Stop the Presses! CPE Does Its Own Due Diligence!

At last, somebody got the message. Rather than outsourcing their responsibilities, the members of the Council on Postsecondary Education has identified finalists, but delayed making a pick to give members time to dig into the backgrounds of their finalists.

That should serve as a model for all state agencies.

This from Ryan Alessi at H-L:

The Council on Postsecondary Education has narrowed its search for a president to two candidates but put off making a pick Wednesday until members could dig further into both men's backgrounds.

"We have continued to discuss two people that we're very interested in but we need to do more reference checking and discussion," said John R. Hall, the retired chairman of Ashland Inc. who is leading the council's search committee.

The two candidates met with the council Wednesday morning for the first time in closed-door meetings. Council members deliberated in private at Lexington's Embassy Suites Hotel for most of the afternoon before finally breaking up at 4 p.m.

Hall and other council members remained tight-lipped about the identities of the finalists, saying only that both men — who hail from the Northeast — are qualified to lead the group that sets state higher education policy...