FCC Chairman Reed Hundt on September 9 named the members of the boards of directors of the Schools and Libraries Corporation (SLC), which will be responsible for administering the E-Rate portion of the new universal service support mechanisms, and its parent Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC).
USAC will be primarily responsible for collecting and disbursing the money in the universal service fund, while the SLC will be primarily responsible for managing the application approval process for schools and libraries.
The FCC solicited nominees in August from specific stakeholder groups. According to FCC staff member Lori Wright, the names of 56 persons were submitted for the 17 seats on the USAC board, including a total of 19 nominees for the three seats that represent schools and the one library seat. The four school and library representatives to the USAC board received joint appointments to the SLC board, along with one independent member.
Named to the SLC Board were Anne Bryant, executive director, National School Boards Association; Henry Marockie, president, Council of Chief State School Officers; Brian Talbot, executive director, American Association of Educational Service Agencies; and Kathleen Ouye, chief librarian of the San Mateo Public Library. The independent member of the SLC Board will be Ken Brody, managing partner of Winslow Partners.
Members of the USAC board representing various parts of the telecommunications industry will be Frank Gumper, vice president of federal regulatory planning for Bell Atlantic; Kevin Hess, vice president, TDS TELECOM; Edwin Eichler, chairman, Organization for the Promotion and Advancement of Small Telecommunications Companies; Donald Lynch, senior vice president, financial operations and local markets, MCI Telecommunications Corporation; James Jackson, regulatory attorney, General Communication, Inc.;
Tom Wheeler, president, Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association;
Heather Burnett Gold, president, Association for Local Telecommunications Services, Inc.; Lisa Rosenbloom, senior vice president of regulatory and legal affairs of the Telephony and Data Services Division, Cablevision Systems Corporation; and David Abramson, corporate public affairs manager, 3Com Corporation.
Jay Sanders, president of the American Telemedicine Association, will represent rural health care providers, who can also qualify for universal service fund support, on the USAC Board. John Anthony Butler, vice president for technology of the National Urban League, will represent low-income consumers, Martha Hogerty, public counsel in the Office of the Missouri Public Counsel, will represent state consumer advocates, and Allan Thoms, chair of the Iowa Utilities Board, will represent state telecommunications regulators.
By the end of September, the service provider members of the USAC board are supposed to select a representative to fill the sixth seat on the SLC. Once that member is appointed, the SLC will recommend a CEO to the FCC chairman. Once that person is chosen, he or she will also sit on the SLC board.
