Word has spread across the Missouri Southern State University campus that the leading candidate for the vacant college president job is Sen. Gary Nodler, R-Joplin, former chairman of the Senate Education Committee and current Appropriations Committee chairman.
Nodler, of course, was the driving force behind the bill which resulted in MSSU receiving university status.
He also was the man who put Neosho attorney Dwight Douglas, the current president of the MSSU Board of Governors, on the board in 2003. Douglas is heading the search committee which will choose the successor to longtime President Julio Leon, who was forced to resign earlier this month.
Campus sources indicate that some quality candidates do not plan to submit their names because the word has spread that the fix is in. Of course, the same kind of stories circulated earlier this year about Kit Bond and Kenny Hulshof and the University of Missouri position and did not pan out.
Nodler received a bachelor of arts degree from Missouri Southern and was named the university's outstanding alumnus in 2003. During his tenure on the Senate Education Committee, he has been instrumental in landing a considerable amount of money for university projects.
While no one denies Nodler has delivered the goods for his alma mater, the concern is his lack of an academic background. Longtime Southwest Missouri political observers will also remember that Seventh District Congressman Roy Blunt made a short pit stop as president at Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar prior to being elected to the House, a position Blunt first won by defeating Nodler in the GOP primary.
(Photos from Missouri Senate and Missouri Southern State University websites- Nodler and Dwight Douglas, as Nodler nominates Douglas for the MSSU Board of Governors; Nodler, Dwight Douglas, and Julio Leon)
33 comments:
I sure hope not. We need Gary where he is as long as he can serve before being termed out. I have no problem with him as MSSU president but not now...he has too much yet to do in Jeff City.
It would be great to have him at MSSU if for not other reason than to irriate his critics, especially any who may have gone to school there.
Just think of it this way, Randy, you would still have Gary to bash...life would be good for you.
I'm not complaining.
Randy, Sen. Nodler was the chair of the Education committee.He is currently chairman of the senate appropriations committee, named to that post by Sen. Michael Gibbonns, senate president protem, earlier this summer.
You're absolutely right. I was living in the past again. I will correct that.
Unfortunately, this rumor just might be true. I have heard the same thing from two credible sources. Douglas is a pretty crafty guy who apparently has set this whole thing up. His MSSU search committee is weak for the most part. No one on the committee will stand up to Douglas. I hope the media contacts Nodler and asks him if he has any interest in the position.
Oh lord help us all if this is true. I wonder if the piano competition will be replaced by a film festival for "normal" kids.
If I was a disabled student at MSSU, I would transfer immediately and state my reason for doing so.
At least two very qualified internal candidates at MSSU have decided not to apply, thinking that Dwight Douglas has already picked the next president and that it would be a waste of their time.
Missouri Southern will be a laughing stock if Gary Nodler, the bumbling "fat boy" senator from Newton County, becomes president of the University. Morale is already low at MSSU. If Nodler were at the helm, it would be crushed even further. Does the Board of Governors really think this would be good for the University? What MSSU needs is a qualified academician with vision and not a partisan politician with questionable ethics like Nodler, who doesn't even have a degree that would make him eligible to teach at the University, much less lead a group of people who do.
It is also somewhat insulting to think that Dwight Douglas considers MSSU to be his toy. Why doesn't the media get on this? What in heaven's name does it take? If this isn't over the top behavior for a chairman of the board of governors, what is??? Do we have to wait until it is all said and done before somebody says, What???
You sure know how to ruin a weekend. I praying it won't happen.
I'm sure glad my son doesn't go to that college.
What a joke! As much as I would like to see him out of the Senate, it would be a complete joke and a tragedy to this fine institution of higher learning to have this man as its president. As bad as a senator that he is, he would be doubly worse as a university president especially since he does not have an academic administration background. Talk about running a college straight into the ground. I sure hope this is not true, but with Nodler going to be termed out in 5 years he has to find another way to continue to live off the public dole.
If Missouri Southern officials think having Gary Nodler for president would be a boon for influence in Jeff City, they need to think again. Matt Blunt is not likely to stay as governor. Our next governor is probably going to be a Democrat, most likely Jay Nixon.
I can't imagine that having Gary "Neo-Con Fatboy" Nodler can be a positive thing if Jay Nixon is governor. Get ready for the roll-backs, guys!
Maybe Nodler will be found in bed with a live boy or a dead girl soon. We can hope. Or maybe he will be found to have frequented a certain Minneapolis Airport men's room???
I don't like all the name calling. Instead, let's focus on Mr. Nodler's qualifications to be president of MSSU. Aside from serving in the State Senate and working closely with Dr. Leon, he has very little to bring to the table. If the MSSU Board of Governors names Mr. Nodler president, you're going to see faculty uproar like you've never seen before!
If Nodler term limits out, they will find a "job" for him that pays well, doesn't matter if he is capable or not. These people take care of their own one way or another. If he can't get this job he'll make a fine lobbyist for Jenny Craig.
This name calling is over the top. It makes it appear that those who are opposed to Nodler are crude and stupid. If you have to resort to this kind of name–calling it suggests you don’t have valid or rational criticism and that you are mean. If you want to be a critic try doing it with a little class and remember you are responding to a rumor.
