Former Lincoln University President Carolyn Mahoney is the newest member of the state Coordinating Board for Higher Education.
The state Senate confirmed her by a voice vote Thursday afternoon, in time for her to join the nine-member board at its meeting next week.
The bipartisan CBHE was created in 1974, as part of the state government reorganization act.
Its members are appointed by the governor and confirmed by the state Senate, and serve without pay.
Although members can have an educational background like Mahoney's, state law forbids members from being "engaged professionally as an educator or educational administrator with a public or private institution of higher education at the time appointed" or during the six-year term."
The board doesn't operate the state's colleges and universities, but "shall have approval of proposed new degree programs to be offered by the state institutions of higher education," the 1974 law said.
CBHE also establishes guidelines for appropriation requests from the schools. But the Legislature appropriates the money directly to the 10 state-owned and operated universities, Linn State Technical College and the state's 12 community colleges, which also have local property tax funds.
Mahoney was Lincoln's 18th president, from February 2005 until she retired last Aug. 15.
While serving as LU's president, she also headed the state Council on Public Higher Education (COPHE), the consortium of the 10 state-owned, four-year universities, with separate representation for the University of Missouri's four campuses.