Bill Johnson

In yesterday’s Ohio Capitol Journal:

Commentary: Everything about the YSU Board of Trustees' opaque maneuvers to quickly install right wing Trump apparatchik and notorious election denier Bill Johnson as the university’s 10th president is appalling.

By @JohanekMarilou https://t.co/GgHa8PoGPV

— Ohio Capital Journal (@OhioCapJournal) November 28, 2023

In her commentary, Marilou Johanek gets right to the point:

Appalling. No other word fits what Youngstown State University did recently by secretly anointing a MAGA Republican, with a shameful congressional history, as its next president. The abrupt announcement of Ohio Congressman Bill Johnson, R-Marietta, to the top post was met with dismay by university stakeholders — students, faculty, staff, alumni, community — left in the dark about the decision until after the fact.

Everything about the YSU Board of Trustees opaque maneuvers to quickly install a right wing Trump apparatchik and notorious election denier as the university’s 10th president stinks. How Michael Peterson, chairman of the board, could suggest that Johnson fit the “overarching expectations” of their search for “a president with unquestionable integrity” after what the dishonorable pol did before and after Jan 6, is beyond me.

Johnson was one of five Ohio Congressmen who attempted to overturn the results of a free and fair election based on a hunch or hearsay or passing conspiracy theory but no hard evidence. After all the manufactured mania about massive voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election, zero proof of a grand scheme to “steal” Trump’s contrived victory ever materialized. The reality is simply more Americans voted for Joe Biden than Donald Trump.

And later in her commentary:

Even after the gravest assault on our democratic republic since the Civil War, where armed throngs vowed to hang the vice president and hunted lawmakers assembled to formally ratify certified election results, Johnson did his level best to overturn the election for Trump by voting to throw out the results in two states. “Simply rubber stamping these slipshod and partisan-laced electoral outcomes is wrong,” he asserted without a shred of substantiation.

That’s quite a legacy. Of course, for Ogden Newspaper readers in Ohio, West Virginia and Western Pennsylvania, Johnson’s denial of political reality and his support for an insurrection was never mentioned in this supportive editorial that ran throughout the region last weekend:

Johnson Is Solid Pick To Lead YSU

The politician as university president: West Virginia shows the way

There are not many educational categories in which West Virginia is a leader among the states. Questionable educational ideas may be one, however. Certainly, the Kanawha textbook controversy of the 1970s was clearly ahead of its time. More recently, our legislature has put the state at the forefront in attacking and underfunding public education while encouraging the growth of unregulated (for the most part) educational alternatives.

And similar to what is about to happen in Ohio, West Virginia has had a politician-as-university-president in the person of Robin Capehart* who served the state Republican Party in various capacities before becoming president of West Liberty University in 2005. As president at West Liberty, Capehart was investigated by the state ethics commission, pleaded guilty, and resigned in 2015. Not to worry, he eventually went back to work for the Republican Party. In 2019, Capehart was named interim president at Bluefield State College. As with the alumni response to Johnson’s appointment at Youngstown State, the Bluefield alumni were not pleased. As the Bluefield Telegraph reported:

The Bluefield State College National Alumni Association voted on Thursday to oppose the decision by the BSC Board of Governors to appoint Capehart as interim president, according to a letter signed by Audramae Smith Williams, the association’s president, and released Friday.

“Bluefield State College is going through a critical period in which its future existence is jeopardized,” Williams said in the letter. “It is urgent that the institution be led by a strong, credible, experienced individual that can enhance its continuous existence. Unfortunately, this cannot be done with Robin Capehart, whose leadership and ethics are clouded with disgrace and admitted wrongdoing.”

(By the way, the Bluefield BOG that appointed Capehart included Charlie Cole as Vice Chair and his brother Bill Cole, who was the Republican candidate for WV governor in 2016.)

Capehart became Bluefield’s permanent president in late 2019. As president, Capehart took several actions against faculty and staff that were unpopular. The Chronicle of Higher Education’s Eric Kelderman documented a number of these last summer:

Robin Capehart, who calls himself “the Campus Maverick,” is openly fighting faculty in a way that few college presidents ever dare. https://t.co/pRH2dQ506M

— Eric Kelderman (@etkeld) July 26, 2023

Earlier this month, Capehart announced his retirement effective December 31 stating that he wanted to spend more time with his wife. If you follow politics, you are probably aware that “spending more time with my family” is often a euphemism for “something awful is about to hit the fan and I want to be out of here.” Last weekend, we learned that Capehart’s action was probably a response to a very damning report by the Higher Learning Commission that had just been released. Ogden’s political reporter Steven Allen Adams, has done the best coverage:

Read the full HLC report here:https://t.co/ps3GYogew5

— Steven Allen Adams (@stevenadamswv) November 25, 2023

(If you click on Adams’ link, it will take you to his coverage for Ogden Newspapers. If you click on his Higher Learning Commission (HLC) link, you can access the entire report. (I recommend both, especially the latter. Note: I have chosen not to quote from the HLC document – I don’t think that quoting just a couple of paragraphs does justice to the breadth and thoroughness found in the 23 page report. This is a very damning report.)

Capehart fans should not be despondent, however: I’m sure West Virginia’s Republican Party will have him up and running in no time.

*Unlike Johnson, Capehart has taught in higher education (Marshall University).