UMKC Rankings Issue Prompts Another Resignation

Less than a week after the resignation of the top official embroiled in the controversy over the Bloch School of Management’s rankings for entrepreneurial education, a second faculty member has resigned.

UMKC announced this afternoon that John Norton had resigned as associate director of the Regnier Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, effective March 15. Norton, a professor at the Bloch School, had previously worked for former institute director Michael Song, who resigned last week following a move by the Princeton Review to withdraw its rankings that put UMKC in the Top 25 for undergraduate and graduate entrepreneurial instruction. A separate publication, the Journal of Process Improvement Management, had placed the Bloch School at No. 1 in its rankings.

In a statement issued by the university, Norton said that he remained “as passionate as ever about teaching entrepreneurship and innovation to our excellent Bloch School students, but I have reached the conclusion that my role in events of recent weeks may distract from that mission. It’s critical to students and the community that this excellent program be able to move forward and continue fostering the growth of entrepreneurship education.”

The university’s release said that Bloch School Dean David Donnelly agreed that the step was in the best interest of the program and the university.