It is quite a statement that Governor Spitzer made yesterday in appointing to the state’s higher education commission one John Dyson, a Giuliani-era deputy mayor who a 1994 column by Bob Herbert in the New York Times described as “arrogant and obnoxious,” a person who “would insult the city’s African-American population with a watermelon crack,” a person from whom could be expected “gross and ugly and demeaning ” things. We took it as a statement that Mr. Spitzer was willing to brook some opposition in order to involve some people who might actually change things for the better.

Mr. Spitzer, in his comments introducing the commission, described the “CUNY system under Matt Goldstein” as “something to emulate.” That system, set on a course of reform by Mayor Giuliani, was characterized by intense and racially charged protest at the beginning from interest groups opposed to the end of remedial education at CUNY’s senior colleges, along with bitter opposition from organized labor. But the results, as Mr. Spitzer noted in his remarks yesterday, have been marked by a “rise in standards,” and a “rise in academic performance.” The governor could do worse than to merge the City University of New York and the State University of New York and put Mr. Goldstein in charge of the whole system.

At least Mr. Goldstein was named a member of the commission named yesterday. The other commissioners are quite a lot, including the presidents of Columbia and New York universities. The chairman will be a former president of Cornell, Hunter Rawlings. All are capable individuals, but putting them on a commission to improve SUNY is kind of like appointing the chief executives of Federal Express and United Parcel Service and aol.comto a commission to improve the United States Postal Service. It’s not clear that they have much incentive to rescue their government-subsidized competitor.

Mr. Spitzer yesterday spoke of bringing SUNY into the ranks of the nation’s top public universities, such as the universities of California, Texas, and North Carolina. “Education is the critical link in the innovation economy,” Mr. Spitzer said, pointing to the prospect that better universities might improve the upstate economy, which he has in the past likened to that of Appalachia. If there are to be publicly funded universities in the state at all they might as well excel, and if the commission can come up with a plan for improvements as SUNY searches for a new chancellor, we wish it luck.

As for Mr. Spitzer’s offhand comment, as reported by the Associated Press, that beefing up SUNY’s athletic programs and winning an NCAA football championship could help SUNY’s image, we’d counsel caution. Such high-profile programs breed scandal almost as often as success and are often a distraction from academics, with poor graduation rates among recruited athletes on athletic scholarships. The commission’s preliminary report is due by December 1. If its recommendations generate enough controversy to become a political football it will be a sign of promise; if the focus is on actual football, it will be a sign the commission has fumbled.