R.I. higher ed commissioner loses out on Pennsylvania job

HARRISBURG, Pa.—Rhode Island's higher education commissioner won't be heading to Pennsylvania.

Jack Warner, commissioner of the state's Board of Governors for Higher Education, had been one of two finalists for the job as chief executive of Pennsylvania's 14 state-owned universities.

But the board of governors at Pennsylvania's State System of Higher Education voted unanimously Monday to hire John Cavanaugh, the president of the University of West Florida in Pensacola.

The Rhode Island Board of Governors oversees the University of Rhode Island, Rhode Island College and the Community College of Rhode Island.

Warner was named to his post in 2002. Before that, he was associate chancellor at the University of Massachusetts in Dartmouth.