Isn't calling someone fat politically incorrect and form of hate speach?
It's obvious that if Nodler were to be MSSU president, he would face a great deal of hate "speach," anonymous. Unsavory as it may be, when a person puts himself in the public eye, he should expect and embrace criticism, even "crude and stupid" criticism.
But Nodler, like many Republicans under King George, think criticism should be punished as sedition and treason. Uproar? You betcha. If this is what Dwight Douglas has in mind, he had better get ready to hand in his resignation, because an ethics probe is certain.
Sorry about the "fat". I didn't know someone calling me slim or thin was politically incorrect. All these years I have been offended and didn't know it. If you are FAT, you are FAT, if you are THIN, you are THIN, what difference does it make. He's a fatboy.
The problem with all of this is that there is no indication that this is what Dwight Douglas has in mind. There is also no indication that Senator Nodler has even a remote interest in the position. All of these comments flow from rumors and directly into the hate speech. This has nothing to do with anything Nodler or Douglas have said or done. Someone starts a rumor and then these hateful people stir themselves into this frenzy. Your suggestion that anyone who puts himself or herself in the public eye should expect crude and stupid attacks really points out the problem. If someone provides public service they should expect crude stupid and dishonest attacks, that does appear to be the case but never the less the attacks are morally spiritually and often factually wrong. So your idea is that if someone starts a false rumor about a public official and that leads to ridiculous conclusions…all fantasy, that these diatribes are in order, its clear what you think and and what level you live your life at, try climbing out of the gutter.
First off you are hidden under a rock so we don’t know if you weigh 50 or 500 lbs. secondly it doesn’t matter, we do know you deal in personal insult and name calling and are intellectually bankrupt. The fact is that when you attack Nodler in this way, you make him the hero and yourself the villain. If we want to stop Nodler politically don’t continue to create support for his positions with these personal attacks, they always backfire and add to the support of the person being attacked, if you disagree with political positions attack those ideas not the person otherwise you defeat yourself.
I would prefer that we keep the fat comments and others of that ilk out of this discussion. There are plenty of points, positive and negative, about Sen. Nodler that can be made without resorting to that kind of name-calling.
Whoever gets the job, it's pretty apparent that they plan on using the good ole boy method of employment rather than a true hiring method. I don't think you can expect anything less from the four states though.
Why, oh why, doesn't the Globe simply ask Senator Nodler to say that he doesn't have any interest in the MSSU position? That would put an end to all of this.
Is anyone else disappointed that Carol Stark hasn't used her Sunday editor's column to write about what is happening at MSSU? Today, she gives us: "Summer cruelest time for animals."
OK - here's the deal: I don't even know Senator Nodler, except by photo. I've been watching this discussion degrade into personal attacks, which I can't even address if I wanted to. To me, the important issue is the qualifications MSSU presidents should have, at the minimum. Here they are:
1. A presidential candidate should have a terminal degree in an academic field, and have teaching experience at a similar university that demonstrates an understanding of the challenges and issues faced by academe. It would also be nice if the candidate demonstrated some excellence in that field.
2. A presidential candidate should have some experience as an administrator at a public college or university that illustrates the ability to deal with various issues that will affect MSSU, including accreditation, developing new programs, and dealing with the state legislator AS AN ACADEMIC LEADER OF A STATE INSTITUTION, rather than as a legislator.
3. A presidential candidate should have a vision of what the future for MSSU could be, and be able to share this vision with the interviewing committee.
4. A presidential candidate should be the type of person who can unite faculty, staff, the community, and fulfill the requirements of the board of governors, while fostering an element of excitement and comraderie, rather than a spirit of division.
5. A presidential candidate should not be a political crony.
6. A presidential candidate should not be a laughing stock.
7. A presidential candidate should be apolitical - so that his or her personal politics is never an issue.
8. A presidential candidate should, in other words, be above the fray - and I would hope the board of governors and the committee would welcome a fresh, new, unblemished face here. We need to attract the brightest and the best, not incestuously choose from within.
I hope you are prepared to get exactly the opposite of that.
If we get the "exact opposite" of the qualifications above, then in my opinion the committee is not doing its job. The faculty would be within its rights to protest and to ask the committee and the board to resign, so a new body could be put together. This is not a private college, but a public university. There have to be some rules.
I'm guessing you havent spent your entire life in the four states huh?
Remember the qualifications John Ashcroft had to display to get the AG's job with Bush. Just be beaten by a deceased Governor Carnahan. Thats all that had to happen. They take care of their own one way or another.
I'd rather try to herd cats than to get the MSSU faculty in line, should Gary Nodler be chosen President.
I was planning on transferring to MSSU, but if this actually goes down, I'll be seriously rethinking that decision. This would be atrocious, to say the least.
From The Chart:
BREAKING NEWS: Nodler, Douglas not candidates for presidency
by Alexandra Nicolas
As applications arrive for the presidency of Missouri Southern, one prominent name won't be among them. Sen. Gary Nodler (R-Joplin) told The Chart today that is not a candidate for the position. "No there's no substance to that rumor," he said. "I was just appointed chairman of the (Senate) Appropriation Committee.
all of this chatter over nothing, Randy blew it again!
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