This Charming Man

Last month, I observed in this post that the University's name was apparently mud in many corners of the Ozarks. To judge from yesterday's University news release, the administration has also read the handwriting on the wall.

SPRINGFIELD – Highlighting the interdependence and saying “thank you” for past support are the two major goals for the first Missouri State University Community Caravan, which will focus on eight locations in the first three weeks of April. The theme of the 2008 Caravan is “What the Public Affairs Mission Means to You.”

University officials will work with local planning committees to plan a day-long event that will include these elements: one or more civic/economic impact events; school visits; media contacts; visits with individual donors and alumni; and an evening event for prospective students and their parents.

This charm offensive is, I think, brilliantly conceived. While I'm sure the usual suspects have already been tasked with the appropriate grunt work, this can only have been the President's idea. God knows the usual suspects never came up with anything like this during the previous administration.

No doubt the Community Caravan will be a great big traveling dog-and-pony show on the order of the alumni and athletic caravans. A parade of the University's highest salaried personalities and demipersonalities backed up by the Best Band The Missouri Taxpayers Can Buy. But I have even less doubt the voters and taxpayers of Southwest Missouri will greatly appreciate the attention and the effort. So why pamper life's complexities when the administration does something so boldly and obviously right?