weeklyreports_02_01

Editorial "Confessions of a Fixer " If you haven't read "Confessions of a Fixer," you've missed quite possibly the best investigative news report of the new year. An excerpt: "Over the past 14 years, he [Mr. White, "the Fixer"] says, he has used test keys to cheat for hundreds of athletes, helping them meet the eligibility requirements of the National Collegiate Athletic Association�his breaches illustrate the ease with which intercollegiate athletics can be exploited, its rules manipulated, and the inability of colleges and regulators to control it..."

Leadership Is Putting Students and Taxpayers First For many years, usmnews.net has reported recommendations that the IHL merge some of the colleges and universities in Mississippi. In this era of rising tuition and falling enrollment, it makes sense. Many of usmnews.net's readers have applauded the idea. Cut costs and improve the quality of education. A few have questioned whether Mississippi should undertake such an "untried" plan. However, the plan can no longer be considered untried.

Guest Editorial College Administrators Don't Need Social Media To Make Fools Of Themselves. They Are Quite Able To Do It All By Themselves. A recent Chronicle of Higher Education article offers guidance to college leaders who use or are thinking about using social media. "Fear of making a public misstep keeps many college leaders leery [of social media] � College leaders don't even have to be active on social media to go astray." Very public administrative mistakes are nothing new at Southern Miss.

Editorial IT TAKES A VILLAGE ... For those of you who don't read New York papers, I commend to you a recent New York Post article: The horrid truths we gladly let slide about these NCAA 'heroes'. The article begins, "It takes a village to make an idiot." The idiot(s) referred to are college football players. The village is made up of the administrators, faculty, coaches and boosters who enable them. Among the stories recounted in the article:

breaking news ... Hank Bounds to be Next President at Nebraska
The Omaha World Herald is reporting that Hank Bounds, Commissioner of Higher Education for the Institutions of Higher Learning in Mississippi will become the next president of the University of Nebraska.

Guest Editorial Investigate College Sports? Commentary in January 13, 2015, Chronicle of Higher Education is worth reading: Time for a Presidential Panel to Investigate College Sports. An excerpt: "Athletic departments are not profit maximizers. They are win maximizers. The coaches and the athletic directors, occasional lofty rhetoric to the contrary, get fatter and longer contracts when they win. Above all, that's what they are all about, even when it means trampling academic integrity and excellence."

Editorial Buy Low and Make a Fortune: What an Opportunity! USM football boosters and enthusiasts unite! Stop complaining about the poor administration of USM's football program. Pool your entrepreneurial talent and money and buy USM's football team. Move it TTT! What an opportunity! You could make a fortune and walk-the-walk�or is it walk-the-talk. Well, you know what I mean.

Dear usmnews.net, Please let me recommend the following article to your readers: The Long Con: Pricier Colleges Provide Better Education. The article concerns College Tuition: Four Decades of Financial Deception by Robert Iosue.

Editorial "A Nightmare of False Accusation That Could Happen to You..." Famed lawyer and Harvard professor of law, Alan M. Dershowitz, faced with allegations he had engaged in improper sexual conduct with a minor, unequivocally denied those claims both on television and the print media. A recent piece by him in The Wall Street Journal tells a terrifying story:

Dear usmnews.net, The word around the water cooler is that enrollment is going to drop again in 2015-16. How much will the drop be? It's hard to say, but most of us think it's going to be bad. The whisper campaign is that with the February cutoff for scholarship applications looming, there may not be enough qualified applicants to fill the available scholarships. Don't be surprised if the deadline is extended and the [$35] application fee is waived.

... breaking news ... Southern Miss Bans Itself from Post Season Basketball Competition Hattiesburg -- National and local sports news is reporting that Southern Miss' Basketball Eagles has voluntarily announced that it will not play in the Conference USA post season tournament or seek to be eligible for the NCAA tournament. In a tacit admission that the NCAA investigation of University conduct under former head coach Donnie Tyndall, Athletic Director Bill McGillis acknowledged,

EAGLE POST BLOGGERS CONTINUE TO BLAME SAUNDERS FOR SOUTHERN MISS SPORTS FAILURES As news of Southern Miss' self imposed ban from post-season basketball play continues to roil fans, bloggers once again blame former President Martha Saunders for the fallout.

Updated 23-January-2015 HELP WANTED A Look at Business Dean Openings from Around the Country With four current/former CoB deans moving around in the academic world, some USMNEWS.net readers have requested an ongoing report that tracks current b-school dean openings. Long-time readers of USMNEWS.net are aware that Faye Gilbert is the current dean of the CoB, having replaced Lance Nail, who is now the business dean at Texas Tech University. Another former CoB administrator, Farhang Niroomand, currently holds the dean’s post

UNC is the only school providing "paper classes" to its "student athletes." Sure. Have some more Kool-Aid, sport. Business Insider reports: "Two former University of North Carolina Chapel Hill student-athletes filed a lawsuit Thursday against their former school and the NCAA - the organization that governs college sports - claiming they were deprived of a 'meaningful education.' ... The scandal centers around so-called 'paper classes' - which typically never met and only required a final paper - that were offered through the African and Afro-American Studies (AFAM)

What good is an NCAA investigation of member misconduct? EaglePost reported today: "NCAA investigators in town by usmstud>> Tue Jan 27, 2015 6:28 pm Apparently to interview Eason and Suarez who were both excused from today's practice"

Dear usmnews.net, The situation with USM's basketball program looks to me to be very serious. Not only will it bite the program with probation, I think its tentacles may reach Tennessee and hit Tyndall with a "show cause" designation.

Editorial A Disgrace for a University In June, 2013, usmnews.netjec stating, "Looks like men's basketball is teetering on the edge of NCAA postseason requirements. Unless Tyndall can get the graduation rate up, there is no postseason for men's basketball moving forward."