Former education secretary now a candidate for the highest-paid job in state government

A recently departed Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education board member is in the running to become the system's next chancellor.

Former state education secretary Ronald Tomalis, 51, of Camp Hill, is among the trio of candidates who made it to the chancellor search's final stage, according to four sources familiar with the situation.

Former state education secretary Ronald Tomalis, now higher education special adviser to Gov. Tom Corbett, is one of three finalists in the chancellor search at the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, according to sources.

Members of the State System board declined to confirm that Tomalis was one of the three finalists they interviewed on Thursday, citing search guidelines assuring confidentiality to the candidates.

Tomalis did not return a phone call seeking comment and neither did a spokesperson from Gov. Tom Corbett's office.

The system's board ended Thursday without making a decision on a successful candidate or announcing a date when a decision would be made.

System Board Chairman Guido Pichini didn't make himself available for comment on Thursday about the board's efforts to find a permanent successor to John Cavanaugh.

Cavanaugh, who held the $327,500-a-year post, the highest salary in state government, left in February after five years to lead a public and private higher education consortium in Washington, D.C.

By virtue of his former role in Corbett's Cabinet, Tomalis served as a voting member on the State System's board of governors from January 2011 until May when he was forced out as education secretary.

Corbett didn't leave him high and dry, though. He named Tomalis to a newly created higher education special adviser position that carried the same pay ($139,931) that he earned as education secretary.

No official reason was given for Tomalis' abrupt removal from the secretary post. At the time, it was said that he was removed as a result of conflicts with members of Corbett's inner circle.

However, skeptics now might question if the move was intended to eliminate the conflict that would have existed if a sitting board member at the State System was seeking the chancellor position.

Regardless, the two-month separation between being a board member and becoming a finalist in the chancellor search is a concern to state Auditor General Eugene DePasquale.

He, along with his predecessor Jack Wagner, called into question a similar "revolving door" at Penn State that was brought to light in the aftermath of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal.

In testimony provided in March to the Senate State Government Committee about Penn State governance reform, DePasquale called on the university to cease "the practice of insiders moving back and forth between board and staff by prohibiting trustees from accepting university management positions."

He went on to say: "This revolving door creates a cast of influential insiders with the potential to impair objective and independent thinking. A revolving door does not represent good governance."

Penn State now requires a five-year waiting period before a trustee can be employed by the university in any capacity, unless it is approved by the board of trustees.

Reached on Thursday, DePasquale said he feels that same rule should apply to all of Pennsylvania's public universities which receive a substantial amount of public funds, not just Penn State.

But those familiar with Tomalis say he would be a much-needed breath of fresh air in the 30-year-old State System that has only ever had individuals who rose up from the faculty ranks occupying its chancellor's office.

"Why not have someone who is passionate, with real-world experience and has a background in public or secondary education and stop going with the same model that has got us here," said a source close to Corbett and the search.

Tomalis, a Dickinson College alum who holds a political science degree, gained his educational stripes by serving in top-level executive roles in the state and U.S. education departments.

He also has worked as the principle adviser to non-profit education groups and foundations as well as for-profit education companies. And unlike the three chancellors who the system employed, he has not earned a doctorate.

Faculty union President Steve Hicks, who participated in interviews with the chancellor candidates on Wednesday, declined to divulge the names of the candidates or confirm whether Tomalis was a candidate.

But he was willing to comment on how faculty would feel if the system's board went with a non-traditional candidate as did the University of California in hiring U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano as its president and Purdue University in bringing in Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels as its president.

Hicks said, "I think faculty if they'd been asked their expectations on minimal qualifications, they'd say a terminal degree and a life working in academics. So they would feel like they are being shown no respect for what they do educating students in higher ed by having somebody who hasn't participated in the academy."

He said higher education is unlike a company that makes widgets where anybody who is a qualified manager will do. Rather, he said it's a culture that puts high value on academic freedom.

Hicks said faculty feel it's necessary to live and understand that culture in order to be a good spokesperson at the top of the order.

But people who are promoting Tomalis say the system and parents who send their children to be educated at system universities might be better served with someone like him who would advocate on their behalf rather than the professors.

The State System universities enroll almost 115,000 students and include Bloomsburg, California, Cheyney, Clarion, East Stroudsburg, Edinboro, Indiana, Kutztown, Lock Haven, Mansfield, Millersville, Shippensburg, Slippery Rock and West Chester universities.

nnew3670ed 27 Jul, 2013

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Source: http://www.educationnews.com/2013/07/27/former-education-secretary-now-a-candidate-for-the-highest-paid-job-in-state-government/
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