Thank God.

Yes. We have been here all the time.
Like some kind of baseball bat under the bed that you hope you never need.
And now the MSSU Board of Governors has finally inhaled the fresh air that comes from not breathing with one’s head up one’s ass.
Alan Marble is our president. And we can now stand down.

We wish Dr. Marble well. And we hope Dwight Douglas develops a persistent, chronic and never-ending rectal itch. We win, fucker.

The Joplin Globe is a whore

The most recent staff editorial in The Joplin Globe is the most naked literary hummer in the history of fake journalism.

It is about the “larger than life” statue of a lion unveiled by MSSU recently. That cliche and others apparently “leaped to mind” for this lazy writer. But we digress. The problem isn’t with the prose but with the fact that the Globe is easy to praise and reluctant to poke.

We are in favor of and happy with the unveiling of the statue. It symbolizes a new beginning under Interim President Alan Marble. Marble has reached out to faculty and seems to realize the university’s international mission is a vital component to its future. It looks forward and not back. And that is all good.

But The Globe keeps giving Southern head.

Where did the money come from? The Student Senate spent a lot of money for this. And that is fine. It is a good symbol at a good time.

But what happened to the money then-Sen. Gary Nodler got for a storm shelter? Where is the university in fund raising for the already-named-but-matching funds-not raised Plaster sports complex?

With a new year underway, will true shared governance return?

We are happy so far. But questions remain. And we are still SouthernWatching.

Stay tuned…

Dear Readers,

We have been kind of quiet since the Board of Governors (they get their real name back) came to its senses and sent RTV to that great hat shop in the presidential sky.

That will continue until they — as we used to use as our tag line — start doing shit again. But we plan to do some analytical and speculative posts.

Right now, Dr. Alan is doing all the right things, half a day in.

He was pictured in The Globe greeting students who returned from an (gasp) international trip. And the university is talking about its mission and what it should mean to Southwest Missouri. Will it be an international mission? Maybe. But if it isn’t, it seems Dr. Alan is willing to have a DISCUSSION. A CONVERSATION. An INCLUSIVE, OPEN PROCESS.

Shit. We can’t even remember the last time that happened. Look at Chad Stebbins, here. It looks like the guy has gotten 10 years back, lost weight and got laid. All in a month.

 

And some say Speck never made an impact…now everyone is “Watching”

When catching up on The Turner Report this week, we came upon this gem of a post about a blog by two Joplin High School students who have concerns about the direction the Joplin R-8 School District is headed.

So they started a blog. And they call it Joplin Schools Watch.

They are telling administrators in their district that they are watching. And they are asking. And that they are stakeholders. The students write under their own names, which we applaud. And that isn’t a hypocritical position. Students can’t be fired.

And, apparently, they aren’t alone. This is from the blog’s “About” page:

This website is the voice of students, parents, and teachers who wish to bring the inner-workings of the Joplin School District to light.

Quite frankly, every school district, college, university, city council should have someone running a “Watch.” It is citizen journalism and populist activism at its best. Would the Joplin Globe ask these questions? Maybe the Joplin Globe doesn’t because it doesn’t even know what answers the public wants.

But can administrators punish these students for being critical of the district in an online medium and for content they produce off campus on their own time and with their own equipment?

If the district tries to discipline these brave young people, we hope they sue its ass off.

And we hope they keep “Watching.”

Let’s hope the new boss isn’t same as the old boss

It has been well-chronicled that Speck accomplished little of note in his time here. Apparently, Dr. Alan Marble did accomplish some significant things.

Here are some of the more interesting headlines we found in minutes by searching for “Dr. Alan Marble” on the Neosho Daily News website:

Crowder, Carthage form partnership

Crowder breaks ground on McDonald County campus

Crowder enrollment numbers up

Crowder to offer classes in Carthage

Crowder hits record spring enrollment

Crowder offers classes at nine sites

Crowder College gets good marks in early audit

Marble gets probation for DUI

Crowder makes nationally-ranked list as workplace

That went back to July 2011. Notice the enrollment headlines and the expansion of the Crowder footprint. This week Crowder’s board gave a green light to seeking bids for a new residence hall.

Also note the last two headlines. Apparently Marble is quite capable of boorish behavior at times. But he recognized his mistake and took his medicine.

Then Crowder make a Chronicle of Higher Education list as one of the best places to work in the US. And if that culture can be transplanted to Southern, that will be a great departure from the last five years and a good start.

Late night movie

Just watched Die Hard on cable.

So here is a quote for all of you that are calling us assholes for calling Bruce an asshole:

“Asshole? I’m not the one who just got butt-fucked on national TV, *Dwayne*. Now, you listen to me, jerk-off, if you’re not a part of the solution, you’re a part of the problem. Quit being a part of the fucking problem and put the other guy back on!”

