A large majority of the 21 businessmen and corporate executives appointed as trustees of Florida’s 11 public universities on October 22 by SUS Chancellor and former Florida Lieutenant Governor Frank Brogan have made contributions to political candidates, major political parties, and political action committees (PACS) totaling $374,232 over the past 12 years, according to official data from the Federal Elections Commission examined by UFF-FAU. Contributions were made to both Republican and Democratic Party candidates, organizations, and state and national committees.

The degree of contribution ranged from a modest $250 (Brian D. Lamb, appointed by Brogan to the University of South Florida BOT) to $207,750, doled out by Michael M. Adler, Brogan’s appointee to the Florida International University BOT. Only two new trustees, Michael Hillis ((Florida State University BOT) and Ann H. Hamilton (Florida Gulf Coast University BOT) made no contributions, according to FEC records.

Adler’s sizable contributions went solely to Democratic Party interests, including Hillary Clinton ($10,900), Ron Klein ($8,800), Robert Wexler ($5,300), Alan Grayson ($2,400), the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee ($25,000), the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee ($45,000), and the Democratic National Committee ($63,000). Joseph L. Caruncho, Brogan’s second appointment to the FIU BOT, laid out a cool $42,575, solely to Republican Party concerns, including Mel Martinez ($2,000), E. Clay Shaw ($1,000), the National Republican Senatorial Committee ($15,000) and the Republican National Committee ($10,000). Daniel A. Webster, appointed to University of Central Florida’s BOT, made contributions to the Republican National Committee ($10,000), Republican Presidential Candidate John McCain ($3,300), and Democratic Senator Bill Nelson ($250). A list of individual BOT appointee contributions appears below.

FAU Board of Trustees Anthony Barbar and David Feder, both re-appointed to the FAU BOT by Brogan after serving on the Board while Brogan served as FAU’s president, made contributions totaling $1,250 and $5,060 respectively. Both were supporters of former Republican Congressman Mark Foley (Barbar $1,000, Feder $2,560). A vigorous opponent of child pornography, Foley was forced to vacate his office in 2006 following a sex scandal. Feder also contributed $500 to Democratic House member Ron Klein and $2,000 to the Bush-Cheney 2004 election campaign. Many within the FAU community will recall that Feder vigorously defended the administration’s firing of five tenured professors in FAU’s College of Engineering, a situation that has not yet received closure.

“Investments” of this magnitude are not mere token acts of appreciation but are made by a select class of the US electorate with the anticipation of very substantial “dividends” from recipients in the form of government contracts, tax breaks, and regulatory policies that favor the donors’ respective industries. Moreover, the extent of some of the present and future trustees’ largess gives one pause when considering that in these difficult times an overwhelming majority of Florida’s citizens–not to mention those across the US–hardly have the resources to even make a modest contribution to their preferred political candidate or party. Still, they pay their fair share of taxes and rightly count on the state’s public education system for the social and economic advancement of their children. We may therefore wish to ask whether the trustees’ interests are at variance with these modest expectations.

In fact, many of the individuals Brogan has appointed to oversee Florida’s public universities are not the sort that we may glimpse at the supermarket checkout. They are powerful banking and corporate executives with specific political-economic ties, allegiances, and prerogatives that do not necessarily coincide with furthering the state’s public education franchise, but rather making it increasingly subservient to the needs of the private sector. And, not surprisingly, many unabashedly seek to run the universities they oversee like for-profit corporations rather than intellectual communities, jeopardizing academic freedom by firing faculty and staff at will, privatizing services, and condoning a top-heavy managerial bureaucracy that has little to do with teaching or research.

The following is a list of the 21 new BOT appointees, the corresponding dollar amount of political contributions and the direction (Democratic, Republican) of those contributions. In some cases “Republican/Democratic” may mean primarily contributions to Republican candidates, with a lesser amount apportioned to Democratic interests, or vice versa.

Marshall M. Criser III of Coral Gables (UF): $28,740 (Republican/Democratic)

Carolyn King Roberts of Ocala (UF): $16,350 (Republican/Democratic)

Mark Hillis of Winter Park (FSU): $0

Margaret A. Rolando of Coral Gables (FSU): $1,000 (Democratic)

Marjorie Turnbull of Tallahassee (FAMU): $4,900 (Democratic)

Brian D. Lamb of Tampa (USF): $250 (Democratic)

Harold W. Mullis Jr. of Tampa (USF): $2,500 (Democratic/Republican)

Michael M. Adler of Miami Beach (FIU): $207,750 (Democratic)

Joseph L. Caruncho of Palmetto Bay (FIU): $42,575 (Republican)

Anthony K. Barbar of Boca Raton (FAU): $1,250 (Republican)

David S. Feder of Boca Raton (FAU): $5,060 (Republican/Democratic)

Raymond Gilley of Orlando (UCF): $500 (Democratic)

Daniel A. Webster of Orlando (UCF): $16,607  (Republican/Democratic)

Stephen C. Riggs of Destin (UWF): $3,750 (Republican)

Bentina C. Terry of Pensacola (UWF): $2,400 (Democratic)

A. Hugh Greene of Jacksonville (UNF): $1,900 (Republican)

Oscar Munoz of Ponte Vedra Beach (UNF): $30,150 (Republican/Democratic)

Ann H. Hamilton of Fort Myers (FGCU): $0 (NA)

Robbie B. Roepstorff of Sanibel Island (FGCU): $2,700 (Democratic)

William R. Johnson (NCF): $5,000 (Republican)

Felice C. Schulaner of Siesta Key : $850 (NA)