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Patricia Lands resume is stocked with short stints in a variety of positions.

A year here, two years there.

But her newest appointment acting district president of Edison State College will be her shortest, estimated to last just six to eight weeks. And campuses will be closed two weeks of her tenure for winter break.

Yet in Lands first press conference Friday, she sounded like a woman with long-term plans. Land spoke about the need to restore integrity to academic programs, prove to Southwest Florida that Edisons mission still is intact and maintain accountability, transparency and an open administration.

Im very demanding, said Land, who will maintain her position as Charlotte campus president during the transition. Im not flexible in terms of what our core mission is, and that is to provide outstanding academic programming that meets the highest standards and to provide our communities with the employees they need for the future.

On Tuesday, Edison States board of trustees suspended longtime District President Kenneth Walker as it builds a termination case against him. Read more…

The last time the federal Government Accountability Office investigated for-profit colleges, its report was scathing. Admissions officers at all 15 schools made misleading claims or used high-pressure sales tactics to undercover officers and four committed fraud, according to the July 2010 report.

The GAO has released its latest probe and this time the results are more mixed.

In this year’s investigation, undercover agents posed as students who use fake high school credentials, cheat on assignments or never show up for class.

Twelve out of 15 colleges accepted students with fake high school credentials, the report stated. Of those 12, five followed proper procedures on issues such as cheating, exit counseling and grading standards, with the other seven having mixed results.

But the identities of these schools were a mystery Tuesday afternoon. The report only identifies them as College 1, College 2, etc. A spokesman for the GAO declined to identify them, and officials from the office of Sen. T

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Campbell University on Thursday expelled a student who engaged law enforcement in a three-hour standoff Wednesday afternoon and banned him from campus.

Deputies were trying to serve a warrant on freshman Jared Dale Knight, 24, when he barricaded himself inside a private home on Dr. McKoy Road at the northwest corner of Campbell’s campus.

The incident put the Buies Creek campus on lockdown for much of the afternoon until the Harnett County Sheriff’s Office SWAT team was able to persuade him to surrender.

Deputies seized two rifles and four handguns from the house, and Knight was charged with six counts of illegal firearms possession.

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11:49 a.m. Update - The board will hold a workshop on an audit’s finding that the college did not document the reasonableness of Walker’s compensation.

Walker said he will try to schedule a meeting in early December.

The board also voted to send a two-sentence response to the audit on that item, instead of the five-paragraph response recommended by staff. The response says the staff will review Walker’s total compensation package, not just his base salary.

11:42 a.m. Update - Walker told the board he plans to retire earlier than stated in a previous succession plan.

He said he will propose the earlier retirement date at the next board meeting, which is Nov. 22.

Walker said he hopes this will make an easy transition that “avoids acrimony.”

11:11 a.m. Update - The board of trustees will decide at its next meeting whether to solicit a firm to do an independent audit of Edison’s management practices.

The board decided to wait until after an interview following the completion of next week’s accreditation evaluation.

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