At Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences, the school that is supposed to gung ho on establishing a branch school in Joplin, the prospect is anything but certain, and though no one said so specifically, quotes given to Chart reporters in their latest edition make it look like the medical school is just a Dwight Douglas pipe dream:
Consider this passage:
Danny Weaver serves as chairman of the Board and took on the role of university president after the firing of former president and CEO Karen Pletz last year. He said the trustees would learn of the "process" during a telephonic Board meeting at the end of this month.
"The Board is not fully aware of the whole situation, not totally brought up to date with the whole Joplin initiative," Weaver told The Chart this week.
"Making them aware of the issues surrounding this initiative, what has been proposed, what former president Pletz had initiated with them," he added, "the Board's not fully aware of that yet, so we're going to sit down and have a heart to heart discussion about it before we make any decisions."
And this passage:
Governor Dwight Douglas, who chairs a board committee charged with examining the possible medical school branch, said during the meeting that support of a steering committee had not wavered, and fundraising efforts would continue. Southern has currently received pledges for between $2.5 and $2.75 million.
Douglas also said approval of KCUMB's trustees would come by April 1, but Weaver said that was unlikely to happen.
"The next official board meeting is not until the middle of April, at which time there will probably be a vote but nothing guaranteed," Weaver told The Chart.
Or how about this?
At the same time, Weaver told The Star that the board was kept in the dark about important issues "for months at a time." The same, it appears, occurred with the proposed medical school branch in Joplin.
Weaver told the newspaper that Pletz only mentioned the proposal "in passing" before an April 2009 board meeting, and added that the board didn't discover Pletz had signed a letter of intent with Southern until after an internal investigation.
And Weaver had this to say about the Joplin branch:
"It's not a high priority right now because we're dealing with some internal issues at the university that have been widely publicized," Weaver told The Chart. "Until those issues kind of come to a little rest, we can't focus on the Joplin initiative at this time. That doesn't mean we won't continue forward with the project, it's just that we obviously can't put it at the top of the list because these other issues are a little more urgent."
Let me see if I have this straight. The fired president of KCUMB never let her bosses know about her negotiations with MSSU. Her school is under investigation by the Internal Revenue Service. Why in the world would KCUMB follow through on the initiative of a fired leader?
Great job by Brennan Stebbins of the Chart.
My guess would be that the Chart, Stebbins and Chart advisor T. R. Hanrahan are in for a dose of Bruce Speck/Dwight Douglas payback in the near future.
Hopefully, the area newspaper of record, the Joplin Globe will put some pressure on and keep that from happening.
7 comments:
Payback from Bruce and Dwight to Brennan Stebbins and Hanrahan? Nah... Bruce and Douglas are egomaniacs but they are not stupid...Instead, Bruce most likely will take it on Brennan Stebbins's dad who happens to be MSSU director of international studies. Get it?.... international studies?...
As for the Globe protecting them and the Chart, not a chance in H..eaven!
Carol Stark and the Globe are in bed with Bruce, Douglas, the stupid board of governors, and the medical school for Freeman project.
How sad that we don't get an opportunity to have the med school here. At least the sheltered "don't gore my ox" faculty can celebrate.
Lost opportunities for local kids...sad. sad.
Word is the Hearnes Hall gang already brought in Hanrahan for a "chat." It is also getting around that the athletic department tried to give the paper a little slap.
Another rumor is that board of Governors Chair Rod Anderson is not too fond of Brennan Stebbins' questioning technique. Or is it just the questions?
Glad to see they are still asking about things.
I'm proud of The Chart. Keep up the good work, Hanrahan and Stebbins! (Brennan). Chad can't take the heat. I would lean on him, but he is under such pressure at the moment, I guess I'll leave him alone. But it is hard to imagine Chad doing what his son is doing. He is a bit lily-livered for that. LOL
To Anonymous #1, I don't see how the Globe could be in bed with anyone at MSSU, seeing as they make fun of the school all the time. And a few of them are friends with the newspaper at the college, so you obviously don't know anybody. Then again, I might not be anybody since I am also posting as anonymous. Oh well. It's just the internet.
Let me not be anonymous.
I am T.R. Hanrahan, and I serve as The Chart adviser.
I will not speak to anything else but this:
MORE anonymous says the Globe and The Chart are friends. That is true. KGCS-TV is friends with the local television stations. That is our job.
We cultivate good working relationships with the local media that will hire our graduates. I have had lunch with Carol Stark about scholarships and students, but never about news budgets.
Chart student editors get advice from Globe reporters. That is a good thing. But they have a healthy rivalry. They don't work together.
To suggest some type of conspiracy to "make fun of" a school we all support as a result of interaction with local media as part of the curriculum is asinine.
And it insults both papers.
12:08, you missed the point. The med school is not being delayed or not done because of the staff but because it was only between college representatives that did not inform their boards that it was being discussed. It is a pipe dream by a few that others that should have been imformed of knew nothing about.
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