Unloveable

From time to time, the powers that be Missouri State University let on that they are not exactly feeling the love from the community at large. Usually, the coldness is blowing down from Jefferson City: either the Legislature is screwing MSU, or the Governor is, or the Coordinating Board for Higher Education is. Democrats punish MSU for being in a Republican part of the state. Republicans punish MSU to get even with the whiny liberal professors. As a matter of fact, MSU has been getting screwed for years. The slice of the funding pie we receive from the CBHE is rather smaller than the piece of the pie - credit hours taught, degrees granted - produced by this particular state university. And women never really faint, and villains always blink their eyes...

There is plenty of resentment to be found right here in the Queen City of the Ozarks. Always has been. Coming here from a college town where the university basically is the city, I was taken aback by the locals' vitriol toward "Sodom and Gomorrah on the corner of Grand and National." Over time, I came to see as partially true the local belief that college professors are pathological whiners out of touch with how the real world works. Unfair, yes. Totally unfounded, no. Still, the institution itself has not helped its case much either.The Emily Brooker case brought MSU national notoriety. Spring 2007's furore over Dr. Michael Hendrix raised a stink statewide, as has the recent flap over the Strong Hall Christmas tree. It seems like a valid time to ask just how MSU presents itself to the local community.

So I clicked on the Community link featured prominently on the MSU home page. I was shocked into shame to discover the relationship between university and community expressed in exactly two paragraphs.

The community of Springfield and the Ozarks supports Missouri State by attending campus events, cheering Bears sports, and interacting through many other activities.

Missouri State also supports the community through its statewide mission in public affairs. Community outreach programs through public affairs research centers, adult continuing education, distance learning courses, public broadcasting, and telecommunication linkages with other metropolitan universities utilize faculty expertise and skills to address state and community problems.

Great. The community cheers for the Bears, and in return we give the community public affairs. It dawns on me that if this is the best MSU can do at justifying itself to the local community, we really deserve all the opprobrium we get. And if the best MSU can do to remedy the situation is appoint a blue ribbon committee packed with the usual suspects, I'm going to give up defending my job as a lost cause.