Introducing the New NACIQI

Leaders of the House of Representatives made their appointments this week to the Education Department's accreditation advisory committee, fleshing out the membership of the newly reconstituted National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity in a way that makes it hard to imagine the panel will ever agree on anything. House Democrats appointed the presidents of three public colleges and universities, while House Republicans selected the presidents of two for-profit colleges and a top official at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Congress killed the last iteration of the panel in the 2008 Higher Education Opportunity Act, but planned for its re-creation in different form, with appointees by both branches of Congress as well as the Education Department. The panel has not met since 2008, but the department announced in April that the committee would meet in mid-September.

The 18 members of the committee, and their sponsors, are:

• Benjamin Allen. president, U. of Northern Iowa (House Democrats)
• Bruce Cole, former chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities (Senate Republicans)
• William E. (Brit) Kirwan, chancellor, University System of Maryland (House Democrats)
• Arthur Keiser, chancellor, Keiser University (House Republicans)
• Daniel Klaich, chancellor of the Nevada System of Higher Education (Senate Democrats)
• Earl Lewis, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs, Emory University (Education Department)
• Anne D. Neal, president of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (Senate Republicans)
• William Pepicello, president, University of Phoenix (House Republicans)
• Susan Phillips, provost and vice president for academic affairs, State University of New York at Albany (Education Department)
• Michael Poliakoff, former vice president for academic affairs and research at the University of Colorado system (Senate Republicans)
• Arthur Rothkopf, vice president and counselor, U.S. Chamber of Commerce (House Republicans)
• Jamienne Studley, president and CEO, Public Advocates Inc., and former president, Skidmore College (Education Department)
• Aron Shimles, student, Occidental College (Education Department)
• State Rep. Cameron Staples of Connecticut (Senate Democrats)
• Larry N. Vanderhoef, former chancellor of the University of California at Davis (Senate Democrats)
• Carolyn Williams, president, Bronx Community College (House Democrats)
• Frank Wu, professor, Howard University Law School (Education Department)
• Frederico Zargoza, vice chancellor of economic and workforce development, Alamo Colleges (Education Department)