In its latest edition, the Missouri Southern State University newspaper includes an e-mail revealing that Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences (KCUMB) President Danny Weaver told MSSU President Bruce Speck in February that the medical school project for Joplin as most likely a no-go.
That e-mail, according to the article, was not included in those turned over as part of the Freedom of Information Act request made by the Chart for all correspondence between Speck and the current and former KCUMB presidents.
The Chart received the e-mail from an anonymous source and had its contents confirmed by Weaver:
The e-mail, from the president of KCUMB, Danny Weaver, to University President Bruce Speck, is dated Feb. 25 and expresses doubt that a proposed partnership with Southern would move forward.
“Speaking candidly, if a vote were taken today, it would fail!!,” Weaver wrote in the message.
When was Speck planning on sharing that information with the public?
Speck, of course, still in his bunker, had no comment for the Chart article.
4 comments:
I agree that this should be a investigative reporting coup. However, I find it interesting that a lawsuit against another college got paper time, time on your blog, and time in the Joplin Globe and a local lawsuit against MSSU got no time whatsoever. Two students have had a lawsuit against the college for almost a month (Case #: 10AO-AC00837, freely viewable on Case.net https://www.courts.mo.gov/casenet/cases/searchCases.do) and The Chart has not done any sort of article on this yet (nor has any other reporting entity).
This seems to me to
So the question now becomes: Did Bruce and Dwight force the college foundation to borrow the quarter million dollars for the medical school building architects to start
AFTER they KNEW that the school was NOT likely?
What role did the new foundation director play on this? And what about those few business people and OBrian at the Chamber who so strongly defended Speck at the behest of Douglas and Freeman. Did they also know? Is that why Bruce and Douglas started talking about checking with other medical schools "if KC did not work out"?
And what are legal implications of Bruce's hiding the email from a legitimate Freedom of Information request. If guilty, this should call for the immediate resignation of the president and Douglas and any other board member who knew.
Chart, you must stay on this... and so should the Globe the Carthage Press. Globe, sink your teeth on this. You have the resources.
When all is said and done, Dwight Douglas will have become the most destructive individual ever appointed by a state senator (Nodler)to a position of public trust. MSSU will have been destroyed because of the big egos of two political hacks.
This has been so positive, though, for The Chart. It has been excellent experience for budding journalists and has opened up a true dialogue for Missouri Southern's faculty and staff. When it is all over, and Speck and Douglas are just a memory, the university will be stronger in the end. Growth and change are hard, but in the end, it is all good.
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