2/28/2011 3:30:00 AMJim Petro, former attorney general, named new chancellor of higher education

February 28, 2011, 2:58 PM    

 By Karen Farkas, The Plain Dealer

Former Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro has been named the state's new chancellor of higher education.

Petro's appointment was announced this afternoon by Gov. John Kasich. Petro, 62, currently an attorney in Columbus, served four years as attorney general
beginning in 2003 and eight years as state auditor. In 2006 he lost in the GOP primary for governor.

Petro, a Northeast Ohio native of Brooklyn, will lead the University System of Ohio, which includes 14 universities, 23 community colleges and more than 140 adult-education programs.

He will replace Eric Fingerhut, a former Democratic legislator who was appointed chancellor by former Gov. Ted Strickland. Fingerhut announced last week he intended to leave the Cabinet-level post on March 13.

When Petro was running for governor he proposed several initiatives tied to higher education. He offered a plan to restructure the university system and proposed that colleges be allowed to become charter universities that would receive less state funding and operate under fewer state mandates. Kasich has also proposed a similar structure.

Although charter colleges would lose some of their state money, they would gain authority to set tuition, control construction projects and manage employee salaries and benefits.

Bruce Johnson, president of the Inter-University Council of Ohio, an association that represents Ohio's 14 public universities, does not believes individual institutions should be singled out for charter status. "The big guys get turned loose and the other guys don't," he said. "It's a bad bureaucracy rule."

He, and all state universities favor overall deregulation, he said. "It would be construction reform, collective bargaining reform, purchasing and other hings that could reduce the costs of operating the universities," he said. "It's potentially contentious for our guys if only applied to a few."

Johnson said he approved of Petro's appointment. "It think it's great," Johnson said. "I have a good relationship and he was a very competent manager as attorney general and state auditor. I look forward to working with him."

He said he would be in favor of anything that Petro can do to promote a less bureaucratic system in higher education.

"We're all for that," he said.