Last year the Wichita State University newspaper, The Sunflower, took on WSU President, John Bardo. Not only did The Sunflower do some in depth reporting on Bardo's dismal job, but the Student Government Association, the elected student body, delivered a vote of “no confidence” to Bardo. So maybe Bardo thought that a good summer long break would help the students to forget what a lousy job he did last spring. Maybe he thought he could just brush off the students and their concerns. After all, he runs the university and the students could not actually fire him.
No the students can't fire him. But they can report on his bad work, such as sacrificing student needs to buy off big time school investors and contributors, such as the Koch brothers. So far the following story shows that Bardo will not get a free ride from the students and they have not forgotten how badly he runs WSU. -SJ Otto
From The Sunflower:
When the Kansas Board of Regents appointed John Bardo as university president in 2012, he offered the promise of increased enrollment.
At his former university, Western Carolina , where he served as chancellor for 16 years, Bardo almost doubled enrollment and the size of campus.
That was his selling point, and the state of Kansas bought it — hook, line, and sinker.
Bardo came in with big ambitions and things started to change, noticeably, from the previous president’s tenure at WSU.
With the forward-focused, innovation-driven goals of Bardo’s administration, come the implication that the way things have been done at WSU are outmoded, outdated, and backwards.
He has a vision for WSU, an imagined plan for the future of the entire region based on his years of scholarship on the New Economy, and it looks great on paper.
There’s no doubt Innovation Campus has increased the size of campus, and student “collisions” have definitely increased with the improved Rhatigan Student Center and additional, but unnecessary, student housing. But prospective students aren’t buying the shiny new buildings or increasingly expensive amenities thrust upon them, like a membership to the YMCA or a luxury dorm.
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