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HUCKABY TAKES ON CULLING COLLEGES
Hank Huckaby is soon going to find out
who his real friends are. The new chancellor
of the University System has decided to tackle
one of the most sensitive political issues in
Georgia: whether to get rid of some of the
state's 35 public colleges.
Huckaby's move was partly prompted by the
need for more money. With the erosion in tax
revenues caused by the economic downturn,
the Legislature has cut the University System's
funding from more than $8,200 per full-time
college student a decade ago to about $5,500
per student. Tuition increases can only close
part of that gap, so the push is on to cut
operating expenditures by closing campuses or
merging the administrative staffs of cur
rent institutions.
There are also management
questions involved: could the
University System more effec
tively accomplish its academic
goals if some under-funded col
leges were folded in with larger
universities that have more
resources available?
"I know this will be somewhat
controversial to many," Huckaby told
the Board of Regents last week. He
was recognizing the reality that any attempts
to close a college or convert it to an exten
sion campus of a larger institution will trigger
fierce political opposition from the legislators
and civic leaders in the area where the college
is located. Race can also be an issue, because
some of the campuses that could become tar
gets of consolidation include historically black
colleges.
Huckaby's proposal has already drawn
statements of support from several regents,
including board Chairman Ben Tarbutton. The
chancellor says no list has been drawn up with
the names of any specific colleges that are
targeted for merger; he wants to establish the
criteria and standards for determining which
ones might be considered.
Consolidation proposals could include the
historically black colleges, which tend to
have smaller enrollments. That would raise
the possibility of merging Savannah State and
Armstrong Atlantic State in Savannah, along
with a merger of Albany State and Darton
College. There could be a proposal for histori
cally black Fort Valley State, one of Georgia's
two land-grant colleges, to become an exten
sion of the other land-grant institution, the
University of Georgia. With UGA's prominence
in the field of agricultural teaching and
research, it may make sense to administra
tively attach Abraham Baldwin as well.
Some of the smaller institutions near the
state's southern border, such as Waycross
College and Bainbridge College, could find
themselves in line to become extension
campuses of Valdosta State University.
Everybody does triple duties at the
smaller campuses," said a con
sultant familiar with University
System issues.
These institutions, no matter
how small or lacking in financial
resources they may be, will have
their supporters who would fight
for retaining their independent
identities. Bainbridge, for example,
is the hometown of Alec Poitevint,
a power broker in Republican Party circles
and a former state chairman of the GOP.
Poitevint's wife, Doreen, is a member of the
Board of Regents. One of the state's longest-
serving black legislators, Rep. Calvin Smyre
(D-Columbus), is a Fort Valley State alumnus.
Navigating a path through this political
minefield could be the biggest challenge ever
taken on by Huckaby, whose 40-year career in
government includes stints as a budget official
for several governors and a brief term in the
Georgia House of Representative.
"No one is more politically attuned than
Hank is," said a longtime observer of the
Legislature. "If anyone has the political and
policy skills to do this sort of thing, it's
Hank."
Tom Crawtord tcrawford@gareport.com
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by TOM TOMORROW
TEA PARTY
NIHILISTS
ANOTHER IN
AN OCCASIONAL
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CAR. THE PASSENGER DOOR
STICKS AND THE CUPHOLDERS
ARE TOO SMALL. AND Z
HAVE TO PAY TAXES EVERY
TIME I FILL THE TANK.'
CLIMATE CHANGE AND YOU
If you believe manmade climate change is
taking place, what responsibility do you have
to act? If you believe the increasing intensity
of droughts and storms is part of the disas
trous pattern predicted by climate scientists,
what should you do?
From Aug. 20 to Sept. 3, more than 1,250
people chose to protest—and be arrested—
outside the White House in Washington, D.C.
The sit-in was the largest display of civil
disobedience in the United States since the
end of the Civil Rights era, and it marks a
significant shift in strategy among environ
mental advocates who believe
the country and the planet are
about to cross a point of no
return.
