[Keep in mind that in this post, Wylie is the newspaper editor from Oologah and Wiley is the president of RSU.]

In Googling around, one can find that an editorial by John Wylie, publisher and editor of the Oologah Lake Leader newspaper, was named to the 2007 Golden Dozen (apparently finalists from which one is awarded the Golden Quill Award). This comes as no surprise to those who read the Leader. Wylie is one of precious few investigative journalists around this part of the state.

Well, it just so happens that the editorial for which Wylie won this honor is the one entitled, “Time to End the RSU War,” referencing the protracted legal battle that took place between Joshua Fellman and Rogers State.

In the editorial, Wylie states, in relevant part:

Now the battle has taken a truly ugly turn. New court documents depict President Joe Wiley and nine members of his staff as buffoons who make the Keystone Cops and The Three Stooges look dignified and respectable.

In 85 pages filed with the U.S. District Court in Tulsa, Fellman’s attorney describes steps Wiley & Co. went to avoid being served with court papers. The university president is depicted as driving across a lawn, leading a process server on a low-speed chase through Claremore, turning around in a nursing home parking lot, then sneaking through a back entrance to his office — where he locked himself in for over an hour. Hardly the kind of behavior one expects from the president of a major university.

The inconvenient coincidence lies in the fact that the awards were announced in the Summer 2007 Grassroots Editor (see page 14 of the PDF), the journal of the International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors (ISWNE). The Grassroots Editor is edited by Dr. Chad Stebbins, who is Executive Director of the ISWNE. Dr. Stebbins also happens to be with the Institute of International Studies at–of all places–Missouri Southern State University in Joplin, MO, the university that announced just this week that Joe Wiley of RSU is one of the two men being considered for the presidency of that university. If you click the link above to the Grassroots Editor, you will note that the newsletter is hosted on MSSU’s website.

Strange how things work out…