Agency asks about political pressure

ATLANTA — The agency that accredits Georgia’s 26 public universities and colleges is asking whether there has been undue political pressure to appoint former Gov. Sonny Perdue as chancellor of the University System of Georgia.

Belle Wheelan, the president of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, told The Associated Press in a Tuesday telephone interview that she sent a letter Monday to the Board of Regents, which oversees the 340,000-student system, after reading news coverage suggesting regents were being politically pressured to name Perdue to head the system. The Republican Perdue was a two-term governor and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture under President Donald Trump.

“While it is often especially difficult for members of a governing board who are appointed by the governor or legislative body to remain independent in their work, it is imperative that they do, or they place the accreditation of the institution(s) they govern in jeopardy,” Whelan wrote in the letter, obtained by The AP through an open records request.

Regents announced last week they were pausing the search, not saying when or under what circumstances it would resume. The pause makes it likely the system will choose an interim leader if outgoing Chancellor Steve Wrigley retires on time at the end of June.

Wheelan said she was not questioning Perdue’s resume, saying that “having been governor and secretary in a U.S. cabinet could very well” qualify someone, but cited an accrediting standard in her letter saying leaders must have “appropriate experience and qualifications.” She said Gov. Brian Kemp and others are welcome to nominate candidates, but that regents must ultimately make the decision on their own.

“If it is shown that they did it because the governor said so, it was undue political interference,” Wheelan said.

The commission’s standards prohibit undue outside influence, trying to make sure that trustees truly run a college, and not some outside group.