Higher Education Perspectives
More recent editorials from Alabama newspapers
By Associated Press
Aug 7, 2007, 12:27

Press-Register on Bishop State's Best Grill:

Two-year college system Chancellor Bradley Byrne recognizes a financial sinkhole when he sees one. He recently ordered the permanent closing of Bishop State Community College's Best Grill, a "culinary laboratory" that cooked up an astonishing $1.7 million in losses in a few years.

The decision to close the restaurant was a no-brainer. Responsible public officials don't throw away wads of public money.

But the end of this educational experiment that failed miserably leaves two perplexing questions: How did the Best Grill lose so much money in just four years? And why didn't former Bishop State President Yvonne Kennedy and her administration act quickly to stop the program from hemorrhaging scarce college funds?

The Best Grill's mission was to give students in Bishop State's culinary arts program an opportunity to acquire real-world experience in the food service business. The idea had merit, but the execution evidently was so flawed the restaurant provided few educational benefits for students.

Chancellor Byrne offered this damning judgment:

"It was losing half a million dollars a year, and I didn't see that it had any significant educational function."

Under the circumstances, the chancellor was wise to redirect $1.8 million allocated for the culinary program to technical programs at the college. Bishop State needs to bolster its workforce training programs to meet the growing demand for skilled workers in the economically vibrant Mobile area.

The restaurant's woes were just one item on a long list of problems inherited by interim President James Lowe and his transition team. Chancellor Byrne deserves credit for quickly removing the Best Grill from the list so that the interim president can concentrate on even more pressing concerns, such as the threatened loss of the college's accreditation and an ongoing criminal investigation involving the alleged theft of financial aid.

But two-year system officials still need to get to the bottom of the Best Grill debacle. Dr. Kennedy, who retired Tuesday but maintains an office at Bishop State and the title of president emeritus, should be able to shed some light on the problems in the culinary arts program. She didn't run the program, but she was in charge of the college while the Best Grill was amassing hundreds of thousands of dollars in annual losses.

Kennedy has said a $94,000 legislative grant she directed to the Bishop State foundation went to the Best Grill.

Mobile County District Attorney John Tyson Jr. said in June he's investigating how the money was used.

The prosecutor hasn't presented any evidence that a crime was committed by Kennedy or anyone connected to the Best Grill. But the taxpayers need to know specifically what happened to the grant money and to the $1.7 million the restaurant lost during its relatively brief existence.

State officials examined the Best Grill's money-losing operations and concluded that it was "inconceivable that the cost of food items in a restaurant would be more than its sales revenue." Someone needs to explain why the "inconceivable" happened at Bishop State.