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.

Gov. Rick Scott, who has been trying to rein-in the cost of higher education in Florida, fired off a challenge Monday to state college leaders — urging they create bachelor’s degree programs costing no more than $10,000.

Such degrees at Florida state colleges — formerly known as community colleges — currently average $13,264, said Randy Hanna, chancellor of the Florida College System.

“Today, what I’m doing is saying to our state colleges, ‘Can you come up with $10,000-degrees, where people can get great jobs…so you could live your version of the American dream,’” Scott told a Tampa television station, before announcing his proposal in an appearance at St. Petersburg College.

Most of Scott’s earlier questioning of higher education costs have been directed at the State University System, where the latest round of tuition increases of from 9 percent to 15 percent, have boosted the average annual rate to $6,232 this fall — 41st highest in the nation.

But the State College System now serves almost 900,000 students, with enrollment rising with the slow economy.

Hanna said the “logistics still have to be worked out,” on the governor’s challenge. But Hanna said he expected individual colleges to embrace the idea of offering at least one popular degree program at the lower rate that is aimed at getting students out into the local work force.

Charlie Reed, who was Florida’s higher education chancellor for 13 years until heading to California in 1998, announced Thursday that he was stepping down as top executive of the nation’s largest university system.

Reed said he’ll return to Florida when a successor is named.

“It has been an incredible honor to serve as chancellor of the California State University during such a dynamic period in the university’s history,” Reed said.  “Over the past decade and a half, the CSU has emerged as a national leader in providing access and support to students from a wide range of socio-economic backgrounds.”   

But over the past four years, Reed also has had to grapple with California’s deep budget problems. State cuts to the state university system totaled more than $1 billion, a  35 percent reduction even as enrollment spiked.  Since Reed joined the CSU, the system has grown by 100,000 students to 427,000.

“Nobody has cared more about the mission of the university, worked harder despite overwhelming challenges or advocated more passionately on behalf of the CSU than Charlie Reed,” said CSU Trustee Bill Hauck.  “His leadership over more than 14 years has been invaluable, and he has managed the institution through some of the most difficult times in its history.  Charlie leaves a legacy that puts students first.”

Reed, 70, was a popular, hardnosed figure as Florida’s university system chancellor. A former chief-of-staff to Democratic Gov. Bob Graham, Reed remained outspoken about Florida’s system – even from his position on the left coast.

Earlier this year, he told the Palm Beach Post, “the bigger problem in Florida is, there’s no real vision, no plan or direction for what higher education means and what it should do for the state.”

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.”

Senate budget chief J.D. Alexander is turning up the heat on the University of South Florida, after the State University System’s Board of Governor’s approved a slow rollout of plans to make USF-Polytechnic an independent university in his home Polk County.

The Lake Wales Republican wants the State University System to investigate USF President Judy Genshaft and other school leaders for what he said was misleading the system’s Board of Governors on details about construction at the Polytechnic’s campus. The BOG set benchmarks for the Lakeland school to achieve before it’s considered as the state’s 12th public university, but stopped far short of giving the school outright independence.

“As Polytechnic moves forward and begins the necessary steps to transition from a regional campus to Florida’s 12^th university, I believe it is imperative to correct the record and draw public attention to this campaign of misinformation,” Alexander said, in a letter to BOG Chair Ava Parker.

With six-figure administrative salaries common across Florida’s 11 public universities, State University System Chancellor Frank Brogan said Tuesday that schools must offer payouts that keep them competitive nationwide.

But he conceded that there may be some “aberrations” at budget-strapped state universities. Brogan, who spoke to House Democrats on Tuesday, has little authority over salaries, which are set by individual schools.

“I think administrative salaries are competitive,” Brogan said. “Like most other salaries, if you look at other states, their administrative salaries are considerably higher. In some states they might be lower…But we try to find a market-based administrative salary schedule that can attract and maintain the best and brightest in those jobs — without going overboard.

“Now, in some particular instances, people could be accused of going overboard,” Brogan said.

The Florida Legislature has cut public funding for universities by 17 percent between 2007 and 2010. But tuition has climbed 15 percent annually since 2007 — with another 15 percent expected to be sought next year. The financial burden is shifting from state taxpayers to parents and students, Brogan conceded.

Administrative salaries, though, seem to have weathered the budget upheaval.

According to a review of university salaries by the Post, the University of Florida has a four-person roster of registered lobbyists  whose cumulative pay is $657,872.  The University of Central Florida defends its vice-president salaries as ranging from $198,900 to $269,777, while  median salaries at other large Florida universities range from $203,694 to $315,000.

UCF’s two registered lobbyists earn $194,466 and $143,223, respectively, records show.

“What we need to guard against is making very large assumptions about salary and compensation packages based on some of the aberrations that we might see,” Brogan said.

When Florida State University agreed to bring its much-honored film school to West Palm Beach, it was a Hollywood-style story, glittering with images of students getting hands-on experience in big-budget movies.

But a year before classes even begin in temporary quarters at CityPlace, FSU and its partner, Port St. Lucie-based Digital Domain Media Group, already have produced their first blockbuster.

Call it “The Civil War.”

FSU’s arrival in the backyard of Boca Raton-based Florida Atlantic University has sparked a fierce turf battle among the state’s 11 public universities, stirring age-old rivalries among schools that compete not only on the football field, but also for lucrative business partnerships, well-heeled donors and faculty-friendly locations.

FAU has cried foul over FSU’s arrival.

Spurred by the bad feelings, a panel of the State University System’s Board of Governors is scheduled to consider a new regulation today that would assign schools to specific regions and require them to get approval from the schools in another region before offering programs in that region.

“It’s a tough issue,” said Ava Parker, a Jacksonville lawyer and Board of Governors chairwoman. “The world has become more mobile and global. But a lot of this is about bricks and mortar, and where they are placed.”

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.