EDITORIAL: Trustee appointments should be for entire University, not just College of Medicine
The appointments of Dr. Patricia A. Maryland and William R. Kanine to the CMU Board of Trustees have proven the College of Medicine will continue to be CMU’s main priority years down the line.
Maryland is president and CEO of St. John Providence Health System and Kanine is a certified public accountant who serves on the College of Medicine steering committee.
Clearly Gov. Rick Snyder’s appointments, made with input from CMU figures including President George Ross and Kathy Wilbur, vice president of Development and External Relations, were squarely focused on the medical school.
Whether or not it was intentional or incidental, this serves as a roundabout endorsement of the College of Medicine from Snyder, a matter that has been controversial in the CMU community and statewide.
The question is not whether these two can effectively help set up the College of Medicine, which they most likely will do admirably. The question is whether they can help govern the rest of the university, and whether they can do so in a fair and unbiased manner.
Trustees are appointed by the governor to serve an eight-year term. The College of Medicine is currently scheduled to accept its first class of students in 2012. After that, Kanine and Maryland will still have about seven years left in their terms.
They need to dedicate themselves to serving the best interest of the university at large — not just the College of Medicine, and not the personal interests of themselves or any other higher-ups on the board or at the university.
Kanine and Maryland need to get acquainted with the university in order to make informed decisions based on their own knowledge — not the coaxings or demands of other board members, Ross or anybody else.
And they need to do it quickly. Barring the unlikely eventuality that the Republican-controlled state Senate rejects Snyder’s appointments, Kanine and Maryland will begin serving at the Feb. 14 board meeting.
In future trustee appointments, the governor and those advising him should take a holistic approach, making appointments based on who will help make the best decisions for the university at large, rather than just a money-draining pet project.
