John Jasinski has given several reasons over the years why his contract was not extended at his prior job but none have been the real reason — which was that he was not a good president, according to Jason Klindt, a regent on the Northwest Missouri State University Board of Regents.
Jasinski, the MSU provost, is one of three finalists to become the next president of Missouri State University. The other finalists are Roger Thompson and Richard “Biff” Williams, and now that interviews are completed, the Board of Governors is expected to make a decision soon on who will succeed Clif Smart as president. Follow all of our coverage of the search here.
The Hauxeda 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.
“I believe he has a problem with the truth,” Klindt said of Jasinski.
“We also kept losing top-quality staff,” Klindt said. “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. And so my view of it was it was time for a change. That's the simple reason why I voted the way I did.”
Fraternity house closing had nothing to do with it, Klindt says
Klindt said the reason Jasinski has recently been giving on why his contract was not renewed is “a new one,” and is not true and makes no sense.
Klindt spoke to the Hauxeda on Thursday, Feb. 29, and agreed to have the conversation recorded.
At least three times during the MSU presidential search interviews, Jasinski has pinned the reason for his departure on stemming from a 2015 closure of a fraternity house because of reported incidents of misconduct. The group involved was the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity at Northwest Missouri State in Maryville. According to a news story that appeared in the St. Joseph News-Press in 2015, there had been investigations into two alleged sexual assaults at the TKE house in Maryville.
Jasinski says that a person — who had been a member of that fraternity when they attended Northwest — years later sought a spot on the Northwest Board of Regents, and subsequently led the move to oust Jasinski.
Jasinski never named the former student in his public appearances.
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. He was appointed to the Board of Regents in 2018.
Klindt was one of four regents who voted not to extend Jasinski's contract. No one on the board in 2022 was on the board in 2015 when the fraternity was closed, he said. The topic of the fraternity was never discussed in deciding not to retain Jasinski, he said.
‘This is classic John Jasinski,' he says
“With respect to the fraternity, I can tell you with absolute certainty that in my entire time on the board, this was never a topic of discussion,” Klindt said. “It wasn't a controversial decision, frankly. In fact, there wasn't even a single member of the board that was serving at that time. I doubt other board members are even aware of it. It's just a total red herring.
“This is classic John Jasinski, whenever he doesn't get his way he makes up a new narrative that casts himself as the victim, regardless of the facts,” Klindt said.
“I knew John, and I liked John,” Klindt said. “I wouldn't say we were friends, but I knew him and we were certainly friendly acquaintances. But my opinion of him went steadily downhill as I observed his leadership style with other people.”
Klindt said Jasinski would consistently say one thing to a specific group and something else to a different group.
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“I've heard various different theories that he's espoused as to why his contract wasn't renewed,” Klindt said. “And so this is just kind of part and parcel of those. He's always a victim. And there's always some sort of grand conspiracy that was out to get him when the truth is much simpler. He simply has a poor relationship with the truth in my judgment. I think his leadership and management style was causing people to leave.”
Klindt was asked to provide the name of someone who left Northwest because of Jasinki's management style. He did not.
He was asked to provide an example of when Jasinski was untruthful — in addition to his own belief that Jasinski has not been truthful about why he was not retained.
Klindt said Jasinski has not been entirely truthful when he talks about Northwest's enrollment gains.
Klindt said Northwest hired a company to provide online courses to graduate students. He said the company kept half the tuition and — because the courses were online — the university received no revenue from room and board.
“Our campus enrollment was actually declining,” Klindt said. “Any college town depends on having kids on campus.
“John wouldn't acknowledge that. He was more interested in putting out a press release about record enrollment and ignoring what was happening on campus that was putting our university in danger,” he said. “Our faculty couldn't understand why we had record enrollment, but there was no money to spend. And so it was a lie by omission.”
Klindt said that in 2020 the board told Jasinski that his extension to 2022 would be the final one.
“It was supposed to be a win-win; he'd go out on a high note, and we get to pick a new leader. At the end of that two years, he came back and asked for a new two-year contract.”
No one from MSU has contacted him during presidential search
Klindt said that he has declined to talk publicly about why Jasinski was not retained at Northwest, but when he heard Jasinski was saying he was not retained because of the closure of the fraternity he had to speak out.
“You can't let your name get dragged through the mud, and enough is enough,” Klindt said. “I just want it noted that the first time you (the Hauxeda) reached out to me, I declined to speak to you. Because I didn't think it smart to go through. But he's the one that has caused me now to believe that I can't sit back and allow him to spin a narrative that is completely false.”
Klindt said no one from the Missouri State presidential search committee and no one from the Missouri State Board of Governors has contacted him about why Jasinski was not retained.
To the best of his knowledge, he added, no one else who voted to let Jasinski go has been contacted by Missouri State either.
“I would encourage them to do a deep dive,” he said.
Jasinski was hired as interim provost in July 2022 primarily on the recommendation of MSU President Clif Smart. Jasinski quickly became provost.
