KCUMB Article

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chels02

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The Kansas City Star posted a very long and detailed article regarding the recent spending of KCUMB and firing of Karen Pletz. I find it well worth the read. As a recently accepted student, I am concerned about where my tuition money will be going and the future organization of the school...

http://www.kansascity.com/637/story/1731811.html?storylink=omni_popular

Any thoughts?
 
There always two sides to every story... with that kind of publicity...I wouldn't want to attach myself to that...if I had other options I'd go elsewhere.

Sad because I'm sure there are many great professors and medical professionals who work there...
 
Hmm.. she made the University probably one of the best DO schools in the nation. I wouldnt have terminated her, I would have reduced her salary or something.
 
"They received incentive bonuses for bringing in alumni donations and meeting other goals."

Explains why the school was bragging about all the alumni donations they receive.

Hopefully the board has learned its lesson and will be more pro-active in the running of the school.
 
After a quick run-through of the article, 2 things kind of jumped out at me...

1, she did not set her salary, it was proposed by a management firm and voted on by the board.

The university doesn’t have a formal policy on executive compensation, Weaver said. The board got data from a management consulting firm to compare presidents’ salaries at other schools, and the full board voted on Pletz’s pay packages.
Click to expand...


2, one of the problem areas listed in the article was the rampant nepotism at the school. Fortunately, the school board chairman, Danny Weaver, will put an end to that (being the previous board chairman's son, he knows the dangers).

Money was misspent, no doubt... other than getting a nice salary, I'm not sure what she did that merits termination. She sure got results.
 
I doubt she was fired due to her salary. It's not like she set it herself plus they could just lower it (or at least propose a lower salary) if needed. She's definitely not the first president to receive a large salary, it's all about results.
 
chels02 said:
The Kansas City Star posted a very long and detailed article regarding the recent spending of KCUMB and firing of Karen Pletz. I find it well worth the read. As a recently accepted student, I am concerned about where my tuition money will be going and the future organization of the school...

http://www.kansascity.com/637/story/1731811.html?storylink=omni_popular

Any thoughts?
Click to expand...

I understand why you might be concerned, but I can tell you that the acting-president has been incredibly open with students. No, he can't reveal the details of Pletz's termination, but he arranged a few meet-and-greet breakfasts with students and has an open-door policy if students want to meet with him. We've been receiving a lot of email from him, including recent ones explaining the media's interest in the story. Just going on gut instinct, I like what I see and I'm not concerned about corruption with Dr. Weaver.
 
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There was obviously more to do with her firing than her salary. It probably has more to do with the ridiculous spending as cited in the article. The nepotism does raise some flags, but as long as the board scores stay high and the KCUMB students continue to match well, I'm not too concerned. If anything, the fact that the board is so willing to fire such a "successful" president should signify that they mean business and want finances to be focused on education and the student body. The open-door policy of the acting president is absolutely necessay to regain the trust of the students and hopefully is a sign of some transparency returning to KCUMB administration.
 
Mtnbiker said:
2, one of the problem areas listed in the article was the rampant nepotism at the school. Fortunately, the school board chairman, Danny Weaver, will put an end to that (being the previous board chairman's son, he knows the dangers).
Click to expand...

:laugh: were you joking? Doesn't sound like they're working on it. He very well might be a good guy, but reading this made me laugh
 
Ah! I was hoping so, but you just can't be too sure on SDN.
 
Dr Skeptismo said:
Ah! I was hoping so, but you just can't be too sure on SDN.
Click to expand...

Yeah, what seemed funny and sarcastic in my head didn't translate very well to the written word. Getting back to the article, I'm sure there are things going on in the background that we don't know about that contributed to her firing, but the article made it sound like she was terminated for having such a big paycheck and hooking up friends/family with good-paying gigs.

If we want to hold someone accountable for her admittedly huge salary, we might want to start with the folks who approved it (the board). And, if as the article states, they approved her salary without really knowing what they were approving, who's really at fault here?

The nepotism charge was just the icing on the cake. I'm opposed to it, but as long as the chairmanship of the board "stays in the family," the school doesn't have a leg to stand on when using this as a basis for termination.

Not to defend her outrageous salary, but this overpaid administrator did a hell of a lot for the school. I think I would prefer her to a less expensive and much less effective president or dean.
 
One of the alumni of KCUMB that I am close to said that when he was a student at KCUMB (in the 60's) that there were 3 different presidents during his 4 years. He really liked the former president siting her ability to basically rebuild the entire campus through donations and that she deserved the salary more so than presidents making similar amounts for higher tier schools. He said that students rarely have any contact with any presidents so the fact that the new one is holding open doors is pretty interesting. This alum was very successful himself, and said that it was the school that gave him the great opportunities and training that made him successful as the former St. Louis Cardinals Radiologist and first DO resident allowed in Washington University in St. Louis. He said there is absolutely nothing to worry about it your decision is yet to be made.
 
Glad to hear that most people aren't too worried. I still am weighing my options and waiting to hear from a few other schools, but I am sure things like this happen quite often. I just want to make the best decision.
 
I am a current student and I am not worried about this whole situation. I think most people around the school knew that Pletz was making bank and using the schools money inappropriately. Prior to Pletz being hired KCUMB was on the verge of going bankrupt and board scores were very low. Now KCUMB has probably the largest endowment of any private DO school. Also, board scores are pretty high now and the school has a really good reputation among residency programs. Look at the past few match lists from the school. There are some very impressive matches. I just always figured Pletz getting rich was part of the trade-off.

However, i think what the school is really lacking isstudent friendlyness and an adminstration that will put student needs first. The school is in the process of building new facilities that should have been built along time ago. Although the facilities are adequate they are crappy. Pletz was really good at making the school look good on the outside but I think it was time for her to go. I actually really like Dr. Weaver but i doubt he would want the job permanantly. Im hoping they hire a physician to replace pletz rather than another lawyer.
 
to be fair, many school's dean and president travel lavishly and are compensated very well.
The president at my school was among the top 10 paid president in the whole nation! and the school I go to is a fairly medium size private university and i bet more than half of u guys never heard of my school.
but he was able to bring our school into top 100 university in the nation and lead our school to have one of the largest endowment fund ever in our school history!
I know his salary is set by the board of trustees.
I think if they have the ability and the university are willing to pay, i don't see a problem.
 
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What's sad is there's probably going to be no autopsy, since the Ft Lauderdale "Medical Examiner" is probably some elected political science major and not even an MD. The article hints at legal trouble, which may sometimes lead to a suicide. I wonder if she put in her advance directive that her body be used in the KCUMB anatomy lab?




(too soon?)
 
dannydickman said:
What's sad is there's probably going to be no autopsy, since the Ft Lauderdale "Medical Examiner" is probably some elected political science major and not even an MD. The article hints at legal trouble, which may sometimes lead to a suicide. I wonder if she put in her advance directive that her body be used in the KCUMB anatomy lab?




(too soon?)
Click to expand...

Too soon, indeed.
 
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