In an editorial in its latest edition, The Chart, MSSU's newspaper, tackles the issue
directly.
The editorial notes Speck's misleading use of the terms "data" and "benchmarking" to apply to the international mission turning it into a drinking game in which a drink is taken each time one of those two words is mentioned:
.
And what about benchmarks? (Drink.)
Speck said when he came to Southern he asked what about the international mission was benchmarked (drink), and that the concept was foreign to the University.
Well, we checked with the University's Institute of International Studies and learned that Southern sends more students abroad each year than the University of Central Missouri, Pittsburg State University and West Texas A&M (despite Dr. Brian Chapman's claims). Southern offers more foreign languages than most Universities our size. Southern is the only institution in the nation to have a themed semester program.
Students who attend this University have a great opportunity to learn about and be exposed to other cultures and people. How do you back that up with data (drink)? The problem is the numbers show the international mission is worthwhile, and is working, and it seems Speck doesn't want to hear that.
And, like asking a person to quantify love, will we now ask how much "football"or "basketball" or "cross country" is every student receiving? Are you getting enough Greek life? It can't be measured. And it shouldn't be
The editorial ends with the comment that Speck is determined to drive the students to drink.
The attacks on the international mission are at the core of the reason why former Board of Governors Chairman Dwight Douglas brought Speck to MSSU. Speck, at the behest of President Sherry Hoppe, also targeted international programs at Austin Peay. That alone was probably the reason why the decision was made to interview only one person for a position as important as the presidency of Missouri Southern State University.
4 comments:
I've been watching this saga play out from afar, as I left MSSU in May. The university I'm with today is a forward-thinking, vibrant institution with a huge endowment and wonderful athletic programs, centers of excellence bar none, etc. But they still don't have anything close to what MSSU had with the International Program prior to Speck's decimation of its budget. In fact, when I tell people about it, they are incredulous and rather envious.
How will this all end? I imagine the only way it can end is with Governor Nixon replacing the board of governors, which is obviously corrupt and ineffective, and with the ouster of Speck and a buyout of his contract. However, I doubt if a full buyout will be necessary, as he has committed some wrongs that would surely make a settlement possible.
If Missouri Southern is unable to resolve this satisfactorily soon, I would not be surprised to see a strike by students and/or faculty in the spring semester. It was this kind of unrest that closed campuses across the U.S. in the 1960s, as students protested the collusion of school administrators with the selective service during the Vietnam War.
Ironically, the campus that was carefully engineered to thwart such a protest as that occuring in 1968 on the campus at San Francisco State College, may be the location of a nationally televised walkout very shortly.
(By engineered to thwart, I mean that planners built the campus and instituted rules that stymied efforts by students to have a campus culture, including banning Greek houses and making the campus alcohol free. By encouraging a commuter mindset, they thought they were ensuring that most students would not associate themselves as a group to be reckoned with.)
Faculty senate members (and former faculty members) have been approaching some community leaders to see if they are interested in possibly being on the board. They're just sniffing around now, but it seems like they want to have someone with faculty interests and a soft spot for the international mission on the board.
At the same time consideration is being given as to who should be appointed to the MSSU Board of Governors, thoughts should be given to candidates for the position of Commissioner of Higher Education--a post for which candidates are now being sought.
Speck was loathed at APSU. Many of us were delighted when he failed to get the presidency at Austin Peay--I feel sorry for MSSU.
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