repubgazette4-13-07garrisonchoicereflectsonstate

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***To be updated when Garrison officially named***

Hoppy Kercheval reporting that Garrison has the votes

'Talkline" host Hoppy Kercheval is reporting this morning that Mike Garrison has more than enough votes from the Board of Governors to be recommended as West Virginia University's next president.

The board is scheduled to meet this morning to formally vote on choosing Garrison or Kansas State Provost Duane Nellis.

Garrison's selection has long been a given, but for the sake of appearances a "search" was conducted and some alternate candidates were named.

The charade has been called for what it is by a number of individuals, including Judge Robert King and State GOP Chairman Doug McKinney, as well as by the WVU Faculty Senate, which voted 47-5 on Wednesday in support of Nellis.

While the president and vice president of the student body endorsed Garrison, there was no actual vote taken of the students.

Kercheval is reporting today that Garrison has at least 10 of the 17 votes on the Board of Governors, and could actually wind up with all but two. The dissenters, according to Hoppy, are Charleston Gazette owner Betty Chilton and the faculty representative, Michael Lastinger.

You can read the results of Kercheval's aggressive reporting by clicking here.

The West Virginia Supreme Court will consider next Thursday Attorney General Darrell McGraw's request to reconsider its ruling in the case of State v. Mullens.

Various law enforcement organizations and prosecutors have also joined McGraw's filing with "friend of the court" briefs.

In the Mullens case, the court ruled 3-2 on Feb. 28 that police cannot send informants wearing electronic surveillance into a drug dealer's home without first getting a warrant.

The ruling, considered by many to be in direct contradiction

to United States Supreme Court opinions on the subject, will lead to the dismissal of countless drug cases and make it more difficult to gather evidence.

Justices Spike Maynard and Brent Benjamin dissented from the majority opinion. Maynard wrote a scathing dissent, and Benjamin's is expected to be filed any day.

The majority opinion was written by Justice Robin Davis, who was joined by Justices Joe Albright and Larry Starcher (whose nickname among some, by the way, is "Elvis" because his initials are LVS).

Gov. Joe Manchin has again expanded his national creds by joining Pennsylvania Governor Edward G. Rendell, Virginia Governor Timothy M. Kaine and Maryland Governor Martin J. O'Malley to announce the signing of the Highlands Action Program charter, a partnership that seeks to "preserve the ecological and cultural resources of the Mid-Atlantic Appalachian Highlands," according to a press release.

"In the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia, people have always had a direct connection to the natural resources around them," Manchin said. "We understand that job creation and long-term economic stability go hand-in-hand with improving and maintaining our rich natural and cultural resources. West Virginia is pleased to partner with other Highlands states on restoration initiatives to improve natural resources..."

States will focus on enhancing "green infrastructure" as a basis for targeting restoration and protection. Green infrastructure refers to the network of hubs and corridors that are essential to maintaining the health of natural ecosystems and resource-based working lands. In West Virginia, initial efforts have focused on Abram's Creek and the Coal River.

Updated 8 p.m. Friday April 13

The anti-climactic announcement Friday that Mike Garrison would be the next president of West Virginia University was greeted with a collective yawn across the state, although Friday the 13th turned out to be doubly unlucky for WVU with the co-announcement that tuition rates would jump by 5.5 percent.

The 16-1 vote by the Board of Governors in Garrison's favor demonstrated once again what a waste of time (albeit not much energy) the "search" really was. Regardless of how underestimated his talents may be in some quarters, does anyone believe that Garrison was really so much more impressive than Kansas State Provost Duane Nellis that Nellis could muster only one vote? How depressed must Nellis be? Perhaps he will decide to leave education entirely in the wake of his complete thrashing by the imminent Mr. Garrison.

(Incidentally, those trying to insist the students were behind Garrison, because of his endorsement by a student president and vice president were contradicted by the student newspaper endorsement Thursday of Nellis.)

The worst part of this process, believe it or not, is not the ultimate selection. It is, in fact, the adamant insistence by the committee that the "search" was really a search at all.

As Dr. Doug McKinney, a WVU alumnus, told The Associated Press on Friday, "They made their selection before David Hardesty even announced his retirement.''

McKinney's sentiment is hardly a minority opinion. When

Hardesty announced his retirement last year, the fact that Garrison was the heir apparent was a belief being privately expressed by nearly every politico and not a few media members around the state.

McKinney hit the bulls-eye when he added to the AP, "The question the people of West Virginia should be asking is if Mike Garrison would have been a finalist at any other university in the United States, and the answer is an unequivocal no.''

(Lest anyone think some low-down consultant was busy putting words in McKinney's mouth, yours truly in fact became aware of them only after reading them in the AP story. I would have told him to say "world," not just "United States." )

The ultimate problem here is not necessarily with Mr. Garrison, who likely will conduct himself with the expected dignity and enjoy periodic accomplishments for which he can boast in the coming months and years.

The problem is that the choice has reinforced the notion held by most that the presidency of the state's major university has become just one more political patronage job to be awarded to a loyal lieutenant or favored son, rather than to the candidate with the best experience and credentials.

That it is so expected to be done that way, and so universally accepted that it will be done that way, is this adventure's most telling lesson. Mike Garrison's predictable selection as president of West Virginia University is but a microcosm of how and why the state as a whole often seems so preordained to accept mediocrity as the best it can do.