A bill aimed at taking politics out of higher education passed through the House of Representatives Monday, but many legislators worried the measure could squelch minority viewpoints.

The bill, backed by Rep. Jeff Alexander, R-Provo, would make nominations to the Board of Regents nonpartisan, revoking the current structure that stipulates no more than eight of the 18 board members can be from one party.

That restriction makes it harder for areas like mostly Republican Utah County to get representation on the board. Currently, only one regent is from Utah County.

"What we're really talking about is diversity. We've had growth in certain parts of this state and schools that have grown are not represented on the Board of Regents," Alexander said. "It has nothing to do with political parties; it has everything to do with politics in higher education."

But Rep. Lou Shurtliff, D-Ogden, said the move was little more than one more maneuver to take Democrats off state boards.

"Every time I turn around there's a bill chipping away and making sure the majority party has most of the seats on these boards," she said. "It seems to me we have a fine Board of Regents."

Regents Chairman Nolan Karras said the board has not taken a position on the bill, which passed with a 47-22 vote, but added he would not want to see the balance of the board upset. Although positions are filled by the governor based on political party, Karras said the board approaches higher education in a nonpartisan fashion.

If the bill does pass, Karras said the board likely would continue to run as it has without letting political parties disrupt business.

"The beauty of it is we don't sit down and say, 'Which party are you guys?' because we don't care. We don't have the strident partisanship," Karras said.

Karras added, however, that he is opposed to an idea tossed onto the House floor Monday to make the nominations based on geographical areas. That idea, he said, would only lead to certain regents lobbying for their hometown institutions instead of for higher education as a statewide system.

"The regents have had a tradition of being nonpartisan and working for the good of the entire system," he said. "I would like to make sure we are allowed to continue to do that and that we don't start being assigned a territory and looking out after our own school."

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