Clarification on comments about Crowell

I would like to clarify my comments in the recent Southeast Missourian article, "Crowell fights against plan to give SEMO extra $2 million for funding equity."

There were several important context points that were not included regarding Sen. Jason Crowell's actions with respect to Southeast Missouri State University. I regret that my comments were not in the proper context because the impression given in the article regarding Crowell's stances on several issues relating to the university does not reflect what I attempted to communicate. While some may disagree with the senator on these or other issues, his positions are not arrived at lightly and his objections are based on principle.

For example, the article excluded context with regard to the business incubator. Specifically, the incubator was to be paid for through the Lewis and Clark Discovery Fund (money transferred from MOHELA) that has never materialized. Crowell objected to the reauthorization of all MOHELA-funded projects since the purported funding source had never materialized and there was no reason to believe that it would ever materialize. In the end only the Southeast business incubator was officially removed, but the larger point remains -- the reauthorization was meaningless because no funding has been realized for any of the unfinished MOHELA-funded projects.

There was principle behind the opposition to the River Campus financing plan as well. The university borrowed money to finance the project while pledging a state appropriation to retire the debt, and if that didn't occur, may have had to raise tuition to cover the obligation. Some legislators felt the plan unfairly placed the legislature in a corner -- either come up with the money to pay for the project or, failing to do so, potentially be held responsible for a tuition increase. As is often the case with complicated issues such as these, reasonable people on both sides disagreed on how to proceed. That disagreement is a normal part of the process and should not be taken as an indication that Crowell or those on the other side of the issue came to their positions arbitrarily.

Crowell has frequently made the extra effort to put his district's university's interest aside when there was a larger principle at stake and in each case that I mentioned he's done this openly and without apology. In that context, I stand by my quote that his actions are often in opposition to his university's interest and thus unusual among legislators.

Paul Wagner is the deputy commissioner for the Missouri Department of Higher Education in Jefferson City, Mo.