SECRET GOVERNMENT

The Missouri Coordinating Board for Higher Education needs to come out of the closet. In its efforts to choose a new commissioner of higher education, the board has cloaked its actions in secrecy, refusing to even release the names of finalists for the position.

Coordinating board member Mary Findley of Poplar Bluff recently disclosed that Southeast Missouri State University President Kala Stroup was one of five finalists for the job. The other names weren't released.

Other coordinating members, including the head of the search committee, have refused to even talk about it.

A member of the coordinating board staff told The Associated Press that the board wasn't inviting the press or public to sit in on the search for a successor to Dr. Charles McClain.

Why not? Missouri's public universities typically release the names of president finalists. They even bring them to campus where both the press and the public have a chance to talk to them.

The commissioner of higher education has a lot of influence over what happens on this state's college campuses, as witness McClain's efforts in raising academic standards. In today's climate of accountability, colleges and universities must be open to public scrutiny.