Florida State University System Chancellor Frank Brogan, a former president of Florida Atlantic University, said there were “no winners” in FAU’s now-defunct stadium-naming deal with GEO Group.

The Boca Raton-based private prison company this week withdrew the $6 million donation it made in exchange for naming rights to the school’s football stadium, ending weeks of protests and negative publicity for the school. Critics dubbed the deal “Owlcatraz,” a reference to the university football team’s nickname, “The Owls.”

“Clearly there’s no winners. The GEO Group that thought they were making a good faith donation is not a winner. Florida Atlantic University that thought they were accepting a donation in good faith that was going to go to something important to the university is not a winner. So you end up back where you started,” Brogan, caught inside the Capitol Thursday afternoon, said.

The school’s board of trustees accepted the pledge Feb. 19, and president Mary Jane Saunders supported the decision. Those events touched off demonstrations by a small but vocal group of several dozen students. The faculty senate later condemned the deal. Both groups pointed to human rights abuses committed in prisons and immigration detention centers run by GEO.

Brogan said the issue sparked a “good debate.” But, he added, “I’m not sure anybody wins as a result of this.”

Brogan said he had no contact with Saunders regarding the stadium-naming agreement and the donation and would not say whether he thought the decision to accept the donation was a good one.

“I don’t know. You hate to make those calls 400 miles away. I wasn’t there. I didn’t have the contact with the GEO Group from the very beginning. I wasn’t involved in all the intricacies of that deal. To try to armchair quarterback I don’t if that is appropriate,” he said.

After vetoing a tuition increase for FSU and UF, signing off on a controversial new state university and axing $300 million from the universities’ budgets, Gov. Rick Scott launched a possible remake of Florida’s higher ed system with a new “Blue Ribbon” panel announced today.

“The state has a vested interest in ensuring its higher education system produces world-class talent to serve as engaged citizens and meet the demands of Florida’s emerging knowledge-based economy. It’s time to assess the progress of prior reform efforts and identify strategies to improve efficiencies and enhance the system’s effectiveness as an economic catalyst.” Scott said in a statement announcing the “Blue Ribbon Task Force on State Higher Education Reform.”

Dale Brill, president of the Florida Chamber of Commerce Foundation, will chair the seven-member panel. The other six members will be chosen by House and Senate leaders and Board of Governors Chairman Dean Colson and Vice Chairman Mori Hosseini. The panel is slated to deliver its recommendations to Scott in November.

Scott last week vetoed a measure that would have given the University of Florida and Florida State University the ability to raise tuition as high as they want. The university presidents insisted the unprecedented authority was necessary to bring tuition at the institutions more in line with the higher-ed market.

But in his veto message, Scott said schools first need to reduce costs and administrative salaries and prove that their degrees equate to jobs for students.

State university system Chancellor Frank Brogan said Florida’s already “traveling toward a new frontier of accountability” and he hopes the Blue Ribbon panel will rely on work already done by the Board of Governors that will create “the most accountable public university system” in the nation.

“In particular, the Board’s Strategic Plan and Annual Accountability Report provide more than 60 System-wide comparative data points at-a-glance. I am confident that these products taken together can provide the strongest possible foundation for this group’s discussion,” Brogan said in a statement.

Board of Governors Chairman Dean Colson reacted with a cautious response that stopped short of an endorsement.

“Additional support for Florida’s public universities is always welcomed, especially if it accelerates the achievement of the Board’s goals and metrics for our university system,” Colson said in a statement. “During the past two years, the Board of Governors has laid out a comprehensive vision through three significant work products: a new 2025 Strategic Plan1, transformed metrics in the Annual Accountability Report2, and a three-year work plan template3 that each university will present annually. We look forward to a meaningful dialogue that bolsters a shared vision for the State University System.”

Florida Board of Governors Chairwoman Ava Parker has asked Chancellor Frank Brogan to initiate an investigation into Florida A & M University administration’s handling of hazing in the wake of the death of Marching 100 drummer Robert Champion. Parker asked that Board of Governors’ inspector general lead the inquiry.

Parker sent a lettera letter to FAMU Board of Trustees Chairman Solomon Badger on Tuesday – the day before Champion’s funeral – advising him of the investigation. The inquiry comes alongside investigations into Champion’s death by the Orange County Sheriff’s Office and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. FAMU has also created a hazing task force headed by former Florida Attorney General Bob Butterworth and former Department of Corrections Secretary Walt McNeil, now the chief of policy in Quincy.

The latest investigation was prompted by Julian White, the former director of the famed Marching 100 band fired by FAMU President James Ammons last week. White told reporters yesterday he repeatedly warned university leaders for more than decades about the practice of hazing but was ignored. White also said he suspended 26 band members for hazing two weeks before Champion’s death on Nov. 19.

“The events surrounding the tragic death of Robert Champion and allegations by Dr. White that he received little support despite repeatedly advising current and former university administrators of hazing activities within the Marching 100 band, is of grave concern to the Board of Governors,” Parker wrote, adding that the state university system has a “no-hazing” policy.

“While we are aware that the university has a regulation and a rule in place to prohibit hazing activities and to penalize students for engaging in such activities, we are asking Chancellor Brogan to initiate an investigation to determine whether university administration took appropriate action to address the hazing activities referenced by Dr. White and any hazing activities in the student population at large,” she wrote.

State education officials are trying to get Gov. Rick Scott to back away from his veiled threat earlier this week to veto millions of dollars in college and university building projects to ease the state’s rising tide of red ink.

Ava Parker, chair of the State University System’s Board of Governors, wrote Scott assuring him Thursday that the robust list of bond-financed projects — topping $123 million– was needed repairs, renovations and expansions by the schools.

“Governor, you can be assured that the entire list of State University System PECO projects as listed in the 2011 state budget on your desk adheres to all standards, were approved by their respective university boards of trustees, and are among the top priorities for the State University System,” Parker wrote, urging the chief executive to contact her or Chancellor Frank Brogan before wielding his veto pen.

Locally, among the projects is $3.2 million for new roofs and other maintenance at Florida Atlantic University.

More troubling, however, may be the $46 million worth of campus expansion, new buildings and renovations wedged in by Senate budget chief J.D. Alexander, R-Lake Wales, for his favored University of South Florida Polytechnic in Lakeland.

More than $100 million in Public Education Capital Outlay (PECO) projects for the state college system also is getting a close look. Included among them is $7.3 million for a west campus building at Palm Beach State College.

The governor also may be looking toward at least one that could be seasoned with pork: a $7 million classroom building at Pasco-Hernando Community College, included in the budget late and in the hometown of House speaker-in-waiting Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel.

 Scott has until June 1 to act on the $69.7 billion budget approved earlier this month by lawmakers.

Former Palm Beach County school board member Mark Hansen, who lost his reelection bid in November, is busy these days plugging a new book. He says he’s been doing radio interviews with stations from Baltimore to California to promote his Success 101 For Teens: 7 Traits for a Winning Life, which was published this month by Paragon House.

The book features a foreword by Florida Atlantic University President Frank Brogan and endorsement blurbs from state Sen. Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, and county schools superintendent Art Johnson.