financialissues22

(December 22, 2008) Top Stories of 2008 by Duane Cobb 9. Saunders Gives CoB $1 Million for Research -- Hoping to increase research output in the CoB, USM president Martha Saunders announced to the CoB that she will soon be providing new CoB dean Lance Nail with $1 million in new funds. Editorials here at USMNEWS.net, however, pointed out the inherent flaw in the idea. That is that Saunders will be providing thousands of dollars tempting CoBers to do the work that their 9-month base salaries are paid to them for doing.

(January 6, 2009) A 31st & Pearl Special Series The Gunther Standard A Look at How the CoB is Governed by Exceptions, not Rules As part of the CoB faculty, CoB economist William Gunther is as snug as a bug in a rug. And, why wouldn't he be? He carries a 2/2 teaching load as part of his directorship of the CoB's Bureau of Business & Economic Research. Not only that, the BBER itself is open only 9 months out of the year. Who knew the regional and national economies took summer vacations? Thirdly, Gunther has completely ignored academic research for much of his career, including his 1998-present stint at USM. That's correct -- WG has completely written off the 1/3 to 1/2 portion of the job that Mississippi taxpayers are paying him a cool $130,000 per year to perform.

(January 8, 2009) How to Improve the CoB in 2009 Here are some ways to improve the College of Business (CoB) at USM this year without having to spend much money.

(January 16, 2009) CoB News, 16 January 2009 “[A] festering wound that would not heal” The quote above is how USM provost Robert Lyman recently described the customized textbook scandal at USM – one that began a few months ago, but will not seem to go away. Lyman’s quote above was captured for Lesley Walters’ 13-Jan-09 news story for The Student Printz entitled “Custom textbooks hinder buybacks.”

(January 19, 2009) 10% Solution Suggested salaries to cover the next 10% CoB budget cuts: 1. Farhang Niroomand – reunited with Tim Hudson. 2. George Carter – if I cannot be chair, I will retire. 3. Roderick Posey – a waste at everything he has ever been a part of in the CoB. 4. Bill Gunther – his search for a new CoB building yielded as few results as the BBER has produced. If he ever had a prime, he passed it in Tuscaloosa. 5. Harold Doty – Syracuse reports he was a pitiful chair, while Hattiesburg can attest he did more harm in four years than others did in decades.

(December 4, 2008) CoB News, 4 December 2008 Textbook Scandal Still Pounding USM The textbook scandal at USM, which involves professors’ selection of various “customized textbooks” that differ little from standard versions, yet cost students more (ultimately) and kick back proceeds to USM’s various academic units, continues to pound away at USM’s reputation.