July 18, 2008

U.S. Congressman's Wife Is Hired as President of Community College in Illinois

Georgia C. Costello was picked this week as the new president of Southwestern Illinois College. Ms. Costello, who is 58, is the wife of U.S. Rep. Jerry F. Costello, an 11-term Democrat whose district includes the community college’s three campuses.

With no formal experience in higher-education administration, Ms. Costello is a former junior-high-school principal who recently served as an assistant superintendent of education in a regional office of education. The college’s governing board unanimously chose Ms. Costello as president because of her experience with education systems and her knowledge of the local area and its needs, according to the Belleville News-Democrat.

When asked about the perception that her husband’s political stature helped her get the job, Ms. Costello told the newspaper that she considered her personal life and her career to be separate.

“I think Jerry has his career, and I’m very proud of him,” she said. “I also have my career, and I think he’s extremely proud of me.” —Paul Fain

Comments

1. Cut me a break. Clearly there is an agenda that has nothing to do with higher education. I guess as a trustee the family dollar worth wasn’t high enough so let’s go for a direct connect to the “allocators.”

   — Dr. Bill    Jul 18, 01:09 PM    #

2. I have lived in Illinois almost my entire life. Not really surprised at the known corruption and supposed corruption that is Illinois politics.

   How many states have former governors in the prison system besides Illinois?

   — casey    Jul 18, 02:02 PM    #

3. Sad, really sad.

   — jed    Jul 18, 02:33 PM    #

4. “No formal experience”? What a joke. And how many truly deserving applicants (or qualified internal applicants) out there were overlooked? This is one reason why people go nuts and do bad things. I would leave that institution in a minute.

   — Peacenik    Jul 18, 02:52 PM    #

5. Anyone else remember that film The Star Chamber (a remake is due out next year)?

   When I read stories like this, I often think we need a Star Chamber to mete out justice to these untouchable types. They are so corrupt and public about it, yet no one seems able to hold them to account. The worst part is, this is just the corruption we can see; imagine what they are doing that we cannot see! “no formal experience in higher-education administration.” That says it all.

   — The Judge    Jul 18, 03:20 PM    #

6. you’s gotta problem wid dat ?

   — Ashin Rahula    Jul 18, 03:32 PM    #

7. A nice job going to a family member of a politician in Illinois? This IS news!

   — Steve    Jul 18, 03:33 PM    #

8. Yes, it’s sad. Yes, Illinois is corrupt (third most in the country, after Louisiana and New Jersey). But if the people there are really upset, they have the option of voting out Congressman Costello.

   — Rob    Jul 18, 03:35 PM    #

9. I suppose I should be surprised and somewhat dismayed but I am not. It is no wonder that qualified and bright candidates fail to even consider community college administration in their career paths in higher education. Illinois is not the only state that has redefined the qualifications needed to be a community college president. As my son might say, “It is what it is”.

   — President06    Jul 18, 03:39 PM    #

10. Hey, take it easy on Louisiana. None of the presidents in their community college system are married to the local congressman.

    — LC    Jul 18, 03:40 PM    #

11. This surprises anyone about Illinois? It seems Senator Obama’s wife doubled her salary and took a paid board of directors position with a for-profit about the same time he moved to Washington. Not saying there was anything wrong, but just saying.

    — seth    Jul 18, 03:43 PM    #

12. Yeah, it looks cozy, but let’s withhold judgment just a bit while the facts all come in. It turns out that Ms. Costello (and many other members of her family) attended the institution, and she knows the high school superintendents and principals in the region served by this community college quite well; the lack of that can be a crippling deficiency when a community college goes for a big name at the helm from outside the community. Though she does not have higher education administration experience, she does have quite a bit at the secondary level and knows some of the issues that arise when you’re running an educational shop. And folks certainly should know that one of the primary roles of a modern college president is development and the ability to schmooze with folks who can aid that effort, which she may be well placed to do. Given that, I can see why she would be considered. It will be a shame if it turns out that this was only the provision of a sinecure to a Congressman’s wife, but that’s not all that clear.

