Published: April 11, 2008 04:12 pm            

Still searching — 04/13/08

Best people are not interested in being just a figurehead

Gov. Steve Beshear wants the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education to conduct a national search for a president who will have “an established reputation” in higher education. However, the council will not be able to attract the type of candidates the governor wants and the position deserves without some assurances that the next president will allowed to do his (or her) job.

To date, the president of the Council on Postsecondary Education — a position created by the Higher Education Reform Act of 1997 — has been little more than a figurehead who draws a huge salary but has been largely ignored by the presidents of the state universities and community and technical colleges over whom he supposedly has authority.

Maybe that’s why the council’s first search for a permanent successor for former President Tom Layzell produced no applicants deemed acceptable. That’s why Brad Cowgill — a Democrat who served as budget director for former Republican Gov. Ernie Fletcher — has been serving since last July as interim president. His contract — which pays $275,000 a year — expires at the end of this month.

Cowgill has let it be known that he is interested in being permanently named as Layzell’s successor. But the governor is insisting that the council look past Cowgill in hopes of finding a president with a national reputation.

At least on paper, the president of the Council on Postsecondary Education outranks all other higher education officials in the state. The position was created to bring more unity to higher education in Kentucky and to end the petty competition between individual schools that often has hampered higher education in this state.

But it has not worked out that way. If you want something done at the University of Kentucky, the person to see is UK President Lee T. Todd, not the president of the Council on Postsecondary Education. If individual universities are seeking more money from the General Assembly, they directly lobby legislators, not go through the council.

If the Council on Postsecondary Education truly wants an outstanding educator to serve as its president, it much assure him that he will have the ability to do what the job was created to do. Until that happens, a person with the type of reputation the governor wants is not likely to apply for the position. Talented people want to be more than just a figurehead — regardless of the salary the position pays.

        

• Click to discuss this story with other readers on our forums.