Flowergate, landscapegate – I’ve heard both terms over the past year at Mississippi State referring to two different university presidential “scandals.”
The first and easily most notable is the daffodil scandal that was started by former President [Robert] “Doc” Foglesong.
The second, the least notable, has to do with former Interim President Vance Watson doing illegal landscape work with university employees and equipment at [College Board Commissioner] Thomas Meredith’s house.
Let’s look at both of these. One of them is a guy micromanaging the flowerbeds on campus; the other one is just flat out wrong.
Most of you remember when State students rose up in arms to oppose Foglesong’s removal of some daffodil bulbs. Foglesong claimed it was so they could be saved and replanted in different flowerbeds later. However, a group of students started a Facebook group called “Save the MSU Daffodils!” that grew by the thousands. It soon turned into a vehicle for Foglesong bashing and began calling for his immediate removal from office.
I’m not writing to try to open that argument back up. In fact, quiet the opposite. I got really tired of all that. I’m writing because I want to know where Dr. Watson’s Facebook group is. Where is the “Watson, Be Reasonable” group? Where is the “Hey Vance, Come Landscape My Yard!” group? Why don’t students seem to care as much that our interim president did something unethical and immoral? Why don’t students seem to care that it involved the IHL commissioner? Why was Foglesong attacked on Facebook and Watson was not?
I think Foglesong was attacked like that because he made himself very visible and, therefore, an open target. If you live in a fishbowl, more people can see everything you do. However, if you tend to sit up in the golden palace of the sixth floor and not make yourself too visible, no one has a reason to dislike you.
I had to hear more about Foglesong and the stupid daffodils via Facebook and word of mouth than anywhere else. I only hear about Watson from The Clarion-Ledger and The Reflector. Not many students seem to care or even know about Watson’s case.
I hope that when our next president is chosen, he will be looked at fairly. I hope that people won’t judge him too quickly (something like the daffodils) or pass over stuff that is a big deal (something like landscaping the IHL commissioner’s yard).
Mostly, I hope our next president doesn’t get involved in anything landscape-related at all. I don’t know if I can take much more of this.
Owen McGuire is a senior majoring in communication. He can be contacted at [email protected].