    — Bob M.    Jul 18, 03:55 PM    #

13. Pffft…I know a certain selective 4 year branch of an elite public university that chose a fresh out of graduate school Ed.D. in Higher Education who had specialized in College Student Personnel Administration, and whose only relevant job experience was his graduate internship as the assistant to the parent university’s President. All done through a process that was completely closed to faculty and students not on the small select search committee (the faculty at large weren’t allowed to know who any other candidates for the job were and ALL interviews took place 90 minutes away from campus).

    — lillirose    Jul 18, 04:16 PM    #

14. This smells bad. Granted Georgia Costello has some educational administration experience at the junior high level, it’s not equivalent with post-secondary experience in the sense that faculty, curricular, student, and funding issues are the same at the two levels. They are decidedly not.

    I once interviwed for a presidency at a community college in Illinois. It became clear to me in an informal, private conversation with one of the trustees during the interview process that the deck was stacked and that politics, not qualifications was going to determine the outcome of the search. I would very much like to know who were the other candidates along with Georgia Costello. I would bet even money that at least some of the other candidates had far more relevant credentials.

    — Rob D.    Jul 18, 04:32 PM    #

15. Here is the regional paper material, she sounds like a better candidate than the Chronicle article might have suggested:

    Costello said she started at BAC in the fall of 1967 and continued her education at McKendree College, where she earned a bachelor of arts in physical education

    She went on to get her master’s degree in educational administration from Southern Illinois University Carbondale, where she also earned her doctorate in educational administration in higher education in 2007.
    From the area newspaper she sounds better qualified than the Chronicle article:
    Costello worked at the Regional Office of Education as assistant superintendent from 2000-05 when she retired, then was hired back as a consultant. Before that, she served as principal of Belleville Public School District 118’s Central Junior High School and taught in the Belleville public schools.

    Mance said the college board of trustees appointed a search committee of about eight people, including SWIC board attorney Garrett Hoerner, who represented SWIC’s internal and external constituents to evaluate about six candidates and then recommend their choice to the board. The committee voted unanimously for Costello, and all but one board member was in favor of hiring Costello to be president.

    — bo    Jul 18, 04:35 PM    #

16. its always been not what you know but who you know and what money can you attract. She’ll probably do well bringing federal monies to the community college. The travesty that hides all this is the feds are giving all community colleges a fistful of dollars because CCs are cheaper than a baccalaureate institution. The problem is the CCs don’t really deliver baccalaureate preparatory students. Not all but some.

    — Good ol' Bubba    Jul 18, 04:40 PM    #

17. I agree with Bo and Bob M. It may be typical corruption as described by Rob in #8, but she does have experience in Ed Admin, an Ed.D, and she did attend the institution and she is familiar with the area. The Chronicle could have given us the additional information, and let readers make a more informed judgement.

    — Pseudomonas    Jul 18, 04:49 PM    #

18. I always marvel at the fact that when these little “deals” are being set up, the greed is so frontal in the brains of the players, that it never occurs to them how badly the “deal” smells – and the distance the smell will travel. Such practices, wherever they occur, stain the community, the college, and the students who enroll. Nice try No. 12, but no cigar. Those of us who have seen school superintendents and principals appointed to presidencies, not on merit, but on politics, know, full well, what a disaster it almost always is. All that needs to be done now is to find another political hack with the name Abbott who can get an appointment as co-president at Southwestern. Then the entire college family can laugh themselves into obscurity.

    — Bill    Jul 18, 04:49 PM    #

19. I actually attended this school, and I am very disappointed to hear this news. Although it is good the former president is gone, but the fact they replaced him with this woman is beyond me. This school has done nothing but go down the tube in the last 5 years, sad, very sad.

    — COry    Jul 18, 04:59 PM    #

20. It is happening all over America. These politicians who leave congnress for million dollar a year lobbying jobs think that they are entitled to a rich and lavish life style.
    Across the country from North Carolina to Illinois to Mass to Texas politicians who cannot make millions as lobbyists are jumping into higher education to make their fortune even though they could not manage a local insuarance office. In Virginia the director of the state lottery and a person friend of the governor was selected to be president of Radford University -he said “she knows how to raise money.” :))~ Her kids arer still with her husband in Richmond four hours away where she spend three nights a week.
    Now after two years the the board, appointed by the same governor Kaine, has extended her contract and given her a $1 million “signing bonus.”
    Take about corrupt. There is no end to it.

