are often squeezed between an angry public and a defensive university administration. One of the toughest tasks of regents today, says Florida Regent Wayne McCall, is to act as "a buffer between the academic world and the outside."

No Yes Men. The selection methods do not guarantee that a regent will be particularly prepared for this job. Most are appointed by state governors for long terms to minimize political pressures, and tend to be older men capping careers in other fields. University of Michigan regents are nominated by political parties, elected directly by voters for eight-year terms. University of Minnesota regents are elected by the state legislature for six years. The University of Alabama board selects its own new members for twelve years. Inevitably, the new regent takes years to get oriented. "Regardless of how much you study, you never get the grasp of a university the way you would of your own business," concedes Wisconsin Regent Charles D. Gelatt.

The first thing a regent learns, says former Minnesota Regent Robert Hess, an ex-labor-union official, is that a university "sure as hell isn't run like a corporation--university people simply aren't yes men." Another difference, notes Wisconsin Regent Kenneth Greenquist, is that "there is no balance sheet with a university--you could make a mistake and not know it for a generation." California Regent Edward Carter contends that what a regent really needs is a diversified "experience of life and the breadth of vision that comes from it, since by the time problems get to the regents' level they are pretty broad."

Regents vary on how deeply they delve into operational detail. Most try to confine themselves to setting broad policy and letting administrators carry it out. The California regents were long plagued by administrative trivia, once even had to pass upon the hiring of janitors. Authority has now been decentralized to the point where troublesome student behavior is a campus chancellor's problem, rather than the regents' or the university president's. On the other hand, Minnesota regents must still pass upon every clerical appointment and even $200 equipment purchases.

Believinq in Presidents. In practice, most boards rely on the advice of the university president. "If you have a president you believe in, you go along with him," says University of Illinois Trustee Harold Pogue. State University of New York Trustee Morris Iushewitz, acknowledging the strong hand of S.U.N.Y. President Samuel Gould, insists that "We are not manipulated except for the good of the university, and in that sense I don't mind being manipulated." Alabama's self-perpetuating board is an example of how trustees can protect a school and a strong president, Frank Rose (TIME, Apnl 21), against the pressuring tactics of hostile Governors such as Lurleen and George Wallace. Notes one Alabama professor: "Wallace just couldn't influence that board on political matters if he tried."

Despite the complexities of the job, most regents find the work stimulating, devote roughly a month's time to the task each year. "It's like being a den mother for 30,000 students," claims University of Michigan Regent Mrs. Gertrude Huebner, who delights in the varied advice she is asked to give. One mother wrote to ask whether her coed daughter should sing in a nightclub. "I want to investigate to see whether there's enough smoke in the air to damage her throat before answering," says Mrs. Huebner.

Aloof on Olympus. If regents are to perform their buffer role effectively, they clearly need to know student and faculty leaders. Not all of them do. "Nobody really has any contact with the board of governors--it's like speaking to the gods on Olympus," complains Bart Mindszenthy, a campus newspaper editor at Wayne State University. Yet California regents are trying hard: they meet monthly with student leaders, sometimes hike with them in the High Sierras. Governors of Central Michigan University stay in student dorms when they meet.

Few public servants are more convinced of the worth of what they do than are university regents. California Regent William Forbes, president of a music firm, concedes that his service as a regent, which takes about 30% of his time, is the biggest thing in his life because "the hope of mankind lies in educating as many people as best we can."

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