The Joplin Globe, Joplin, MO

Top Stories

April 13, 2012

MSSU to make three faculty cuts

Three Missouri Southern State University faculty members have been informed that their contracts won’t be renewed, but faculty senate President Cliff Toliver on Friday said he expects no further faculty cuts.

Toliver, an English professor, said that two of the faculty members whose one-year contracts won’t be renewed are in his department and one is in the social sciences department.

Toliver said A.J. Anglin, MSSU vice president for academic affairs, told the faculty senate during a recent meeting that balancing the budget would require no further faculty cuts.

Toliver said Friday that based on statements by MSSU President Bruce Speck and others, he had feared that the faculty cuts could be much worse.

“At a certain point I had anticipated a larger number would not be back,” Toliver said.

He said Anglin’s announcement was well-received and is good news for the immediate situation, but that doesn’t help the three whose jobs have been cut.

“There are still three people who have served our institution well who will be without jobs,” Toliver said.

Anglin couldn’t immediately be reached for comment on Friday, but he had said last month that the decisions to cut faculty members would be based only on financial considerations, not personalities. He said only those faculty members with one-year contracts who weren’t tenured or on a tenure track were being considered. He said the decisions would also need to go through President Bruce Speck and the Board of Governors.

Rob Yust, MSSU vice president for business affairs, at last month’s Board of Governors retreat, announced that he would present the board with a balanced budget in May. He said that involved finding $4 million, including $800,000 to negate a deficit in the current year’s budget and an expected $1.7 million reduction in state appropriations.

A tuition increase approved in February is expected to raise $600,000. The university will budget $2 million in building projects instead of the $5 million budgeted this year, for a savings of $3 million.





Search for savings

Rob Yust, MSSU vice president for business affairs, last month said suggestions from faculty and staff were used to find another $150,000 worth of savings.

Text Only
Top Stories
  • 052413 pools5_72.jpg Area pools ready for plunge; Schifferdecker opening still to be announced

    Though this week’s mild temperatures may not signal swim season, most area pools are ready anyway. And, the mercury should rise a little this weekend to help those anxious to dive in. Highs will be in the low 80s today and Sunday. There is a chance for isolated thunderstorms on Monday, but the thermometer should hit 82 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.

    May 24, 2013 2 Photos

  • Joplin School Board decision could take up to two weeks; Turner remains on paid leave

    It could take up two weeks for the Joplin Board of Education to decide whether Randy Turner’s teaching contract should be terminated, the school district’s attorney, John Nicholas, said Friday.

    May 24, 2013

  • 052413 Loretta Bailey.jpg Joplin insurance agent seeks donations for Moore, Okla.

    After losing an office building and her home in the tornado on May 22, 2011, Loretta Bailey is familiar with the destruction that a tornado brings. The 400 households that her insurance agency helped through the aftermath of the tornado also know that loss. \

    May 24, 2013 1 Photo

  • Families, friends invited to honor veterans with flags this weekend

    Small lengths of plastic pipe have been installed behind the headstones of veterans graves in Joplin cemeteries so that every veteran will have a flag on Memorial Day.

    May 24, 2013

  • Events, activities planned to honor veterans Monday

    No ceremonies are planned at Joplin cemeteries this year or at Mount Hope Cemetery in Webb City, but a number of other events are scheduled in cities around the region.

    May 24, 2013

  • 052313 Turner6_72.jpg Joplin Board of Education to decide fate of East Middle School teacher

    After hearing nearly 10 hours of testimony from more than a dozen witnesses and accepting more than 45 exhibits into evidence, members of the Joplin Board of Education voted to move behind closed doors Thursday night to decide whether Randy Turner, a communication arts teacher at East Middle School, will continue to teach.

    May 23, 2013 2 Photos

  • 052213 gas4_72.jpg Memorial Day travelers bemoan high gas prices

    Norm Hayward and his wife, Claudia, have a couple of things going for them as they continue their increasingly expensive motor home trip around parts of the United States. For starters, the Phoenix, Ariz., couple are saving on hotel costs.

    May 23, 2013 1 Photo

  • Cunningham Park vandalism estimated at $4,000

    Vandals caused an estimated $4,000 worth of damage in Cunningham Park, draining the pool in the aquatic center of about 200,000 gallons of water and throwing some large landscaping rocks into the reflecting pond.

    May 23, 2013

  • Joplin team drove through storm to get to Moore

    It was a long drive in the middle of a severe thunderstorm that had earlier produced a massive tornado in Moore, Okla. With the two-year anniversary of Joplin’s deadly twister approaching on Wednesday, a team of 14 Joplin emergency workers was ready to risk the trip in order to get help to a hurting Moore.

    May 23, 2013

  • 052313 Turner1_72.jpg Content of book, students' access to it at issue in hearing for suspended teacher

    A standing-room only crowd is present at the hearing this morning to decide the fate of suspended Joplin Middle School teacher Randy Turner, who has asked for the hearing before the board of education.

    May 23, 2013 1 Photo