By Greg Grisolano

ggrisolano@joplinglobe.com

The results of a faculty vote of no confidence in Missouri Southern State University President Bruce Speck apparently have not prompted any of the three candidates for the school’s top academic position to back out of the running.

One of those candidates, Brian Chapman, said Wednesday that he believes Southern is a campus that has a lot of potential for growth and development.

“I think this is a university that in a couple of years will be vastly different from what it is now,” said Chapman, a former provost at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington. “And I think if I’m offered the position, I’d have to think long and hard about that. But I think that it’s very possible to make a positive impact here.”

The faculty on Monday gave a no-confidence vote regarding Speck’s leadership by a margin of 140 to 44. Almost 78 percent of the faculty of 237 participated in the vote.

Background

Tensions between the faculty and the president began mounting in the spring and summer semesters of 2008, when Speck over time cut more than $1.3 million from the university’s operating budget. The budget for the Institute of International Studies, an administrative arm of Southern’s international mission, was reduced by 40 percent. That decision prompted an outcry from students and faculty members, and became part of a list of 23 grievances compiled against Speck this fall by a faculty senate committee. That ultimately led to the no-confidence vote.

Chapman discussed the situation at length with about 20 faculty members who attended a question-and-answer session Wednesday afternoon in Corley Auditorium. The session was part of a series of interviews being conducted with the top three candidates for the vice president of academic affairs job.

“I think it’s very possible for a vice president of academic affairs to work with this group (of faculty),” he said. “Yeah, they’re concerned, but that’s a good thing. What would be worse is for them to be totally apathetic.”

Chapman opened the session with a short presentation about his background, personally and professionally, before taking questions.

Several faculty members brought up the no-confidence vote in their questions, while others asked about budget issues related to hiring tenure-track faculty and the fate of the school’s international mission.

While he said he supports providing students with the financial resources to study abroad, Chapman also said he believes Southern’s Institute of International Studies needs to be more efficient with its resources. He emphasized that at a previous job in Texas, he was able to send more students overseas on a per-year basis than Southern has with the help of private support.

“I’ve worked with a lot less money than you all had, and we did a lot more,” he said. “So one of the things I’d like to do is get in there and help you review the budget, because there’s a drain in there somewhere.”

Candidates lauded

Some faculty members who have attended the sessions with the candidates said they hope the controversy at Southern won’t affect the aspirants’ decisions.

“I’ve been at Missouri Southern for 29 years, and I’ve never been a part of something like this,” said Pat Lipira, professor and chairwoman of the kinesiology department. “All three of the candidates seem to still be interested despite what we’ve been going through. I think that’s a positive.”

Lipira also said she believes the search committee “did a wonderful job of bringing in three quality candidates.”

“I really personally don’t know that we could go wrong,” she said. “We’re all just looking forward to getting a permanent vice president of academic affairs.”

Another candidate, Charles Cullum, professor of English and former associate provost and dean of graduate students at Kutztown (Pa.) University, said during his interview last week that the results of the no-confidence vote could potentially affect his decision to take the job if it were offered.

When reached by phone Wednesday, Cullum said he regards the no-confidence vote as a “serious procedure,” but said it would not, in and of itself, make him not consider taking the job.

“Yes, if you’re a candidate for a position at an institution in such a situation, it’s something you’ve got to think very hard about,” he said. “My sense is this vote was a way for faculty to look for change going into the future. It seems to be more of a positive step than I have seen in past experiences. If that’s the case, it might not be as problematic.”

Peter Johnstone, deputy vice chancellor at the University of North Texas at Dallas and the third candidate for the MSSU post, did not return messages left at his office and on his cell phone Wednesday.

Chapman was the final candidate to visit Southern’s campus. He stepped down from a similar post at UNC-Wilmington in April amid a controversy over censoring images in an art exhibit.

The search committee received 21 applications before narrowing the field to the final three.

The academic affairs post is vacant as the result of the abrupt resignation this summer of Jack Oakes after only three weeks on the job. His differences with Speck are a central part of the rift between the faculty and Speck.

Early in October, Oakes said in a interview: “My primary reason for walking away from that position is I did not feel I could adopt a management style I was expected to.” In an e-mail obtained by the Globe via an open-records pursuit, Oakes in July assailed Speck’s leadership approach, and accused him of ignoring the advice and judgment of the university’s top administrators.



No word

The Globe’s efforts to reach Bruce Speck, who is chairman of the search committee for the vacant post, for comment about when a decision on the candidates would be reached were unsuccessful Wednesday.