Higher-education officials and state lawmakers are fighting over who should run the $816-million state college system, a battle that centers on leadership and money rather than educational quality.

In recent weeks, two influential lawmakers have proposed changes that would dramatically change the way the college system is run and who controls the University of Rhode Island, Rhode Island College and the Community College of Rhode Island.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Stephen D. Alves says he plans to file legislation soon that would scrap both the Office of Higher Education and the Board of Governors for Higher Education, which he maintains are unnecessary. And earlier this month, House Finance Committee Chairman Steven M. Costantino suggested RIC and CCRI be merged to save money.

Alves said in an interview that he envisions each college with its own board of trustees, with members appointed by the governor and approved by the Senate, as the current Governors are appointed.

“I just don’t see anything coming out of it,” Alves said, referring to the Board of Governors. “There’s a lot of redundancy, and we could save about $3.2 million by eliminating the board.”

When asked if his desire to abolish the Office of Higher Education and the board stemmed from displeasure with the performance of Higher Education Commissioner Jack Warner or the board’s chairman, Frank Caprio, Alves said it did not.

“No, this issue has been floating around for a while,” Alves said.

Alves said URI would benefit by having a separate board of trustees that advocates in the best interest of the state’s flagship research institution, a view URI President Robert L. Carothers says he shares, although he said he had not lobbied Alves to submit the legislation.

“The university needs a board that is passionately committed to the success of the university, that is much more engaged in fundraising and assisting in finding opportunities for the university to make partnerships,” Carothers said. “The problem with the Board of Governors in their current role is that they have to be fair, which means equal.”

In a budget hearing earlier this month, Costantino pointed out that longtime RIC President John Nazarian is stepping down in May and suggested that consolidating RIC and CCRI could save a hefty presidential salary, as well as other administrative costs.

Rhode Island faces a shortfall approaching $400 million for the coming fiscal year, which starts July 1, and lawmakers have discussed consolidating several state agencies.

Higher-education officials, who were caught off guard by the merger proposal, questioned the wisdom of uniting two institutions with different missions, courses, entrance requirements and faculty pay structures. They agreed, however, to gather information for lawmakers and explore the pros and cons of a merger.

Costantino, through House spokesman Larry Berman, said last week the idea is “still in the exploratory stage” and there are no immediate plans to submit legislation.

“At this point, it is a fact-finding mission,” Berman said.

Warner said he is already looking for potential savings that would not require merging institutions, such as consolidating human resources, billing and collections, library acquisitions, legal services, payroll and technology

“We don’t think the administrative savings [from a merger] are likely to be huge, and we have to be aware of other perils, such as the potential loss of alumni support and donations,” Warner said. At the same time, the state’s dire fiscal situation calls for efforts to find savings wherever possible, he said.

“Can the board achieve more administrative savings while maintaining academic integrity, that is the question,” Warner said. “But the standard we ought to be using in these [merger] discussions should be would it create an entity that is clearly superior in the way it educates students, employs faculty and serves Rhode Islanders.”

THE LAST TIME lawmakers publicly questioned the need for an Office of Higher Education and Board of Governors was four years ago, when the General Assembly assumed more budgetary control by removing the authority of the board to adjust and redistribute funds among the three colleges.

Without such budgetary oversight, some lawmakers asked if the board continued to serve a useful purpose.

At the time, board Chairman Caprio said the power grab stemmed from lawmakers losing two seats on the board when separation of powers went into effect.

“They won’t have as much say as they had in the past,” Caprio, who is chief judge of Providence’s Municipal Court, said in a 2004 interview. “This is a way for them to micromanage this board.”

In addition to developing college budgets and overseeing capital projects, the board, with the Office of Higher Education, negotiates union contracts; reviews, approves and discontinues academic programs; conducts financial audits; implements systemwide technology; tracks student data, collaborates with the public school system and advocates for higher-education issues.

Last week, Warner questioned whether three separate boards of trustees would, in fact, save money, as each would have to hire staff, he said.

Warner also defended the role of an independent governing board to oversee the colleges, saying it provides long-term vision and protects the needs of the system as a whole, rather than catering to the ambitions of one institution. “Public institutions are there to add value to the state’s population, its economic vitality and its quality of life,” Warner said. “It’s why the public invests in higher education. We make sure the system works together, that credits transfer from one institution to the next. If we are not here, who is going to insist on that?”

An independent board also offers a measure of insulation from politics that is essential, says Aims McGuinness, senior associate at the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems in Colorado, who has authored several studies on Rhode Island’s public college system.

“Suddenly splitting them out into three separate fiefdoms puts all the pressure on the legislature to be the place for long-term, thoughtful strategic direction for Rhode Island,” McGuinness said. “The truth is, that’s why you have a Board of Governors, to think about how the missions of the institutions work together for the future of Rhode Island.”

Other states, including Arkansas, Hawaii and Illinois, have experienced similar struggles over control of public colleges.

Florida lawmakers at odds with college officials abolished their higher-education governance system in 2001 and established separate boards of trustees for each public university, as Alves has proposed.

The fragmented system didn’t last long.

Defenders of an independent governance body, including Bob Graham, a former Florida governor and U.S. senator, feared individual boards would expose the higher-education system to “parochial or pork-barrel politics, without concern for the larger, long-term interests of the state,” according to the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Graham led a successful voter initiative to establish a new governing entity called the Board of Governors, which was put into place two years later.

However, that body is now under fire.

Upset that the institutions, rather than the legislature, set tuition and fees last year, lawmakers are proposing to scrap the new board in favor of one more directly under their control.

“The amendment also would recast the Board of Governors and universities’ boards of trustees as smaller bodies whose only powers would be what the Legislature grants them,” said a recent editorial in the Tampa Tribune. “… Legislators don’t like independent boards that can be candid about the state’s education needs.”

jjordan@projo.com