You said that the legislative candidates have not taken a stand on the need for new policies for the Board of Governors. That is true for the Democratic candidates (our current delegates) but not for the Republican candidate, Cindy Frich.
For example, Frich spoke at a forum on the Bresch/Garrison incident at the Mountainlair on June 2; parts of her presentation were carried on regional TV. Although all of the other candidates were invited, she was the only candidate to show up. She stressed the importance of insulating higher education from excessive political influence, and pointed out that when she was a delegate she co-sponsored a bill aimed at such reforms; the bill failed in the Democratic legislature.
So, it is the Democratic legislative candidates who have failed to speak out on this issue. Well, what did you expect? Are these delegates going to go against their party and their governor? It would be like expecting an arsonist to fight a fire. These were the very delegates who recently voted to increase the governor's power over the BOG.
It is hard to believe that there are still people who don't see the magnitude of this scandal and the need for reform. The politics involved have been much discussed, but I would like to make another point. People don't want outsiders heading up their institutions. At women's colleges they no longer tolerate having a man as president. And even at a deaf school the president has to be a deaf person; recently at Gallaudet College — the premier school in Washington, D.C., for the deaf — the students rebelled when a hearing person was appointed, and they got their way.
By the same token, an academic person should be at the head of an academic institution. So the WVU students and faculty (and thankfully your newspaper) are right to be outraged when the BOG appoints a lobbyist to be president of their academic institution.
As your editorial implies, our current Democratic candidates are not really in this fight. Frich is, and has been even before the current incident. The WVU community should remember this come Election Day.