U.S. Sen. Eric Schmitt, a Republican, posted on X (formerly Twitter) March 1, that John Jasinski, provost at Missouri State University, should not become the university's next president.
In his post, Schmitt shared a story from the Springfield News-Leader, which followed an earlier story published by the Hauxeda.
Jasinski is one of three finalists to become the next president of Missouri State University. He was president of Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville from 2009 to 2022, when his contract was not renewed.
A regent at Northwest Missouri State University said in a Daily Citizen interview Feb. 29 that Jasinski “has a problem with the truth” and that Jasinski gave a false reason why his contract was not renewed at Northwest in June 2022.
The Daily Citizen reached out to Jasinski for comment, but Suzanne Shaw, vice president for marketing and communications, said that Jasinski would not be available for comment on March 1.
The other finalists to succeed Clif Smart as president are Roger Thompson and Richard “Biff” Williams, and now that interviews are completed, the Board of Governors is expected to make a decision soon. Follow all of our coverage of the search here.
Jasinski has said he was released because in 2015 he shut down a campus fraternity
During the MSU presidential search, Jasinski has said at least three times that he was not retained because he shut down a fraternity on campus in 2015 and that the action eventually led to his ouster.
Jason Klindt, a current regent on the board, said the fraternity closure had nothing to do with the decision to release Jasinski and the real reason was that Jasinski did a poor job as president.
He told the Hauxeda:
“We also kept losing top-quality staff. It pointed to a leadership and management issue. So when I asked folks who were leaving about it, I was told that it was a toxic work environment by one.”
Klindt earned a bachelor’s degree in public relations at Northwest in 1999 and a Master of Business Administration degree from the university in 2002. He was a member of Tau Kappa Epsilon as a student, which was the fraternity shut down several years after he graduated. He was appointed to the Board of Regents in 2018.
Klindt was one of four regents who voted in 2022 not to extend Jasinski’s contract.
Klindt was once a spokesman for GOP congressman Sam Graves
A story in the Springfield News-Leader quoted not only Klindt but also former Northwest Regent John Moore, who also said the shut down of the fraternity had nothing to do with the decision to oust Jasinski.
Klindt also appeared as a guest Feb. 29 on the Elijah Haahr radio show “Keeping Watch Over the Ozarks.” Haahr is a former speaker of the Missouri House. His show is on KWTO, 93.3 FM and 560 AM.
Haahr, like Schmitt, is a Republican.
Klindt has strong ties to the Republican Party in Missouri.
Klindt currently is senior director of external affairs at Evergy, an electric company in Kansas City. But previously he was a spokesman many years for Republican Congressman Sam Graves, of the Sixth District in northern Missouri.
Klindt also worked for Axiom Strategies in Kansas City, a GOP political consulting firm founded by Jeff Roe and noted for its hardball campaign tactics.
