By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
Missouri Western State University has postponed its 27th annual Convocation on Critical Issues due to concerns stemming from the coronavirus pandemic.
The convocation, scheduled for October the first featuring former acting CIA Director Michael Morell, will be postponed for nearly a full year to September 30th of 2021.
Missouri Western President Matt Wilson says officials just couldn’t see a way around social distancing requirements to hold the convocation on the St. Joseph campus this year.
“The way that we do that is in closed quarters in our arena and it really is a packed house. We have people not only in the bleachers, but on the floor,” Wilson tells host Barry Birr on the KFEQ Hotline. “In talking through that, we’re like that’s just too many people in a close proximity.”
Wilson says it made sense to postpone it until next year.
This is only the second time the convocation has been scrapped. In 1995, scheduled speaker Colin Powell bowed out as he considered a run for president. Powell eventually decided not to run and returned to be the convocation speaker in 1997.