http://www.djournal.com/p...72&pub=1&div=News
<table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="1"> <tbody> <tr> <td valign="top"> <font size="4" face="Tahoma">Search for MSU leader 'on track'</font>
<font size="2" face="Tahoma">10/11/2008 9:19:19 AM
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<font size="2" face="Tahoma">BY PATSY R. BRUMFIELD
Daily Journal
STARKVILLE - More than a week has passed since the state College Board had hoped to be nearly ready to choose a new president for Mississippi State University.
But sources close to the process say they're optimistic the selection will move ahead on time, regardless of the outcome of a state Auditor's Office investigation into whether one of the likely finalists, Dr. Vance Watson, had anything to do with alleged free landscaping work by MSU at the Jackson area home of Higher Education Commissioner Thomas Meredith.
The auditor's report is expected to be delivered Wednesday or Thursday to the College Board when it meets in regular session in Hattiesburg.
If the auditor's report should reflect badly on Watson, search insiders say they will move ahead with who they have left and adamantly say they reject any ideas of restarting the process or bringing in other candidates.
Watson, 65, a longtime Extension Service leader, has been MSU interim president since March after the surprise departure of President Robert "Doc" Foglesong, a retired four-star Air Force general hired amid controversy by the Institutions of Higher Learning in 2006.
Secret process
Although the current search is a traditionally secret process, the Daily Journal has reported the finalists are believed to be Watson, U.S. Department of Agriculture leader Dr. Mark Keenum, 47, and Wichita State University Provost Dr. Gary Miller, believed to be in his mid-50s. All are MSU alumni.
While Keenum has not spoken publicly about his status, Watson said months ago he wanted the job on a more permanent basis. And although Miller has declined to comment, Wichita State University President Don Beggs did not deny it to the Wichita Eagle newspaper nearly two weeks ago after a Daily Journal report about MSU finalists.
The College Board's search committee, with representatives of a campus selection panel, intended to convene Oct. 2 to select its "preferred candidate," but abruptly cancelled that event for an emergency session Sept. 27 about the landscaping allegations.
Meredith, a former Georgia higher ed chief and earlier a key assistant at the University of Mississippi, announced a leave from his IHL duties while the investigation was conducted. He became IHL commissioner in 2005.
Board President Amy Whitten of Oxford has been serving in his place since then.
"Both Dr. Meredith and Dr. Watson have exemplary records of lifelong service to higher education," she said at the time, "and the board holds both of them in the highest professional regards."
She and others have said the investigation should not delay plans to hire a new MSU president by early November.
Before the emergency meeting, some search observers believed Watson might have enough votes on the 12-member College Board to sew it up.
Keenum, whom supporters say still very much wants the job, is in his third go-round as a finalist. His 2006 candidacy couldn't gain enough support and caused the IHL Board to select on Foglesong.
In the previous search, the politicking on Keenum's behalf reportedly became so divisive that IHL offered the post to then-interim President Dr. Charles Lee as a kind of caretaker.
MSU has had four presidents in the past 10 years, and a desire for stability at the top is a constant theme among MSU students, faculty, staff and alumni.
Key to where this goes is what the auditor's report will tell the College Board.
Watson has said publicly he was making a formal request to appear before the board "to provide testimony as to the vicious public attacks being made on my personal credibility by certain individuals."
Since the College Board meets in committees on Wednesday, it's considered unlikely the report will be addressed until Thursday at the earliest.
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<table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="1"> <tbody> <tr> <td valign="top"> <font size="4" face="Tahoma">Search for MSU leader 'on track'</font>
<font size="2" face="Tahoma">10/11/2008 9:19:19 AM
Daily Journal</font></p> </td> <td valign="top"> <div align="center">
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<font size="2" face="Tahoma">BY PATSY R. BRUMFIELD
Daily Journal
STARKVILLE - More than a week has passed since the state College Board had hoped to be nearly ready to choose a new president for Mississippi State University.
But sources close to the process say they're optimistic the selection will move ahead on time, regardless of the outcome of a state Auditor's Office investigation into whether one of the likely finalists, Dr. Vance Watson, had anything to do with alleged free landscaping work by MSU at the Jackson area home of Higher Education Commissioner Thomas Meredith.
The auditor's report is expected to be delivered Wednesday or Thursday to the College Board when it meets in regular session in Hattiesburg.
If the auditor's report should reflect badly on Watson, search insiders say they will move ahead with who they have left and adamantly say they reject any ideas of restarting the process or bringing in other candidates.
Watson, 65, a longtime Extension Service leader, has been MSU interim president since March after the surprise departure of President Robert "Doc" Foglesong, a retired four-star Air Force general hired amid controversy by the Institutions of Higher Learning in 2006.
Secret process
Although the current search is a traditionally secret process, the Daily Journal has reported the finalists are believed to be Watson, U.S. Department of Agriculture leader Dr. Mark Keenum, 47, and Wichita State University Provost Dr. Gary Miller, believed to be in his mid-50s. All are MSU alumni.
While Keenum has not spoken publicly about his status, Watson said months ago he wanted the job on a more permanent basis. And although Miller has declined to comment, Wichita State University President Don Beggs did not deny it to the Wichita Eagle newspaper nearly two weeks ago after a Daily Journal report about MSU finalists.
The College Board's search committee, with representatives of a campus selection panel, intended to convene Oct. 2 to select its "preferred candidate," but abruptly cancelled that event for an emergency session Sept. 27 about the landscaping allegations.
Meredith, a former Georgia higher ed chief and earlier a key assistant at the University of Mississippi, announced a leave from his IHL duties while the investigation was conducted. He became IHL commissioner in 2005.
Board President Amy Whitten of Oxford has been serving in his place since then.
"Both Dr. Meredith and Dr. Watson have exemplary records of lifelong service to higher education," she said at the time, "and the board holds both of them in the highest professional regards."
She and others have said the investigation should not delay plans to hire a new MSU president by early November.
Before the emergency meeting, some search observers believed Watson might have enough votes on the 12-member College Board to sew it up.
Keenum, whom supporters say still very much wants the job, is in his third go-round as a finalist. His 2006 candidacy couldn't gain enough support and caused the IHL Board to select on Foglesong.
In the previous search, the politicking on Keenum's behalf reportedly became so divisive that IHL offered the post to then-interim President Dr. Charles Lee as a kind of caretaker.
MSU has had four presidents in the past 10 years, and a desire for stability at the top is a constant theme among MSU students, faculty, staff and alumni.
Key to where this goes is what the auditor's report will tell the College Board.
Watson has said publicly he was making a formal request to appear before the board "to provide testimony as to the vicious public attacks being made on my personal credibility by certain individuals."
Since the College Board meets in committees on Wednesday, it's considered unlikely the report will be addressed until Thursday at the earliest.
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