So far, Allen's efforts to eliminate the council, or greatly reduce its influence, have failed, but most observers expect the conservative Republican governor to keep trying.
On the surface, it seems strange that Allen and the state council should be feuding since they share a common desire to make higher education more efficient. Indeed, when Allen was running for office in 1993, he adopted many of the ideas SCHEV had been promoting.
But since he was elected in 1994, Allen has made several unfriendly moves toward Davies and the council. First, a government reform "strike force" appointed by the governor recommended that the council be reduced in size and made advisory to the state secretary of education.
Allen did not act on that recommendation, probably because of the strong support Davies has developed among key legislators in both parties during his 18 years as executive director. But the governor did propose cutting about half of the council's $3 million annual budget for 1995-1996, which would have been eliminated one-third of the agency's 48 staff positions. Davies said that would have been a "crippling blow."
This move was opposed by the 11-member council, some of whom were Republicans named by Allen. One of his appointees, insurance executive Alan I. Kirschner, even testified against the governor's proposals in legislative hearings.
"I had to to talk against my own governor," Kirschner said. "I didn't want to do that but it was necessary. The governor doesn't believe there is a need for SCHEV, that it should be under the secretary of education. I am a strong supporter of his, but I disagree on that issue. There is a need for the kind of long-term strategic planning in higher education that the council does."
The Legislature rescinded the SCHEV budget cut (as it did most of the $50 million that Allen wanted to trim from higher education spending) and the agency is continuing with business as usual, including the ambitious restructuring plan.
Since then, however, Allen has made two more appointments to the State Council, giving the Republicans a seven-to-four advantage, and it remains to be seen if the council will remain an independent voice in higher education matters or will begin to bend to the governor's wishes.
The future also is uncertain for Davies, a 58-year-old long-distance runner (he has competed in the Boston Marathon five times) whose political skills have enabled SCHEV to maintain its delicately balanced role as higher education advisor to the governor, to the Legislature and to the public colleges and universities.
Some of the young Republican partisans on Governor Allen's staff are said to resent Davies because he served under Democratic governors Charles Robb and Douglas Wilder (although both were unhappy with the executive director from time to time). Others want Davies and the State Council to operate as part of the Allen Administration, not as an autonomous, independent agency.
Without Davies and an independent State Council, however, it is unlikely that Virginia's promising higher education reform effort will succeed.
--W.T.