In Alabama, for example, the Alabama Commission on Higher Education receives individual budget requests directly from each public postsecondary institution, creates a consolidated budget request based upon the information it receives, and presents this consolidated budget to the legislature. Three states have advisory coordinating boards which have no real power, though their recommendations may be influential. They have the authority to review university budgets and proposals to create new academic programs and to review existing programs, but their role is limited to providing advice to the state legislature, governor, or other higher education boards. Quoting a former chairman of the South Carolina Commission on Higher Education, commission staffer Adam S. Krech says, Being the head of a coordinating board is like standing between a dog and a tree. There is only a planning agency, that concerned with facilitatesing communication among institutions and education sectors and performsing a voluntary planning function.
Governance is the responsibility of institutional boards on each campus or of multi-campus boards.
The 10 states ranking highest in state funds for higher education operating expenses are California, Texas, New York, Florida, Illinois, North Carolina, Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Georgia. Alabama has the largest number of historically black colleges and universities with 13, while North Carolina has the largest number of such public four-year institutions, with five. Only in 14 states California, Florida, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, Tennessee, Vermont, Washington, and West Virginia is the percentage of minorities enrolled in four-year public institutions larger than the percentage of minorities in the population as a whole. Members of 43 central higher education boards are appointed by state governors, either with or without approval of the state senate. Alternatively, in five states, the governor or another public official appoints a portion of the board with the state legislature electing the remaining board members.