Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Haynes Responds: Kennedy Manipulated Robb's Words

Former Mizzou College Republican President Nick Haynes responded to Nate Kennedy's letter to the editor of The Maneater with his own guest column.

Haynes claims that Kennedy lied by omission about Robb's position on four state universities. Kennedy claimed that Robb wanted to get rid of these universities. Haynes claims that Robb simply wanted to remove their status as a university, and downgrade them to a college.

So who's right? Both? Neither? One or the other?

There was a bit of a dialogue between Kennedy, Haynes and some others on Facebook about this topic. Young Democrats of Missouri President Rick Puig chimed in with this:
"First of all, Ed Robb DID make the following statement... 'There is no reason for some of these schools to exist. They are nothing more than glorified community colleges.' I took that statement down verbatim. If you want further confirmation, ask the Maneater reporter who was there. ..."
To which Haynes responded:
"... As with regards to his quote, he did say that, but Nate failed to highlight the context that Robb laid out. I don't have the exact quotes, but I do remember him asserting that they should not be considered universities. ..."
So what's the truth? At the very least Robb wants to remove the title of university from them. But he also wants to remove state funding from at least some of them (which would in effect eliminate them). So maybe they're both right. Or wrong.

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