Gubernatorial Authority and Influence on Public Higher Education

State governors have the potential to impact their states’ public higher education systems in a variety of very significant ways. The findings for the 33 governors included in this study suggest a great deal of variation in the extent of their authority and influence. Governors’ composite ratings of formal authority and informal influence are transposed onto a four-quadrant matrix of gubernatorial power. The matrix reveals that 19 systems have maximum-power governors, 11 have entrepreneurial-power governors, 8 have prescribed-power governors, and 2 have minimum-power governors.