Diploma mill questions a test of leadership

From the book, “Never Say “No Comment,’ ” by Ian Taylor & George Olds:

“Saying “no comment” is rude. It sounds like you’re uninformed about the issue, or that you don’t care enough about people to answer their questions, even if it’s a reporter doing the asking … A “no comment” answer may give the impression you really are in trouble. Or you might suddenly have created trouble when none existed before. … It’s certainly not the best answer, especially when you do have something to say.”

Does it matter that Beverly Capasso, the interim CEO of Broward Health, obtained her master’s degree from a university identified as a diploma mill?

You could argue, as a Broward Health spokeswoman did in a brief written statement, that Capasso got the job “because she is a seasoned healthcare professional with over 15 years of extensive and valuable executive experience in the healthcare industry.”

But the board of the taxpayer-supported public hospital system refused to say what — if any — background checks were performed before giving Capasso a job that pays $650,000 a year.

Capasso, too, refused to answer our reporter’s questions about her degree from Kennedy-Western University, a mail and online institution that closed in 2009 after failing to gain accreditation. In 2004, a congressional investigation singled out Kennedy-Western as a prominent example of a diploma mill — institutions that confer degrees for little or no academic work.

In fact, at last week’s public meeting, a security guard blocked reporter David Fleshler from approaching Capasso — all the way to her car. In this protective cocoon, she refused to respond to his questions.

This is not the first time Capasso has refused to answer questions about events at the public hospital system, which collects about $135 million in taxes from Broward property owners every year.

Why do people seek public roles if they don’t want to answer to the public? And why in heaven’s name would a hospital executive need a security guard to put his body before a reporter trying to ask a question?

As noted by experts in message management, dodging questions looks bad.

A better response would have been for Capasso to own up to her decision. She could have said: “It was a mistake. I probably shouldn’t have done it. But at the time, I felt I needed a degree to advance. But it was a dumb idea. I hope you judge me by the jobs I’ve had — and the work I’ve done since — rather than a degree I got years ago.”

We remember when diploma mills were around. Everybody knew they offered a fast, easy and cheap way to get a degree. One federal investigator said KennedyWestern required “students to pass one open-book, multiple choice test for each class. A student may retake this exam if they do not pass the first time.”

We also believe choosing to get a degree from a diploma mill says something about a person’s character, or judgment.

That said, the choice should not forever define the person’s pedigree.

A better test of a public leader’s mettle is the ability to forthrightly answer questions when the going gets rough. And on that exam, Capasso failed.

So, too, did board members fail to perform their due diligence in making the most important decision they face — picking the leader of an institution that generates $1.3 billion in annual revenues. At the meeting where they selected Capasso, their fellow board member, to be chief executive for perhaps six months, they asked virtually no questions of her background, her work experience or her likely approach to the job.

The bigger question in all this is why Broward Health continues to lack a permanent CEO more than a year and a half after its previous chief executive committed suicide. Capasso is the fourth interim leader, with the former interim, Kevin Fusco, having held the job twice.

Broward Health needs stability, not more rollicking news about its latest interim leader.

The board came close to naming a permanent CEO last December. A search firm — paid more than $300,000 in public funds — had narrowed the field to two candidates whom board members seemed to like. But without public discussion, a decision was made to instead hire a management consulting firm to examine the system’s operations. The firm of KaufmanHall completed its review in May. The last we heard, the board was talking about spending up to $15 million to hire the firm to reorganize the district’s way of doing business.

As we’ve previously said, Broward Health desperately needs a strong chief executive who can make principled decisions, shore up lagging revenues and change the closed-door culture of a public health care system facing disruptive challenges.

Broward Health also needs a leader who is unafraid to field questions, provide thoughtful answers and build better relationships with those outside today’s hunkered-down cocoon. Editorials are the opinion of the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board and written by one of its members or a designee. The Editorial Board consists of Editorial Page Editor Rosemary O’Hara, Andrew Abramson, Elana Simms, Gary Stein and Editor-in-Chief Howard Saltz.

Broward Health desperately needs a strong chief executive who can make principled decisions, shore up lagging revenues and change the closed-door culture of a public health care system facing disruptive challenges.