    — Fred D.    Jul 18, 04:59 PM    #

21. This is the new reality of higher ed., particularly in Illinois. The worst part about it is that it is the students and taxpayers who will suffer.

    — PS    Jul 18, 05:05 PM    #

22. Those who remind us that Mrs Costello has at least some qualifications—such as they are—miss the point. What in the ordinary course of events are the chances of someone whose only experience of running an educational institution was a stint as principal of a junior high school securing an appointment as president of a community college? To ask the question is to answer it.

    — Gustave    Jul 18, 05:27 PM    #

23. Wow – is she in for a wild ride. Wait until she gets into curriculum/standards discussions with the faculty! OMG

    — Latino Consultant    Jul 18, 05:39 PM    #

24. Wow X2! Read the editorial in their regional newspaper:

    http://www.bnd.com/editorial/story/401440.html

    — DrRoz    Jul 18, 06:09 PM    #

25. At least WVU must appreciate this diversion!

    — vaknvgntlmn    Jul 18, 06:25 PM    #

26. Don’t you know that the second biggest export of Illinois—besides biofuel—is Corruption? While Mrs. Costello may possess some of the qualities desirable to serve as head of SWIC, she and her husband both could have and should have taken the high road and stepped away from even the faintest whiff of the appearance of unethical behavior. But, of course, she couldn’t in good conscience, could she?

    We here in Illinois are being plowed under every time we lift our heads by the Combine of Corruption that Rep. Costello, our governor, Blago and governor wannabe SIUC President/Serial Plagiarist Poshard and Emil “Schlemiel” Jones are all fighting to drive. Just like the husband who adamantly refuses to listen to the wife who’s holding the map and knows where we should be going, these ineffective Keystone cops posing as politicos are only reinforcing the buffoonish and reprehensible educational state of affairs in Illinois, especially my stomping grounds, deep Southern Illinois. The Mrs. is only following the GOBs (good ole’ boys) lead. Viva gender equity!

    I’m sure she’ll do as much for recruiting and retaining woefully illiterate students in the region whose tuition and student loans contribute mightily to the big money machine of developmental classes in the same chest-thumping manner as her backers and predecessors have. So, let’s start a naming contest for this scandal in the making—Belleverado? SWIC Gate? GOB (GOD OLE’ BOY) GATE? And meanwhile let us pray for all the students and parents who can ill afford this hubristic and megalomaniacal approach to educational administration.

    — Tammany Hall    Jul 18, 07:34 PM    #

27. WVU is a poster child for why this type of activity hurts everyone … the school, the faculty, the politicians.

    — WVU faculty member    Jul 18, 08:31 PM    #

28. Tell number 12 to get a life and a real job!

    — Tom    Jul 18, 09:33 PM    #

29. I am a former faculty member. This is sickening and what’s worse is that our union (AFT-IFT) sold us out!

    — Old Faculty    Jul 18, 11:22 PM    #

30. Give me a break – if this isn’t political, I don’t know what is.

    — Denise    Jul 19, 07:55 PM    #

31. To #29 Old Faculty Member:
    The Faculty Union at Southwestern Illinois College has been continually informed that we have no rights in the appointment of any administrator, including the president. They have the legal right to hire and continue to demonstrate that right. If you know of a way to change that authority let me know.
    Leo Welch
    Former Faculty Union President

    — Leo Welch    Jul 20, 08:39 AM    #

32. Several community colleges don’t even go outside their campus to select a President — they take the internal candidate even after they do a national search! So, at least this person might bring in some new ideas — oh, oh, isn’t that scary?

    — administrator    Jul 20, 08:52 AM    #

33. Illinois is fast becoming a bad joke as a state. Corruption everywhere, taxes at 10.25% in Cook County, governors perpetually under investigation or in jail, Chicago aldermen on the take (see Tribune today) and the list goes on.

    Higher education should be the last place corruption finds a foothold, however. How sad.

    — Bob    Jul 20, 05:45 PM    #

34. #35 is exactly right. Is Obama a “different kind” of Illinois politician, I wonder?

    — L Wood    Jul 21, 10:03 AM    #

35. This is a serious mistake. Her background and expereience will not equip her for this important leadership role.
    The real problem here is the Trustees. It is the job of the Trustees to hire the President. I rest my case.

    — Daisy    Jul 21, 12:56 PM    #

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