Missouri Southern State University President Bruce W. Speck said he is looking forward to meeting with representatives from the Faculty Senate to identify any faculty concerns.
“At this time, the Faculty Senate has not provided any specific issues, so I am looking forward to learning what those may be and working with the Faculty Senate to discuss and resolve those to the best of our ability,” the president stated.
A "Speck said" at the end of that statement would have seemed considerably less pretentious than "the president stated."
8 comments:
Is it just me or did that sound like he is taunting the faculty? If he truly doesn't know what the problems are, then he must be even more inept than we thought.
If Speck knew anything about management techniques, he would know that you never call the employees to come to you; you go to them. You make an overt effort to meet with employees and you meet them on their ground, not on yours. You go to their offices; you don't ask them to come to yours.
He should understand that, true or not, people think he will "get back" at people. Why would anyone approach him to criticize him for fear of retribution. A number of faculty do not trust him. He came to Southern with a so-called open-door policy and those who spoke up were not respected. If people cannot trust their leader, the leader does not have their confidence.
Speck spent most of the day claiming to anyone that would listen that he had no clue why the faculty would be unhappy with him.
If the guy had any sense he would go to them....But of course that requires humility to admit that whether or not he intended it, that the faculty are obviously upset.
It IS easier to claim you don't understand or you're anxious to hear what the problems might be....But it's not effective in actually fixing the problem.
People have a right to be worried about Speck getting back at them. When he was provost at APSU he exiled a
faculty member to a satellite
campus for daring to stand up their civil rights. Speck is a small and petty man.
The man is irredeemable. He may have had the best of intentions, but he was gasping for breath from the start! Rather than gather productive people around him, remaining loyal to them, and using their skill, knowledge, and contacts to help him weather the rough times, he alienated everyone who tried to help him. He mislead his subordinates. He violated peoples' trust. He never seemed to understand the finances of the institution he headed.
Bruce -- and I know you're reading this -- do us all a favor, and step down, before you cause the institution any more harm. We will gladly grant you safe passage back to Tennessee.
One reason the vote to form the committee in the faculty senate was not unanimous was fear. Plain and simple. All employees at MSSU live in fear of retribution from Speck and in this economic environment, many are unwilling to express any dissatisfaction.
Post a Comment