The power struggle between Gov. Steve Beshear and the Council on Postsecondary Education has ended just the way the governor hoped it would: With the council contracting with an outside firm to conduct a nationwide search for new president — a search that does not include Cowgill, a council’s first choice to be its new president, as a candidate for the state’s top official in higher education.
The power struggle came to a sudden end Tuesday when Cowgill, who served as budget director for former Gov. Ernie Fletcher, announced his resignation just two days before he was to become the permanent successor to former CPE President Tom Layzell, who retired. Cowgill, an attorney and registered Democrat who was once employed by the same law firm as the governor, had been interim president since September, but when the council in early April voted to remove “interim” from Cowgill’s title, the governor loudly protested.
Attorney General Jack Conway added to fuel to the fires of controversy by authoring a nonbinding opinion that the CPE may have violated state law by not conducting a nationwide search for its new president.
In announcing his resignation, Cowgill said it would have required “excessive time and effort” to defend his appointment and may have also led to a legal showdown with the governor.
“I have no desire to wage a battle with the governor over this matter,” Cowgill said in a statement. “It would unduly harm Kentucky’s postsecondary education reform efforts and the positive momentum that has been achieved to this point.”
He’s right. Cowgill’s appointment was threatening to distract from the far more important challenges facing higher education in Kentucky, with the primary one being doubling the number of college graduates in the state by 2020. That’s one of the goals of the Higher Education Reform Act of 1997 — one that the state is falling far short of achieving. The state’s postsecondary schools also are faced with the challenge of meeting their goals with less money from the state.
Part of the controversy surrounding Cowgill’s appointment was pure politics. The governor who denied Fletcher a second term as governor obviously did not like one of the key aides of his predecessor serving as the state’s top administrator in higher education. The fact that a majority of the members of the Council on Postsecondary Education are Fletcher appointees only added to suspicions that Cowgill’s appointment has as much to do with politics as his abilities.
However, putting politics aside, Cowgill was taking on a position that outranks the presidents of all the state universities without having any experience in higher education beyond formerly serving on the advisory board of a community college. Beshear said he wanted the next CPE president to have a national reputation in higher education, and Cowgill certainly didn’t have that.
“I appreciate Mr. Cowgill’s decision, which puts an end to a very difficult situation for everyone,” Beshear said in a statement. “I trust that the council will now move forward with a nationwide search for a permanent president.”
That’s what the governor has wanted from the start. Beshear won this battle.
Editorials
Cowgill quits — 05/01/08
Governor gets national search he wants for next president
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A mild winter
As we approach the Memorial Day weekend, long hailed as the unofficial start of the summer vacation season, we pause to reflect upon the winter that wasn’t.
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Devices banned
Emergency breathing devices that tests have proven unreliable are being phased out under a directive issued by the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration. However, MSHA has given mine operators more than 18 months to remove all the air packs from underground mines.
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A free weekend
In an effort to promote increased recreational use of the two lakes in the Daniel Boone National Forest, the U.S. Forest Service will offer free fishing and boating during the first weekend in June.
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Ho-hum election
Psst! Want to know a secret? There’s a primary election Tuesday. And it’s right here in Kentucky! However, there has been so little interest in this election, that Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes, the state’s top election official, is predicting that only betwixen 10 and 12 percent of the state’s eligible voters will take the time to go to the polls tomorrow.
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A real rush job
By giving first reading approval to two identical ordinances creating the Northeast Regional Jail Authority, elected leaders in Boyd and Carter counties are reviving a 30-year-old political issue — only this time with different results.
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KCTC leads way
The ability of Kentucky to compete with other states and the rest of the world for the good jobs of tomorrow keeps improving by degrees.
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Slow decline?
Louisville’s Churchill Downs is seeing its shortest spring meets since 1975, and some owners, trainers and breeders fear they could get even shorter. That is unless the Kentucky General Assembly has a change of heart and gives the home of the Kentucky Derby the option of increasing its nonracing revenue by offering new forms of gambling.
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Kids in jail
The number of Kentucky juveniles jailed for noncriminal offenses has dropped dramatically, according to a new report by the Kentucky Youth Advocates. That’s the good news. Unfortunately, that same report says despite the decrease, Kentucky has one of the highest rates in the nation for putting children behind bars for “status offenses” like running away, skipping school and other offenses that would not be against the law if they were 18.
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Unusual request
At Owen County High School and at Centre College, Adam Clark, 28, played football in the fall and ran track in the spring. The thought of being on the U.S. Olymoic bobsled team never even crossed his mind and seemed nearly as unlikely at the bobsled team from Jamaica that competed in the winter games, an accomplishment chronicled in “Cool Runnings,” an excellent 1993 movie starring the late John Candy as the American coach of the team.
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Servant leader
As the executive director of Ashland Community Kitchen, Alfreda Moore oversaw the serving of more than 33,000 meals to the hungry in 2011, a number that is sure to be surpassed long before the end of 2012.
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