Longtime Missouri Southern State University President Julio Leon is one of three candidates for interim president at the Univercity of Colorado-Pueblo.The current president of the university was elected lieutenant governor Tuesday.
The newspaper offers the following description of Dr. Leon:
Leon retired in 2007 from Missouri Southern State University, as one of the longest-serving presidents in the nation with 25 years of service.
He spent 38 years at MSSU, beginning in 1969 as an assistant professor of business administration.
Leon worked his way up to become dean, interim president and president.
During his tenure as president at MSSU, Leon led the school in attaining university status in 2003 and adding master's degree programs.
Leon proposed the university's concept of international education that allows for students to travel in the fall semester to learn in different regions or countries in the world.
Leon assisted in the development of the university's online distance learning program that offers full bachelor's degree programs via the Internet.
The university received the Hesburgh Certificate of Excellence in 2001 for faculty development to enhance undergraduate teaching and learning under Leon's tenure.
30 comments:
Good luck to Leon, a very good person who contributed greatly to our school and community.
Bring him back to Southern!
Yeah! Bring Julio back to Southern and exile Bruce to Devil's Island and Dwight to, where else, Elba...
Well Randy, you got the faculty awake again. Certain ones have a one-track mind.
They haven't gotten over their defeat. Still licking their wounds.
"They haven't gotten over their defeat. Still licking their wounds."
Unfortunately, it's the school that is still licking its wounds. And, I'm sad to say, I'm afraid there are more coming. Bruce isn't done yet inflicting damage on our institution.
A nostalgic reminder of a time when the top people worked to achieve excellence rather than trade-school on the cheap! When their every move did not degrade the institution.
What a pity it wasn't Bruce Speck-tater going to Pueblo! And, yes, his "long time companion" Dwight exiled, as someone said, where all the little Napoleons go.
Randy,
Maybe now that the elections are over you can devote more space and attention to Missouri Southern. Douglas and Speck are still intent in dismantling this fine institution.
Before long we will become Vaterott Southern (no offense Vaterott)
why is the mssc foundation trying to raise millions for the football stadium at the same time that Bruce and Anglin are trying to eliminate the math, history,music, etc. programs?
Leon bankrupted MSSU. He wasted millions buying loyalty from faculty members paid higher than their peers at other Missouri institutions with comparable workloads. These pro-Leon comments probably come from those parasites. No one at Southern initiated the review of programs for elimination, that was ordered by Governor Jay Nixon. Leon destroyed the school’s cash reserves by treating depreciation as income. President Speck has restored the school’s fiscal health over the objections of those over paid Leon cronies. What you hear on here is the squealing of pigs. These faculty protesters are like the democrats in DC wanting more deficit spending and waste.
Ha! That joke of a comment has already been exposed and discredited, Bruce, or Dwight, or Gary... That's why we rewarded such lies with a no-confidence vote.
Depreciation IS income because it's a non-cash expense and to this day, we are still paid less than the state and national averages,
So get off that bandwagon!
See, Randy. Things are still hot at MOSo and nothing has changed. The whole board is inept, the faculty are as unhappy as ever, and a dissatisfaction survey is in the works, or is it, Cheryl?
But the real question remains... Can he correctly pronounce University of Colorado-Pueblo?
Look, let's call it like it is.
Leon was not a good president. He publicly stated, on more than one occasion, that the University of Phoenix was the ASPIRATIONAL goal off MSSU.
Unfortunately, Speck is worse. I don't need to list the reasons, you all know them.
Basically, MSSU went from screwed to totally screwed.
Well since a certain part of the faculty is awake again maybe they can begin teaching instead of sleeping...while they slept the "Vaterrot teachers" have been awake and on the job. If the humanities and other "scholastic" programs failed, the faculty in those departments should accept the blame..they should have tended to business instead of whining and wanting to blame others for their own failures. They don't want to get their hands dirty and do any lifting. When Leon left, the candy store was closed. Bend you back a little, it builds character.
Julio Leon was a man of great vision for the university. Any talk of Leon bankrupting MSSU is pure foolishness; faculty and staff had raises every single year of his presidency. Leon weathered a lot of storms for the university during his presidency. He always had a plan for every occasion that might arise. The leadership of MSSU today, if you want to call it that, is merely reactionary. A few plans have been made, but they have ended in disaster.
anonymous 124: You got it right. As long as Leon had the candy store open for a bunch of lazy teacher he was "great vision." You were the "entitled faculty." Well, welcome to the real world. You've lived in the dream world too long and it time to wake up from you dream, quit complaining and get down to work to make MSSU a respectable school. The word is spelled W-O-R-K.
Julio Leon: funding for Webster Hall, Leggett & Platt Athletic Center, Mayes Student Life Center, East Hall dormitory, Health Sciences Building, Beimdick Student Recreation Center, etc.
