She has never studied anthropology. She has never done field work. She does not understand the people of Kansas and environs, and she never will. If you can make sense of this Kansas City Star commentary, which presents itself as a tribute to outgoing Kansas State president Jon Wefald, you’re a better man than I.
[A recently disclosed Kansas State University audit] paints Wefald, Krause and Snyder [background on these people here] as shady, clueless and drunk on power.
… My impression is that Wefald, Krause, Snyder and anyone connected to Kansas State athletics during the school’s “football powerhouse era” cashed in on the record and off. [Dump the quotation marks.]
Even Tim Weiser, who had little to do with the golden era, received a no-questions-asked $500,000 loan. Thirteen payments to Krause, Snyder, Weiser and others totaling close to $1 million cannot be accounted for or explained.
The $3 million secret buyout Krause agreed to give Ron Prince seems to be part of a pattern of financial mismanagement at K-State under Wefald’s presidency.
… “The Miracle in Manhattan” now has an enlightening postscript, “The Madoff in Manhattan.”
… My opinions of Jon Wefald and Bill Snyder have not changed. I respect them immensely. I’m astonished by their accomplishments. But I always regarded them as human and therefore flawed. Greed, arrogance and a sense of entitlement can invade their mind-set as easily as yours. [Yeah well. Here’s where I start getting all confused. I don’t claim to have an unimpregnable mind-set, but – as God is my witness! – my mind-set is set at an entirely different frequency from Bernard Madoff’s… So point one, if you’re saying any of us could do with money and power what Wefald and the others did, you can kiss my royal Irish arse. Point two, if you retain immense respect for mad arrogant fools who steal your tax money and make your university a national joke, you are pathetic.]
… I suspect the audit would’ve remained private had Wefald and Krause not renamed Snyder as head football coach on their way out the door. Re-installing Snyder as the unofficial president of the university was/is a serious impediment to Schulz. [Let’s pause right there. Did you get that? Did you get the point that at KSU the football coach is the real president of the university?]
… K-State’s athletic department has been completely out of control for years… [But so are you, Kansasfolk, so are you. At least the people of Romania finally found it in themselves to get rid of the Ceausescus. And, you know, you don’t see Romanians running around today still worshipping them and finding themselves astonished by their accomplishments…]
June 21st, 2009 at 9:04AM
I’m from Kansas. Don’t give up. Tell me what’s the matter with me.
June 21st, 2009 at 9:10AM
The Star is published in KC, MO, UD. Writing has not yet been discovered in KC, KS.
I won’t be mean to Kansas, anymore. I’ll save it for a state that everyone can despise, like Oklahoma.
June 21st, 2009 at 9:10AM
Bet you don’t live there anymore, francofou.
June 21st, 2009 at 9:57AM
I live in Kansas. Our outgoing chancellor has gone from editing books by Elizabeth Bishop to writing about the beneficial aspects of intercollegiate athletics. I hope I never fall that far.
June 21st, 2009 at 11:41AM
Sigh. Whitlock (author of the original piece) is actually a product of Indianapolis, not Kansas. We’re connected by one intervening link–he went to high school with a guy I knew in college. Anyway, he rather enjoys sticking a thumb in the eye of general opinion, but his views here are not because he’s gone native as a Kansan. He’s been quite free with his criticism of Kansas State in the past.
And based on my rather limited sample, general opinion is that Krause (author of the $3 million secret buyout) is an idiot, a crook, or an idiot crook.
Wefald is a more complicated story. Most would agree that he was obsessed with athletics, that his administration had a series of staggering blunders in the last few years, AND that he did an enormous amount to expand, improve, and publicize the academic offerings of the university. The man never rose to speak before an audience (athletic or otherwise) without noting that Kansas State has produced more Rhodes / Marshall / Truman scholars than any other public university. That’s what makes this whole sordid story so sad.
June 21st, 2009 at 4:46PM
There’s some corner of a foreign field that is for ever Kansas.
June 21st, 2009 at 4:55PM
Thought so.
June 22nd, 2009 at 7:05AM
We need the neuroscience types to do some serious science: what is going on when reasonably sane individuals become college presidents and transform themselves into raving enablers of athletic abuses?