This blog features observations from Randy Turner, a former teacher, newspaper reporter and editor. Send news items or comments to rturner229@hotmail.com
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
MSSU turns over 3,000 e-mails to Joplin Globe
Missouri Southern State University officials turned over 3,000 e-mails to and from President Bruce Speck and former vice president Jack Oakes today.
If you read the details of the private (now public) correspondence between Dr. Jack Oakes and Dr Speck, you will see the contrast of character that points up this debate more clearly than anything you may have seen before. Dr. Oakes kept the details private until the Globe's official demands brought them to light. Dr. Speck may well wish he'd "burned the tapes". I applaud Dr. Oakes' resolve to take no part in the bullying and belligerence that have become so common in the paneled offices of Hearnes Hall
I know Dr. Messick and Dr. Oakes and know that they are both fine men of principles. Both have worked for MSSU for a number of years and are loyal faculty members. I know also from the experience of a dear friend of mine, who was an MSSU employee and is now dead, how true one of the statements was Dr. Oakes had in his email. This employee died with a bad feeling about how she was treated by the person in question, crying about this the afternoon before she died the next morning.
On another note, not all faculty make the $80,000 that was mentioned in another posting. New faculty make considerably less than that amount (say in the neighborhood of just a little over one-third that amount) after many years of schooling and a large school debt hanging over their heads for a number of years. It is only after being at MSSU for many years, esp. in some departments, that a faculty member attains anywhere near that $80,000 figure. Yes, most of them are liberals but, at the same time, they are wonderful people and most care very much about the students they teach. Salary is just a very, very small part of the dissatisfaction they are feeling. At no time has morale been as low at MSSU as it is now among faculty and staff.
If you read the details of the private (now public) correspondence between Dr. Jack Oakes and Dr Speck, you will see the contrast of character that points up this debate more clearly than anything you may have seen before. Dr. Oakes kept the details private until the Globe's official demands brought them to light. Dr. Speck may well wish he'd "burned the tapes". I applaud Dr. Oakes' resolve to take no part in the bullying and belligerence that have become so common in the paneled offices of Hearnes Hall
ReplyDeleteI know Dr. Messick and Dr. Oakes and know that they are both fine men of principles. Both have worked for MSSU for a number of years and are loyal faculty members. I know also from the experience of a dear friend of mine, who was an MSSU employee and is now dead, how true one of the statements was Dr. Oakes had in his email. This employee died with a bad feeling about how she was treated by the person in question, crying about this the afternoon before she died the next morning.
ReplyDeleteOn another note, not all faculty make the $80,000 that was mentioned in another posting. New faculty make considerably less than that amount (say in the neighborhood of just a little over one-third that amount) after many years of schooling and a large school debt hanging over their heads for a number of years. It is only after being at MSSU for many years, esp. in some departments, that a faculty member attains anywhere near that $80,000 figure. Yes, most of them are liberals but, at the same time, they are wonderful people and most care very much about the students they teach. Salary is just a very, very small part of the dissatisfaction they are feeling. At no time has morale been as low at MSSU as it is now among faculty and staff.