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(August 10, 2008) Textbook Bad Press CoB Once Again Finds Itself in Middle of an Ill-Timed Controversy "Outraged yet resigned to the inevitable, [USM] students will shell out big bucks this week for textbooks that they probably can't sell back." With this quote, the higher education reporter for The Hattiesburg American, Valerie Wells, began her 10-Aug-08 article entitled, "Fingers pointed as price of books continues to rise." According to Wells' article, textbook prices have risen "an average of 6 percent per year," and they "nearly tripled from December 1986 to December 2004."

(August 12, 2008) Do You See What I See? by Joe Hall Valerie Wells’ 10-Aug-08 news item for The Hattiesburg American entitled “Fingers pointed as price of books continues to rise,” and the related USMNEWS.net essay, Textbook Bad Press, are already raising some eyebrows across the USM campus. As stated in an editorial in the 12-Aug-08 issue of The Hattiesburg American, “[a] number of pernicious trends are at work to keep textbook[. . . prices] at almost ridiculous levels . . .”

(September 11, 2008) Special Report The 4 "Ds" CoB Administration Stipends, 2008-09 Two veteran CoB faculty took on important administrative posts to begin the 2008-09 academic year. These are Donna Davis, professor of MIS, and David Duhon, professor of MGT. Davis assumes the role of Interim Director of Graduate Academic Services, while Duhon has accepted the position of Interim Chair of the MGT & MKT department. With these two appointments, both of these CoB faculty were moved from 9-month contracts to 12-month contracts. At the same time, their "annual" compensation figures rose.

(September 11, 2008) Help a Guy Out 10 Retirements that Would Make the CoB Better and Nail’s Job Easier by Duane Cobb To hear some tell it, by accepting Martha Saunders’ invitation to govern the CoB, new dean Lance Nail has walked into a snake pit-like situation. Though the problems in USM’s business school are both vast and deep, they are not insurmountable. However, Nail’s job would be made a lot easier if a number of CoB faculty who are thought to be in the “retirement window” would sign the necessary PERS acceptance papers and exit stage left. This essay lists the top 10 CoB faculty fitting this description. It provides some narrative as to why these ten were both chosen and ordered as they are here.

(October 30, 2008) When a Rose is a Weed For the last several months Donna Davis had been telling any and every person she encountered that she was working on stuff but she was retiring June30th. Most people nodded and went on their way knowing the lack of truth in her statement. She has been saying this for at least 5 years. The problem is not that what she says and what she does are not the same – that is common in the JAG; the problem is she has been collecting perks and other goodies for years based on that.