See you all in the morning.

Favorite Bruce Speck memories…

We are inviting Watch readers to comment and tell us your favorite memories — good, bad, funny, surreal — of deposed University President Bruce Speck.

We will start.

Our favorite memory was Speck (and he was trying to be a good sport) dressing up in a burrito costume and rolling on the floor at Leggett & Platt. Which led to the moniker “Burrito Bruce.”

Your turn!

Tomorrow is a key day in MSSU public relations history

This thing could go either way.

This could be a Board of Governors triumph or it could be a sign that nothing was learned from the presidential fiasco that was Bruce Speck. So how should they handle it?

Here is our take.

Globe Editors. Hypocrites.

[Watch note: Showing that there is a process to this site, we have edited this post. The original called out Globe editor Carol Stark personally and kind of showed what the paragraph in The Globe’s editorial today was talking about. We regret that writer’s judgment. The editorial was not bearing a byline. So although we still feel the paper as a whole is taking a hypocritical stance, it is unfair to single out one person. We apologize to Stark personally, but still don’t care for the paper she heads.]

 

We will slink away when we are good and ready.

We will also remain anonymous beyond the explanations and descriptions we have offered. We have seen what happens to those who voice a dissenting voice. Gilbert. Oakes. Hanrahan. Surber. Fogerty. Agee. So fuck off. Because we never pretended to be a mainstream media and news outlet. You have pretended to be, though.

Of course we want MSSU to thrive and grow with a revitalized Joplin and its surrounding communities. We criticize things like hiring an embezzler to teach accounting, treating faculty and the community with disrespect, fun raising ineptitude and other things that The Joplin Globe has long ignored.

For the better part of the last five years, The Joplin Globe has ignored growing turmoil on campus and left only the former incarnation of The Chart and The Turner Report to ask questions and hold Speck accountable. Turner and former Chart editors Alexandra Nicolas (who now works for you) and Brennan Stebbins called bullshit alone with us over here just providing a perspective.

And if you had been paying attention in school, you would know that anonymous journalism has sometimes had great impact. Deep Throat asked for anonymity for a reason. True, the reporters published under their names. So let’s go back to a seminal American moment. How about The Federalist Papers?

It is comical that a couple of stories by Emily Younker suddenly make you the watchdog and the cheerleader all at once. And it is hypocritical to criticize those who criticize when you sent Greg Grisolano into the wilderness for requesting documents from the Speck administration during his famous “media blackout” period.

You people are a joke.

And there is one solution to the problem of our suggested cowardice. Don’t read us. We dare you. But we get page views and we ask questions. And when things are looking up at the corner of Newman and Duquesne, we will go away.

So ignore us or fuck off. We don’t really care. But don’t close your eyes to the bullshit of the last five years and then act like you have any credibility.

Just us chickenshits here

A commenter, Beetlejuice, hit us with the following:

You all might do an “OK” thing here and there, but you’re still nothing more than faceless cowards. You can pat yourselves on your pretentious little backs all you want, but the fact remains – You are cowards.

Normally, we would say something smartass or ignore it. But Beetlejuice is not alone and he actually has a point we have to acknowledge.

We are cowards. When Speck was in charge, some who feed us information were scared of their jobs. Now that things are up in the air on his successor, they are scared too. That’s how it goes with whistleblowers and bullshit callers. And if that is our brand, we will wear our yellow-backed stripe for life. Because, Beetlejuice, we did one thing. When The Chart was defanged and The Globe disappeared, we asked questions. We kept debate alive. And we pissed you off. Which is fine.

We were like a good old colonial broadside that was partisan, crazy and well-read. And, yes, we too wanted a revolution. And like the colonialists of old, we risked a lot and met in secret. And like the American revolutionaries, we saw good people die along the way. And if keeping anonymous pisses you off, then fuck you.

See? We still don’t listen to grownups.

Seriously, do you want us to give a complete list of everyone who voluntarily or accidentally contributed? And put them at risk? It is that extensive a network.

And don’t look to the Faculty Senate, either.

You see? If any of them were involved, we would have hurt them. And we didn’t want to do that.

Abraham Lincoln once said, “To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men.” We didn’t want to sin by silence. And the university might be better by our extreme actions.

We hope so.

Cowards for anonymity? We can live with that.

The courageous stood up for shared governance, got a vote of no confidence, stood up when the administration tried to stifle free speech and dissent, and sometimes said “Not everything is wrong, but this isn’t right.”

We just gave them a place to go to vent. And they are the ones we pat on the back and not ourselves.