Bruce Speck: failed medical school project, failed indoor football practice facility, failed on-campus baseball stadium, failed renovations to Hughes Stadium
Hey, hey, hey. Speck did hire two additional vice presidents and another dean. That's something, isn't it? With their salaries and benefits, he increased the payroll by $400,000. Give the man some credit!
Bruce's and Dwight's Candy Store and "Loyalty Buying Program":
Terri Agee (now business school spy), Rob Yust, Darren Fullerton, Doug Carnahan, Cheryl Cifely, Linda Eis, Gibson, new vice-presidents, new dean, Brad Kleindl, Gubera... and so it goes, on and on...
Anonymous 7:50 must be one of those Leon cronies, depreciation is not income. It is "non cash" expense that has very little financial meaning in a non-taxed entity; its only real purpose is for a building and equipment replacement schedule. Booking depreciation as income and spending it, bankrupted MSSU! As for being paid lower than the national average, several key Leon cronies were paid at higher levels than their peers at any other Missouri institution, while most faculty and support staff lagged behind. At Missouri Southern your pay was directly linked to being a Leon loyalist. It is no wonder that those selfish piggies are still whining.
So name some of those Leon loyalists and their salaries or provide evidence that those piggies were paid more than their peers in Missouri.
Show me....
21 Anonymous?, Good luck to Julio L.
Real name for this post.
I must admit that it baffles me how anyone could think Leon was a good college president.
He was a dictator. He completely crushed meaningful faculty governance over the course of his reign (the effects of which can still be seen today in a mostly dispirited faculty). Towards the end of his tenure lost his mind (how do we do better at retention? Send the freshman together on a big trip to Mexico -- on BUSES!). He saw the school itself as basically a low level community college masquerading as a 4 year institution (also continued by current admins) -- leading him treat the school in like manner, in some cases out right loony results like "imagine the world in which you jet around the world while your grad students field questions from your students _in
China_ on headsets!!"
The guy was a friggin loon, and he did little to cultivate excellence at MSSU. If anything, he kept it from closing down. I'll give him that.
Yeah, Leon was a dud. Raises for faculty and staff for 25 years in a row. All those new buildings. University status. The first school in the region to develop a distance learning program. New degree programs. No no-confidence votes from the faculty. Yep, the guy was a loser.
Such a terrible dictator Leon was! 25 years?? and no "no-confidence" vote??, no revolution, no discontent?
Bruce comes here and within one year we realized we had a real dictator in our hands, and what happened? Revolution and no-confidence vote.. In just two years...
Funny thing is, in no time Bruce turned us into a Banana Republic... Jiulio never did that... even though the guy is from Peru, ha!
You know, a friend and I were talking the other day. We agreed that Bruce didn't come to MSSU with a plan to screw us over. It just happened. It was a combination of his ineptness as a president, a member of the Board telling him what to do, Bruce's own vindictive spirit, and the collapse of the economy. Throw in a business office and a human resources director that were bent on becoming more powerful, and you had a recipe for disaster. Say what you will about Julio; he always had the best interests of the university at heart.
Again, I'm not saying Speck is anything worth having -- he's a complete loser.
But Leon?
1.Raises for faculty and staff for 25 years in a row.
Wow, what a top line accomplishment for a university president.
2. All those new buildings.
And this increased excellence at MSSU how?
3. University status.
So? He thought the University of Phoenix as the ASPIRATIONAL goal for MSSU. What was next? Virtual university status?
4. The first school in the region to develop a distance learning program.
See last point. If you think cultivation of distance learning is a lurch forward for university excellence, you haven't been in many quality universities I'll guess.
4. New degree programs.
Like what? TV/VCR repair? Air conditioning? Or...wait for it...CSI Miami training certificates?
5. No no-confidence votes from the faculty.
Not having a no-confidence vote from your faculty doesn't mean you've done squat to cultivate excellence - it just means you haven't actively antagonized the faculty as a whole. Definitely something to go on the CV I'm sure.
Leon was a loser, but unfortunately Speck is such a total disgrace he has led people to rewrite history and turn Leon into a saint.
Boy, Anonymous 5:28... You are a loser... what did Leon do to you, got you fired?... you did not get the promotion you "thought" you deserved?...
It's quite clear Leon was a respected president, with great vision, and the ability to inspire confidence and trust. He was not perfect by any means, but he "could get things done"... with class and very little money from the state...
Anon -
Answers to your questions: no, and no. You are reminding me a bit of the rabid posters to the Globe when faculty were up in arms against Speck, and the only way they could understand it was if the faculty were having their perks taken away.
Um, just as with Speck, you can actually have real reasons to think someone is not very good at being a president without it being for some ulterior motive.
It's not "quite clear" that Leon was any of those things. Are you denying that he forcefully argued that MSSU should model it? Or are you arguing that this is "vision"? Which one?
Sorry - "it" in the above comment is "the University of Phoenix."
I don't find "being the University of Phoenix" very visionary. In fact, I'd say it is a massive abrogation of one's commitment to excellence in higher education.
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