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UMMC, IHL: How lawmakers can change without amendment

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Legislative watchdog examines how to change IHL, UMMC without constitutional amendment

Since the Institutions of Higher Learning Board of Trustees was created by constitutional amendment in 1943, Mississippians have used the ballot box only twice to edit the agency that oversees all eight public universities.

In 1987, voters permitted the board to lend a trustee to the Le Bauve Scholarship Fund at of Mississippi, and in 2003, they reduced the trustees’ terms from 12 to nine years and reconfigured the districts.

Now, with the ballot initiative weeded from the voters, a legislative watchdog has looked at how lawmakers might change the governing bodies that oversee Mississippi’s universities, community colleges, and only academic medical center through state statutes and board policy changes, without a constitutional amendment.ย 

Last , the Joint Legislative Committee on Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review (PEER) released a report on postsecondary governance in Mississippi and how it could be restructured. The report described the history, structure and function of IHL, the Mississippi Community College Board, and the .

The 69-page report offered questions for lawmakers to ask before determining how, if at all, the state boards overseeing colleges and universities in Mississippi should be restructured. It made no urgent recommendations, because the committee found that โ€œno standards for best practices existโ€ for reformulating postsecondary boards because no state has the same system.ย 

โ€œLeaders should consider working with the existing postsecondary governance before significantly altering it,โ€ the report says.ย 

Lawmakers have discussed removing UMMC from IHL before, but the move would require an amendment to the state Constitution. But the report found it would be possible for IHL trustees to delegate more authority to UMMC by amending the board’s policies and bylaws.ย 

Lawmakers could look at โ€œwhat, if anyโ€ functions IHL could delegate to UMMC, the report suggests, with โ€œthe primary focus โ€ฆ on how reimagined governance and policy could improve UMMC viability and future growth potential.โ€ย 

Marc Rolph, executive director of communications and marketing, said UMMC had no comment on the PEER report.ย 

The report also found that lawmakers could alter MCCB’s governance structure by amending the state statute that created the board. Still, the report says โ€œa complete restructuringโ€ of the state’s postsecondary boards would require a constitutional amendment.ย 

โ€œSome of this is steeped in the Constitution,โ€ said Sen. Kevin Blackwell, R-Southaven, the current PEER committee chair. โ€œIt would require an initiative, and we don’t have an initiative right now.โ€ย 

The state Supreme Court struck down the ballot initiative process in May 2021, but lawmakers can still amend the Constitution via a two thirds vote in both chambers of the Legislature. Voters must then approve in a general election.

Unlike the state’s eight universities, each of Mississippi’s 15 community colleges have their own board of trustees. Created in 1928, MCCB was initially housed under the state Department of Education. It is mainly responsible for controlling and monitoring the flow of state funds to each community college. The central office, which has a $6 million annual budget, also oversees career and technical education programs.ย 

IHL, on the other hand, has vastly more power over the universities. The commissioner’s office and the trustees select the university presidents and have broad authority to decide how legislative appropriations are allocated among each school. For all eight universities and UMMC, the board approves new academic programs, and signs off on procurements greater than $250,000 and capital improvements totaling more than $1 million.ย 

This session, Sen. Rita Potts Parks, R-Corinth, proposed a bill to give UMMC its own hospital board, but it died in committee. Policymakers also discussed removing UMMC from IHL’s purview in 2015, when the board decided not to renew Dan Jones’ contract as chancellor of University of Mississippi. That same year, a report by the Center for Mississippi Policy and Veralon found that UMMC’s governance structure is unusual compared to other states.ย 

โ€œThe majority of state-based public universities with a medical school and associated academic health center are not governed directly by the state,โ€ that report found.ย 

Academic health centers like UMMC in general have two sides, the academic medical center, which is more focused on education, and the clinical enterprise (the hospitals and clinics where care takes place). The state governance for these two functions is often partitioned, with one side operating more independently than the other, the PEER report found.ย 

At UMMC, the IHL board oversees both sides, and the budget lines between the two are murky โ€“ doctors often treat patients with the help of medical . But some lawmakers have argued that IHL is not equipped to oversee the finances of UMMC’s clinical enterprise, which are structured differently from a university budget.ย 

