Though the word has spread throughout this area that faculty members at Missouri Southern State University were planning to form a chapter of American Association of University Professors (AAUP), the first mention to make the pages of the Joplin Globe, the area's paper of record, was in today's edition.
Naturally, since the Globe has had extra time to dig into this, you would think the story would answer every question anyone could think of asking.
Alas, it did not even come close.
The Globe offered so much time and space to University President Bruce Speck, that it did not even offer any background on the problems that planted the seeds for the forming of the AAUP chapter.
Reporter Debby Woodin spent more time telling how much the dues were for AAUP and allowing Speck to characterize the group as an evil "special interest" group.
How long does the Globe plan to keep its head buried in the sand? There are problems at Missouri Southern State University. Hopefully, there will be a follow-up in which these problems are addressed.
Let me list a few of the reasons for the widespread faculty discontent at MSSU:
ReplyDelete1. Suspicion over the budget, including Speck's assertions that MSSU is running a million dollar deficit. If you don't factor in depreciation (which is just an accounting trick), MSSU actually has a nice surplus.
2. Speck's cutting and elimination of programs without consulting the faculty or its representatives.
3. No pay raises two years in a row, although Speck's administrative team all got nice raises a year ago.
4. The fact that departments cannot hire tenure-track faculty any more but just faculty on one-year appointments. Who would want to come to MSSU on a one-year contract when they could get a tenure-track position somewhere else?
5. The travel moratorium placed on faculty from attending academic conferences and other important meetings.
6. The threat of increased teaching loads, which would put MSSU in line with community colleges.
7. Reductions in faculty compensation through other means, such as elimination of writing intensive stipends and cuts in distance learning pay and summer school pay.
8. Speck's integriy--speaking out of both sides of his mouth, personal attacks, a lack of class, and just general mistrust.
The Globe coverage was appropriate. Only 7 percent of faculty attended the meeting. They don't want to call it a union because so few members are truly interested in joining.
ReplyDeleteThese professors and the bloggers over at SW don't want shared governance. They want to see a return to the fascist Leon regime. They only loved JL because he funded their pet projects.
At least with Leon's autocratic leadership, you at least knew that he had the best interests of MSSU at heart and that he had a vision or plan for whatever the university needed at the time. Everyone knows that Speck is a puppet of the man who hired him and that he has no vision or plan for moving the university forward. Instead, he is causing irreparable harm to MSSU and alienating scores of people along the way.
ReplyDeleteI see in the Joplin Globe today that MSSU is advertising to fill two brand new positions: Director of Campus Recreation, and Coordinator of Student Activities. I guess there is money to spend, if Speck chooses to spend it.
ReplyDeleteIf Leon's regime was fascist, what is the Speck regime? Leon never funded anybody's pet projects. He only funded his own pet projects, which usually were on the mark. That's why Southern saw no union in 25 years
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