Archive for the ‘Dear President’ Category

Dear President Vartabedian and former President Scanlon,

As adviser to the newspaper, I try to stay on the sidelines and keep my name out of print, but no one else has taken Dan Donan up on his request to have people write letters to a president. So, I thought I’d give poor Dan a brief respite.

My letter is an appreciation of the calm and effective leadership we’ve had over the past several years. So often in academia our first instinct is to grouse and complain (for us faculty, perhaps a lingering habit from our graduate school days), but to appreciate our situation at Western we only need to look about 200 miles to the south at our sister school, Missouri Southern.

That was apparent to me in the fall of 2007, when their president of 25 years, Julio Leon, stepped down in the second year of a three-year contract, effective immediately, after some disagreements with its Board of Governors. Contrast that with Western where you, Dr. Scanlon, gave the university a year advance notice, ensuring we could take our time finding a replacement and not need an interim president. As a member of the selection committee, I was impressed by the professionalism of the search process, which included members visiting the campuses of finalists and bringing three candidates to Western for interviews. Southern did not employ such rigor and only ended up bringing one candidate to Joplin. That is not to imply MSSU President Bruce Speck was not a qualified candidate—indeed, he was one of our finalists before we chose you, Dr. Vartabedian—but many on campus probably felt like they were not given a choice. The situation has only deteriorated since then:

• Several programs, especially the International Studies program that is central to Southern’s state-mandated mission, have been severely cut.
• Faculty and staff pay has been frozen for two years at Southern.
• Opposition to Speck and long-time Board of Governors member Dwight Douglas was so strong that a blog (which garnered as many as 1,000 hits in one day) focusing on their shortcomings was created.
• Several high level administrators have resigned, including a vice president for academic affairs who resigned after only three weeks on the job.
• Southern’s faculty senate, outlining 23 criticisms of Speck for “failures of leadership, management, shared governance, judgment and public embarrassment,” overwhelmingly passed a vote of “no confidence.” A vote of the entire faculty will be held Nov. 2.
While such controversy might make the front pages of this newspaper a bit more interesting, I for one am glad we have had a level-headed Board of Governors and drama-free presidents like the two of you.

Dear Madame President of Pepsico,

How do you sleep with yourself at night? I am sure you do it on a very expensive, very comfortable bed, but all the same, how do you settle in knowing all the harm and evil the corporation you run creates? How do rest your head on a pillow when you might be responsible for a world that is getting fatter and fatter? It might be because your purse is so heavy that carrying it around just really tuckers you out.

At this point I am sure you are thinking, “what great evils am I in charge of? I have broken no laws.” It doesn’t take a broken law for evil to happen. The most insidious crimes are the kind that no law has ever even been written for. The worst crimes are the ones that no one realizes are a crime at all. This is the kind of evil I attribute to you.

I can remember as far back as three years old being given a soda to go with my dinner. Of course, I would fall in love with that sweet syrupy taste. Then, growing up and being bombarded with commercials telling me how great your product is, commercials designed to make me want to drink more, I couldn’t help but to want more and more. Now, I am a fat man in my late 30’s and I have trouble going a day without filling a 44 oz. styrofoam cup with the sickly sweet nastiness that is Pepsi.

I look around at a world of people getting fatter and fatter every year. I know I can’t blame it all on your product, but I also cannot excuse you from being part of the obesity equation. This is not just a matter of will any longer. This falls full well into the realm of addiction. The perfect product keeps people wanting more. How is it acceptable by any standards that getting kids addicted is all right with anyone?

When faced with a future of increasing diabetes rates and a market where it is cheaper to get a can of Pepsi than it is to get a bottle of water or juice, I can’t help but to want to curse your name just a small bit. Maybe it is time for the black waters of capitalism to be damned up before we all drown in higher health care costs. Knowing that no one will do that, all I can do is write you this letter and ask you; How do you sleep at night?

Dan Donan

Dear Mr. President,

I have been very impressed with the work you have done to improve the university both in function and in form. I am particularly impressed with how many more international students have taken to calling Missouri Western State University their new home. This is something you stated as a goal and then went and made happen. Impressive. You are definitely a happening kind of guy.

Since you have a way of making things happening, I write you this letter about something I think needs to happen. I think there needs to be more help out there for non-traditional students to get back in school. For those kids in high school, it is easy. There are multiple hands helping one along because that is what you are supposed to do after high school: go to college. But for some people, life didn’t time itself that way. I have heard it said that if you do not go to college fresh out of school, then there is less of chance that you ever will go. Maybe that would not be true if there was more help to get into school for those who missed the boat the first time around.

With the tough economic times, more people are supposed to be turning to higher education. With all the stress of already living in the adult world, does getting back into school have to be another great challenge?

It just seems to me that there are probably lots of lost sheep out there looking for a shepherd to find them.

I think you could make a great shepherd.

Thank you for your time
Dan Donan

P.S. That donating your raise deal: pretty cool in my book.

Throughout the course of my last four semesters here at Western I have found that nearly every student cares deeply about the campus we share. Missouri Western is our home and we want to see it rise above the rest.

As I came into the Student Government Association (SGA) office last April as your 2009-2010 Student Body President my primary goal was to take that similar passion we all share as individuals and strengthen it by creating unity and transparency in our government, SGA.

In my first few weeks as SGA President I struggled to make our campaign slogan,–“Get Your Voice Back!”–a reality. I sat in my office considering new ways to get more people concerned about campus issues, but I couldn’t seem to think of any miraculous solutions. I was forgetting that students already have deep concerns about issues, and simply don’t know the means they can take to get their voice heard!

As your SGA President this year I want to create new mediums to connect with you, and make everything SGA does more transparent than ever before. We are all Griffons and care about the campus that brings us together. It is about time we are given the chance to share that passion with others. We might not know every answer to a concern you have, but there are always means of finding solutions. This semester our main objective is to find ways to help you. Every concern is important.

I want to close by letting everyone know a little about what my Executive Board and I have done over the summer to create a closer connection to the Student Body. First off, SGA now has an official Facebook group that will be utilized to communicate with students about events around campus and display concerns that students may have about University issues. Currently the group has over 750 students, but I’d like to see that continue to grow. The Facebook group name is: MWSU 2009-2010 Student Body (SGA Updates).

Another way we are working with students is by personally and immediately addressing concerns as they come up. My office is in Blum 217, and my door is always open to address issues. If I’m in class or attending other business you can always get me via e-mail at jtodd2@missouriwestern.edu or even my personal cell phone at 816-509-5692.
There have already been several issues we’ve dealt with, and I’ll go into more of that in my next address in the Griffon News. For now, however, I want to welcome everyone back to Missouri Western! Have a great year, and I look forward to hearing from you!

Josh Todd
SGA President