Inside Higher Ed: Question of independence
For well over a decade now, the leaders of Wesley College’s Board of Trustees have turned to James L. Fisher whenever they needed help. The longtime college president turned higher education consultant led Wesley’s search for a new president in 1997 and has provided it with “assistance, advice and counsel with some regularity,” as one college official describes it.
So when Wesley’s president, Scott D. Miller, faced plagiarism charges this spring, for the second time in his career, the trustees — after rallying to Miller’s defense — agreed to conduct an independent review of the accusations and of the college’s overall status. They asked Fisher, their trusted adviser, to put together a review panel, and he recruited three current or former college presidents, all of whom have worked with or for Fisher on other university consulting jobs. In its report last month, the review panel concluded that plagiarism had occurred, but said it could not figure out whether Miller or someone else had committed it. Over all, the report praised Miller for essentially saving the college, saying he was “in the midst of one of the most successful college presidencies in the nation.”
Fisher’s involvement, even at some distance, in the review of Miller troubles some observers on the campus and elsewhere, given what they say are the very close ties between Fisher and the president.
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