October 26, 2009 10:26 PM UTC

So, About That "Higher Ed Hiring Spree"

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• by: Colorado Pols

If you thought it couldn’t get any worse for gubernatorial candidate Josh Penry after having his pet claims about Governor Bill Ritter’s supposed “hiring spree” ripped into bite-size pieces–guess again, as the Grand Junction Sentinel reports:

Mesa State College has created 83 positions in the past four years – the largest growth rate of any public college or university in Colorado.

The 16 percent job growth correlates with an enrollment increase of 17 percent and a 40 percent boost in the square footage of college facilities over the past four years, according to Mesa State spokeswoman Dana Nunn.

“With the kind of enrollment growth we had last year, we had to hire some adjunct faculty,” Nunn said, referring to faculty in part-time positions…

This is Penry’s alma mater, you understand, in his hometown, if there’s any place he should be able to appreciate the simple arithmetic population growth that has occured, necessitating more employees to deliver the same level of service…

You get all that. Not really noteworthy by itself. But this might be:

The college has a history of hiring former political workers and those connected to them. Wagner’s co-workers at the college include Vice President of Student Services John Marshall, who ran Republican Bob Beauprez’s gubernatorial campaign in 2006, and Acting Director of Development Kristi Pollard, the sister of Sen. Josh Penry, R-Grand Junction… [Pols emphasis]

Former Sen. Ron Teck, R-Grand Junction, worked for the college as an interim assistant budget officer, a position he assumed in 2004. And, Penry’s wife, Jamie, worked for the college as assistant to the director of development [Pols emphasis] before taking a job at Grand Junction High School a couple years ago.

So, ah, what was that again, what Senator Penry told the Denver Post about this, all snarly like?

Senate Minority Leader Josh Penry, R-Grand Junction [says] growth in the number of employees on campuses has been excessive and that Gov. Bill Ritter, a Democrat, is to blame.

Penry, who’s running for governor, last week called “preposterous” Ritter’s argument that neither he nor lawmakers have a say in the hiring of employees on college campuses.

We’re pretty much done here, right? We think so. Once again Josh Penry and reality have parted ways with such sweet irony you wonder how it could have been unintentional. It’s like a comedy routine, he had to have planned this, you know? Otherwise why the hell would you do it?

And yeah, we do think that longtime GOP operative-cum-Mesa State President Tim Foster’s stable of Republican insiders and kin rotating into high-salary school positions, no real secret for a number of years now, is a little on the ethically questionable side. Thanks for pointing it out, Josh!