Tim Cahill Is Getting Too Much Press

State treasurer Tim Cahill, an independent candidate for governor, already has one distinction in the governor’s race: he’s the only non-Harvard product. Democratic Governor Deval Patrick, Republican Charlie Baker, and Green-Rainbow Party candidate Jill Stein all spent their undergrad days in Cambridge, and Patrick and Stein attended professional school there. Cahill (CAS’81) went to BU; last year he received an Alumni Award, the highest the University bestows on alums.

Campaigning sans party, and after weeks of attack ads against him from the Republican Governors Association, Cahill trails Patrick and Baker in polls. He also recently found himself a sideshow in the state probation department carnival, questioned about possible patronage in hiring the wife and daughter of an acquaintance, Probation Commissioner John O’Brien. O’Brien has been suspended amid allegations that he ran a patronage factory.

Cahill denies hiring O’Brien’s relatives as payback for political support (both Cahill and O’Brien are from Quincy). He says he has no personal relationship with O’Brien.

BU Today spoke with the treasurer about what he’d do for higher education as governor in light of students at Massachusetts public universities and colleges facing higher fees next year to compensate for cuts in state aid.

BU Today: Did your BU political science degree prepare you for seeking and holding office?
Cahill: BU has prepared me for a lot in life. I got a great education. I sat in two classes with Howard Zinn. I took a course where we actually did build a campaign. It was for a nonprofit. I became the team leader. When I ran for office the first time, a month after I graduated, it was a good experience.

But I don’t know if anything could have prepared me for what the last month has been like. But I’m still standing. The Republican ad onslaught is a little bit daunting. In other elections I’ve been in, the press has been a problem because you can’t enough.

Is public higher education in Massachusetts affordable enough?
For upper-income people, I think it’s a great deal. For middle-class and lower middle-class people, I don’t think it’s as affordable as it should be. Many people in higher education are fooled by the fact that tuition is so low, but fees are so high. I would rather see the system decentralized, where each school outside that U-Mass bloc gets to keep its own money and run its own operations. Now, in-state tuition goes to the state and gets parceled out in line items.

Are the state universities and college system adequately financed?
I think they’re adequately financed. Budgets are strained everywhere. I don’t think that there’s an ability to commit more money now, when there are so many other needs. Once the stimulus money runs out, you could see drastic cuts in education next year. I won’t promise to avert that. Where money gets spent is a negotiation between the House, Senate, and governor’s office — sometimes not even the governor’s office. It’s a bit of a dance.

The schools have to realize they’re in for some lean times. It may mean they can’t offer some of the courses they’d like to offer. My four children have all gone to private colleges. I’ve got extended family that goes to the public system, and I hear good things from them. I think they’re getting a very competitive, solid education.

If you had to make cuts, how would you protect the system’s core mission?
I would work with university presidents. It’s a huge amount of money. Much of it gets spent wisely, but I’m sure some of it doesn’t. If you raise taxes, you’re asking parents to pay more. I’m not going to be asking for higher taxes. I think we’ll be looking at lower budgets going forward. Most budgets, in the case of higher education, have gone down. The House budget is 13 percent lower than it was last year for higher education. That may be an area we’ll have to look at: how they can get federal funding.

I don’t think our system is going to be able to become a leading institution on the level of a University of Michigan, simply because of the quality of private schools we have that compete.

What should be the state’s role vis-à-vis private research universities like BU?
I disagree with the movement, in the city of Boston and the legislature, to seek more money from them in lieu of taxes. They’re big employers. I would like to see us changing some laws to allow for professors and researchers to move in and out of the private sector and still stay in their positions and benefit financially. We lose good, talented educators because they want to make money. I would run into many of them at hedge funds and investment firms. I’d like to build around the Stanford model, where folks can build companies and still retain professorships.

Having a regular relationship with college presidents, public and private, would be a key part of what I’d try to foster. I have a relationship with Bob Brown. It’s something we have to work at across the state.

Rich Barlow can be reached at barlowr@bu.edu.