In an op-ed piece just posted on the Kansas City Star website, Sen. Gary Nodler, R-Joplin, elaborated on comments he made that were quoted in a Dec. 20 Star article over the hiring of Gary Forsee as MU president.
In the quote, which was reprinted in the Dec. 20 Turner Report, indicated that a businessman like Forsee was a better selection than an academician for the position:
I don’t believe the president’s duties involve any academic role whatsoever,” Nodler said.
“The University of Missouri is a very large, complex corporate entity with national and international connections, responsibilities and relationships. I absolutely prefer somebody who has the skill set that matches the job.”
In the op-ed, Nodler appears to be saying the Star slighted him, then he repeats his same spiel, only with added comments designed to make it look like Nodler is the hero of the little guy, and has to contend with all of these pointy-headed professors and media types who want to make him look bad:
I was asked about Gary Forsee’s lack of an academic career. I told the reporter that academics were more related to the role of the university’s chancellors and were not really the role of the system president.
I will now be more specific. Academics are the responsibility of the faculty under the direction of the deans and vice presidents for academic affairs who report to the chancellors. I do not see the management of academics as playing a significant part in the role of the university system president whose duties are those of the CEO of an international corporate entity.
This in no way diminishes the importance of academics; it just recognizes the structure of the university’s management system.
The Star editorial also declared that academics are the core product of universities. I couldn’t disagree more.
Academics are the process of the university, not its product. The Star editorial would suggest that the product of an automobile assembly plant is the assembly line but it is not; it is the automobiles that are produced there. Similarly, the product of the university is its graduates, not the academic process that produced them.
There are academic elitists that prefer an “of the faculty, by the faculty, and for the faculty” approach to higher education.
I am thankful the Board of Curators has seen fit to move forward with an approach that is “of the university, by the faculty, staff and administration, and for the students and the state.”
The selection of Gary Forsee signals a much broader vision and a much brighter future for the University of Missouri system.
Senator Nodler nailed it. He is right on target. Randy seems to be back on his anti-Nodler kick again, no surprise his fixation goes on. Nodler said nothing that suggests he felt slighted at all, he said the reporter or editor printed only half of his response in a way that inaccurately indicated that he thought academics had no place at the university. Randy’s bias shows in his suggestion that Nodler has added comments. The whole point of the piece was that he was repeating comments, not adding them; if the context is changed by that, it shows that Nodler was right in suggesting that the editing changed the nature of his original comment. This is not an attempt by Nodler to make it look like anything other than an accurate version of what he said. The fact that the Star printed it as an Op-Ed piece shows that they agreed that his comments had been edited out of context. Why is it that Randy always tries to twist these things?
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