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Preserving The Independence Of Public Higher Education: An Examination Of State Constitutional Autonomy Provisions For Public Colleges And Universities, Neal H. Hutchens

Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation Faculty Publications

In American higher education, the need to make public colleges and universities responsive to the public interest is often in tension with the necessity of providing institutions with the requisite authority to manage their internal affairs. In seeking to strike a balance between acceptable state oversight versus the need to safeguard the authority of public colleges and universities to manage their own affairs, some states rely on constitutional provisions to limit excessive state governmental intrusion. Specifically, these provisions vest constitutional authority in public higher education governing boards to direct the affairs of institutions or systems under their direction. In contrast …