โ€œAll risks associated with pursuing change efforts should be compared against the risk of doing nothing in a fast-paced and increasingly competitive and complex academic marketplace,โ€ the report says.ย 

Others, including LouAnn Woodward, the vice chancellor for health affairs at UMMC, have disagreed with that. Shortly after IHL did not renew Jones’ contract in 2015, Woodward wrote in a public post to the UMMC community that she believed it should remain a part of the University of Mississippi.ย 

โ€œ, although out of sight and occasionally out of mind, is not only our parent campus to the north but our natural ally when the pressure is on,โ€ she wrote. โ€œFrom time to time there’s about separating our two campuses and treating UMMC as a distinct institution. It is critical that we remain part of the University of Mississippi. We’re stronger together.โ€

The PEER report suggested that if UMMC was separated from IHL, the academic medical center could remain under University of Mississippi with the clinical enterprise becoming a private nonprofit. The PEER committee interviewed staff at the University of Tennessee Medical Center which, in 1999, became a private nonprofit separate from the UT Health System.ย 

One benefit to this change, the UT Medical Center’s government relations officer told the PEER staff: The clinical enterprise was โ€œno longer subject to open meetings law as a private nonprofit corporation.โ€ย 

Still, that step would require a constitutional amendment. Another idea the report suggested was that IHL could delegate more authority to UMMC โ€“ a step the board has taken in the past. In 2019, trustees decided to let UMMC, UM and Mississippi State University manage their own state-bond-funded projects after the lawmakers gave IHL sole oversight of capital projects funded by state bonds.ย 

The PEER report also reviewed reasons a state might want to restructure postsecondary governance, such as concern about rising costs, barriers to local or regional access to graduate programs, a change in state leadership, or โ€œill-defined or overlapping missionsโ€ of governing bodies.

Putting IHL and MCCB under a central coordinating board could be more efficient, the report says. Lawmakers could also give each university its own institutional board, though that would require a constitutional amendment and could result in โ€œdrawbacksโ€ in the event of โ€œattempts by the new board to delve into issues IHL generally does not (e.g., athletics).โ€

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Mississippi News

Mississippi sees 5th largest increase in fatal crashes: study

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www.wjtv.com – Garret Grove – 2024-11-02 12:25:00

SUMMARY: A recent study highlights a troubling rise in road fatalities in Mississippi, with a nearly 31% increase in fatal accidents from 2012 to 2021, ranking it fifth highest in the country. The reported a spike during the 2024 Labor Day , responding to seven fatal crashes resulting in 15 deaths, to only three crashes and six deaths in 2021. Additionally, a 2023 showed Mississippi had the highest per capita fatal crashes during the Christmas period. Young drivers are particularly affected, as Mississippi ranks fifth for teenage driving fatalities nationwide.

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Mississippi News

Vicksburg man charged with assaulting woman in domestic dispute

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www.wjtv.com – Kaitlin Howell – 2024-11-02 11:33:00

SUMMARY: In Vicksburg, Mississippi, a domestic assault led to the hospitalization of a man and woman on November 2. were alerted by Merit Region after a 28-year-old man, Daron Evans, arrived with a stab wound. Authorities dispatched to the scene found the woman, who had also been assaulted. After receiving treatment, Evans was and charged with aggravated assault domestic violence; he is held without bond until his court appearance. The woman is in stable at the of Mississippi Medical Center. An investigation is ongoing.

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Mississippi News

Cloudy and humid weekend – Home – WCBI TV

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www.wcbi.com – Sadie Morris – 2024-11-02 10:13:00

SUMMARY: In Columbus, Mississippi, humid and cloudy weather is expected, with temperatures remaining above average in the lower 80s for the upcoming . Rain is forecasted for Election Day on Tuesday, continuing into the week with isolated showers likely. This Saturday will see patchy fog in the morning, clearing by midday, with a high around 80 degrees. Sunday will bring similar humidity, with a high in the lower 80s and mild overnight lows in the mid-60s. Throughout the week, expect persistent clouds and humidity alongside mild temperatures.

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