MSSU president dances around charge of sexism

Missouri Southern State University President Bruce Speck avoided a direct answer to a charge by Rep. Ted Hoskins that men are paid more than women at the university.

The exchange between Speck and Hoskins, which occurred during a House Appropriations Committee meeting Wednesday, is featured in Brennan Stebbins' article in this week's Chart, the campus newspaper:

Rep. Theodore Hoskins (D-Berkeley) asked about a possible difference in pay for men and women on campus.

"If I look at your pay scale, women and men, would the salaries be comparable?" Hoskins asked Speck. "If I look in detail, because it appears you're paying the men more than you're paying the women."

Speck said when hiring a professor, Southern used CUPA data to determine a salary, and that gender plays no part.

"It's generally based on your field," he said. "For instance, if we're hiring somebody to teach management, that person is going to earn more money than somebody coming to teach, say, English."

Hoskins again asked if comparable salaries would exist between the sexes if he took a closer look, to which Speck responded, "I would hope so because we use CUPA data."

It does not appear that Speck ever answered the question. As the great comedian Groucho Mark once said at the conclusion of the Marx Brothers' movie Monkey Business, "Bobbing and weaving, nice work if you can get it."