Dear Editor:
Regarding your article “No changes coming to Brown &Gold…yet” of March 22, the underhanded workings The College are starting to be revealed.
In the interests of an accurate record providing a full picture here is how it has gone down so far.
Brown and Gold was formed some 20 or 30 years ago and was ably run for many years by a board elected from the membership of Johnson County residents who are 55 or older. Those trusted servants labored honestly and earnestly to ever enhance the image of The College and provide a connection for seniors.
Suddenly and without any previous warning of displeasure, middle level bureaucrats fired the entire elected board. Students, take note, this would be akin to firing your Student Senate officers. Or those of any other club on campus.
The college replaced the board elected from the membership with an Advisory Board hand picked by the administration. Somewhat like replacing officers of, say, the Republican Club with a chosen few of their own.
Now, just a scant month or so before this mass firing, in a private meeting, President Calaway assured the President of Brown and Gold that the college loves the club, everything is “hunky-dory” and finances are not an issue. Or so she reported at the next meeting.
The dismissed board members felt rather dissed so they fought back and presented their case at a Board of Trustees meeting. After their presentations, President Calaway seized the floor to “explain” his decision. He claimed this was a “long time in coming” which seemed quite at odds with that very recent meeting with the B&G President. He mentioned a few other problems, receipts or something, but none that were ever brought to the board’s attention. His lynchpin reason was a botched Brown and Gold trip to Branson that forced him to act. A trip that occurred three weeks AFTER the board was fired. Smell fishy?
The hand-picked advisory board is now ready to jump, waiting only for Calaway’s instruction on “how high.” It appears the college wants to protect it’s $50 million reserve acount by not only raising tuition every few months, but also by charging seniors for sitting in classroom seats that would otherwise be empty. Can anything be more free? Watch carefully now as The College manufactures an expense out of those free seats; scholarships or something.
Ron Platt
Overland Park, Kansas 66210