The Star’s UMKC stories up for Loeb Award

The Kansas City Star’s investigation that turned up irregularities in the rankings at the University of Missouri-Kansas City’s business school has been named a finalist for a national Gerald Loeb Award issued by the University of California-Los Angeles Anderson School of Management.

“A Misleading March to the Top” was chosen in the local category along with three other finalists. The winners in that category and 10 others will be announced at an awards banquet June 23 in New York.

Stories by Mike Hendricks and Mará Rose Williams found a pattern of exaggerations and misstatements aimed at boosting the reputation of the Henry W. Bloch School of Management. Gov. Jay Nixon requested an audit; it confirmed The Star’s findings and led to UMKC losing four year’s worth of Princeton Review rankings and the resignations of two faculty members.

A No. 1 ranking for the school’s entrepreneurship program also was called into question.

The package was a finalist last month in the Education Writers Association contest.

This story was originally published May 14, 2015 at 12:35 PM with the headline "The Star’s UMKC stories up for Loeb Award."