If Karen Pletz is looking for a job, this University can probably help her out.

Pletz, is the former Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences president and former partner of University President Bruce Speck and the Board of Governors in the aborted effort to bring a KCUMB branch campus to Missouri Southern.  

Pletz was named in a 24-count federal indictment on March 31 alleging she embezzled more than $1.5 million from KCUMB, as well as made false statements on tax returns and laundered money.

As it turns out, embezzling money is no big deal if you want to teach accounting at Southern.

Just ask Norman Katz, the former accounting instructor here who was convicted of stealing more than $100,000 from a museum in Ohio before being hired.

Pletz, who joined Speck and the Board in essentially guaranteeing construction on a medical school at Southern would have started by now, was fired in December 2009 from KCUMB.

What if that project had moved forward, with Pletz’s signature on a contract, and construction was underway right now?

A certain creek comes to mind, with no paddle.