My years in the academy left me with an enduring interest in Shakespeare, a working knowledge of news writing and a number of unhealthy habits I shed in subsequent years.
What happened in the administration building never concerned me. There, university personnel accepted my parents’ tuition checks and tolerated my GPA. That I earned a degree must have surprised them.
If I know little about the daily lives of deans, I know a few things about language.
This seems certain: If faculty members accuse a university president of “defensiveness bordering on paranoia,” that smacks of trouble.
The “paranoia” line sprang from a memorandum generated last week by a faculty senate committee at Missouri Southern State University. Senators at the Joplin school have in mind a no-confidence vote against their president, Bruce Speck.
Among allegations of leadership lapses, management failures and public embarrassment, the committee document accuses Dr. Speck of “shocking insensitivity” to salary-frozen employees by performing a song called “Pink Slip Blues” at a local Rotary meeting.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
St. Joseph columnist glad Western doesn't have MSSU's problems
St. Joseph News-Press columnist Ken Newton is happy Missouri Western State University is not going through the same kind of turmoil MSSU is facing:
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4 comments:
Randy, you could have pointed out that Missouri Western had the opportunity to hire Bruce Speck in December 2007 but wisely chose Dr. Robert Vartabedian instead. Dr. Speck also was a finalist at FIVE OTHER SCHOOLS before Dwight Douglas handed him the MSSU presidency in January 2008.
Missouri Western even sent a delegation of faculty members to Austin Peay State University in 2007 to check into Dr. Speck's background before hiring Dr. Vartabedian. Douglas's search committee at MSSU did no such thing, and look where it got us.
You are right. I did have an earlier post about they way Missouri Western conducted its search for a new president in contrast to the slipshod way Dwight Douglas ran Southern's search.
Missouri Western used a consulting search firm with experience in higher education. They also relied heavily on the advise of the faculty.
What did Douglas do? Ran the search himself, used no search firm and relied heavily on the advise of Gary Nodler
Maybe we could get them to take part of the future Dwight Douglas Medical School. Talk about a giant hole.
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