Tuesday, April 07, 2009

Chart: MSSU eliminates tennis team

The Chart, Missouri Southern State University's newspaper reports, in a just-posted exclusive, that the university is eliminating the tennis team. This marks the second sport eliminated, following the men's soccer program.

The announcement comes one week after Dr. Bruce Speck, university president, announced the university is looking at adding another high-priced administrator to raise money.

Perhaps my memory is faulty, but wasn't Speck's reputation as a money magnet one of the reasons why he was selected as president. Does the university really need to cut more programs to bring in someone to take over what is supposed to be Speck's specialty?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes, Speck touted his fund-raising skills as one of the reasons MSSU should hire him. Unfortunately for the university, it was all a bunch of hot air. So now he wants to hire a Vice President of University Advancement and pay this person around $120,000 a year, not including benefits.

Anonymous said...

the saddest thing is that there is no "real" fiscal crisis at the college. All Bruce is doing is follow orders from the board chair who wants the college to have a 13 million cash reserve for the "hard times", to imitate his beloved SMS where he once was board chair. So Bruce cowardly (and without any internal discussion) cuts the international mission, the child care center (decision later reversed)the soccer program, and now women's tennis... all helpless programs. The board of governors made a big mistake in hiring this man. and the rest of the board is wrong to allow the chair to do with our college whatever he wants.

Shell game said...

Anonymous 7:45 is absolutely correct. Bruce and Dwight are claiming depreciation expenses of $3.75 million every year, when in actuality, depreciation is not a cash expense. It's on paper only. Former President Leon never used depreciation when figuring the university's budget, leaving that much more money for salaries and programs. Because depreciation is now used, it means program cuts and no raises for two straight year.