Campaign Donations and Board Appointments

More than two-thirds of the people appointed to the University of Tennessee Board of Trustees by the current governor and previous governor were campaign donors to the men who selected them, The Knoxville News Sentinel reported. The practice is not unusual or illegal, the article noted, and some in the state say there is nothing wrong with it. But others say that as board members become increasingly involved in difficult financial and academic questions facing the university system, the pattern raises questions about whether the most qualified people are being appointed.