Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Centre's Institutional Builders

The Auditor of Public Accounts of the Commonwealth of Kentucky is Crit Luallen, a Centre graduate. She has been an excellent auditor, an exemplar of clean government. Prior to this elected office she held a number of high-level appointed positions in state government. All of her work has been involved in building up institutions and making sure they run well.

Ed Hatchett was Crit Luallen's predecessor as Auditor. He is also a Centre gradute and a fine exemplar of clean government. His work has also been devoted to making institutions run well.

One of the important audits that Crit Luallen has performed lately has been of the Kentucky Association of Counties. Their officers spent association money wildly and inappropriately. The old officers were forced out. Today it was announced that a new head has been appointed to clean up the Kentucky Association of Counties: Ed Hatchett.

Centre College does well at training young people to build up institutions and make them run well. This is not what every college does. It is good that we have a great ecology of educational paths and higher education institutions to train all kinds of people for our great and varied nation. But this skill - building up institutions and making sure they run well - is a clearly a valuable contribution to the whole. Go Colonels at your real work.

4 comments:

Mac said...

But George Graham Vest is still the benchmark--doncha think?

Gruntled said...

Well, I can't agree with Sen. Vest on secession, but I do admire that he couched his objections in legal good order. After the war, he served the United States long and well. He made the bidding process for government contracts transparent - an excellent piece of good institutional building.

I don't think his famous address on the dog counts as institution building, exactly, but it is gruntled in spirit.

Mac said...

I have always thought that on a purely constitutional basis, the South had the better arguments in favor of secession, i.e., we joined under one assumption and now other sovereign states are trying to change the rules and apply them to us all. Its inability to defend its position on the field of arms made those arguments moot.

The dog closing argument, along with Stevenson's cat veto are favorites of mine.

Gruntled said...

Stevenson's grandfather, also called Adlai, was an eminent Centre alumnus, by the way.