In three short years, we've
gone from wholeheartedly
supporting a president who
promised to lead the world in
addressing climate change to
picketing his house so that he
doesn't open the U.S. market
to Canadian tar sands, a source
of unconventional oil that is
on par with coal: the dirtiest
of fossil fuels. President Obama
has the executive authority to
approve or deny the Keystone
XL pipeline, which would carry
up to 900,000 barrels of oil per
day from Alberta to the Texas
Gulf Coast, where it would be
refined for sale to U.S. and for
eign markets.
This would seem a no-
brainer for the man who
promised that during his presi
dency "the rise of the oceans
will begin to slow," but since
conservatives won the battle
over climate change legisla
tion (see Flagpole, Aug. 11,
2010), Obama no longer talks
about the issue in his stump
speeches. Earlier this month,
it became obvious that the environment had
slid even further down the priority list when
Obama halted the development of stricter
air-quality standards on smog in response to
i tough opposition from Republicans and indus
try lobbyists.
Now it appears he may approve the tar
sands pipeline, which is what led to the
protests.
The U.S. State Department issued a favor
able environmental impact assessment for the
project, though they clearly did not consult
NASA's James Hansen, who is widely consid
ered the leading U.S. climate scientist. He
has stated publicly that if Canada's tar sands
are exploited for fuel, it will be impossible
to return atmospheric carbon to the 350
parts per million (ppm) level deemed a safe
threshold by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change. (The current level is 393
ppm.)
The State Department report also attempts
to justify building the pipeline by stating
that Canada intends to develop the tar sands,
whether or not the U.S. is the main customer.
This line of reasoning recognizes that exploit
ing the tar sands is less than ideal, and by
moral equivalent it implies that robbing a
bank would be justified, if you knew someone
else already planned to do it..
The justification also ignores the fact that
I eastern and western routes to market are
blocked by Canadian residents who are unwill
ing to allow a pipeline across their lands.
So, if the U.S. rejects the tar sands, they will
be developed much more slowly, keeping oil
prices high enough to stimulate investment in
clean energy technologies and buying time on
the climate change clock for these technolo
gies to replace fossil fuels.
But U.S. politicians—especially those
without term limits—now, more than ever,
reflect the will of the electorate, rather than
leading the search for long-term solutions.
Understandably, the electorate wants jobs and
economic relief. But we need jobs in a sus
tainable economy built on clean energy, not
quick-and-uirty fossil fuel fixes. We need low-
carbon jobs in emerging industries like wind,
solar, energy efficiency, biomass and local
agriculture. And more than ever, we need to
let our local, state and national leaders know
that we will not accept "either-or" solutions
when it comes to the environment and the
economy.
The newly created Georgia Climate Change
Coalition is holding a march and rally at 11
a.m. on Saturday, coinciding with thousands
of events taking place worldwide as part of
350.org's Moving Planet day of action. We will
call on our elected officials to increase their
ambitions to reduce carbon consumption,
while searching for solutions and adaptations
in a climate of increasingly extreme variabil
ity. We will present the leadership of Athens-
Clarke County with a list of appeals for action
as well as hundreds of individual pledges for
specific actions we will take as individuals and
the resulting total reductions in water use and
carbon emissions.
If you want to do something, please add
your specific pledges to our commitment total
at www.georgiaclimatecoalition.org, and come
to the rally; lend your voice to the call for a
climate solution.
Bart King
Symposium Fri., Sept. 23:
UGA researchers discuss “Climate
Change in the Southeast," 5-8 p.m.,
auditorium, Odum School of Ecology
March and Rally—Sat., Sept. 24:
Part of Moving Planet—a worldwide
rally for solutions to the climate cri
sis. Meet at 11 a.m. in front of UGA
Plant Sciences (Ag Drive at Carlton
Street)—March to City Hall.
More info on the map at
www.moving-planet.org
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6 FLAGPOLE.COM-SEPTEMBER 21,2011
