It’s a college. Wait! It’s not a college. No wait! It is a college. Slightly confused? That’s OK, NIU Provost Kendall Baker is too.

Case in point, the College of Continuing Education. Last August, “college” was dropped from its title and the position of dean was removed. Baker said he was keeping with a reorganization plan to better off-campus programming.

So with the dean and title gone, Baker held the reigns for continuing education. Continuing education, the second largest “college,” also was known for its great flexibility in spending lots and lots of money, according to former Dean William Young. Young stepped down from the position by request of Baker.

Next, “dismantling” and “continuing education” became the two most popular words used in one breath. Baker denied any and all accusations, citing his plan.

One of Baker’s office’s first decrees for continuing education was to require mandatory counseling for faculty because of another faculty member’s death. Good intentions, poor reasoning.

Members of the Faculty Senate offered Baker their advice on the continuing education “situation” in the form of resolutions to reinstate the dean’s position and start a reorganization task force among the faculty.

Allegations also were slung about Baker being unaware of the university bylaws. He claimed the bylaws, on green sheets, were not added to the final draft of the constitution until June, but he knew by October what they were.

One senate member, Sherman Stanage, took his beef one step further by giving Baker a vote of “no confidence” for his actions. Eventually Baker apologized for the counseling mandate.

But there’s more to this scenario. Kent State University needed a new president, and looked to our poor battered provost as an option. With all the “bad” publicity and faculty unrest it isn’t surprising that he wasn’t chosen.

Just recently, Memphis State University has considered Baker as a presidential candidate. Lo and behold, continuing education is considered a college again, and the cherry topping for this treat is a new dean, Professor Nancy Vedral.

NIU President John La Tourette and Baker swear up and down she has wonderful qualifications and is perfect for the job. This may well be, but what ever happened to Baker’s master plan?

Perhaps it has been put on hold or better yet Baker has found another way to achieve it without causing such an uproar. Either way, he has learned his lesson:

Provosts who try to play God don’t always get a presidency somewhere else.

And Baker lives on and through all the muck-a-luck of the continuing education saga, hopefully with a better understanding of how to carry out his goals.

So to clear up confusion, it is a college with a dean, and will remain as such until this fiasco’s fires burn out or Baker is replaced by another master schemer looking at NIU as a stepping stone.

In the meantime, we all better keep our eyes open for power-hungry administrators looking to move up in the world. They are the ones whose master improvement plans end up hurting NIU the most.