financialsituation5

(August 14, 2009) Dear USM news, I have been following debates that our economics colleagues have been trying to engage the Southern Miss community in over at the USM Forum. There they are trying an emergency appeal to their Southern Miss comrades. Now they are over at some website called Econ Job Rumors, trying some sort of half-hearted appeal to a larger community, most of which could care less about Southern Miss. They are writing some pretty nasty things there about COB Dean Lance Nail and some of their other COB colleagues. It looks like this will be their tactic over the next year, which means that life in Greene Hall is going to be really ugly over the next several months.

(August 14, 2009) breaking news . . . Carter, Klinedinst Blast Nail, USM Administration HATTIESBURG – CoB economics professors George Carter and Mark Klinedinst have thrown down the gauntlet, accusing Lance Nail of targeting the CoB's economists, not just the CoB's economics programs. In an interview with INSIDE HIGHER ED's Jack Stripling about the recent elimination of USM's economics programs, for Stripling's 14-August-09 article entitled "Cruel Irony," Carter stated that due process has been denied to economics professors who were unrepresented on the budget committee and kept in the dark about its deliberations throughout the process. Not only that, in a letter provided by Carter to Stripling, Carter accuses the USM administration, including CoB dean Lance Nail, of targeting the economics program as "simply a subterfuge to replace existing faculty."

(August 15, 2009) 31st & Pearl Saunders Said "Cut," Not "Move" Amidst all the stinging comments the CoB's economists are now making about CoB dean Lance Nail and other members of the USM administration, it seems that they've come up with an alternative to the USM plan that has them all gone, along with the CoB's three economics programs. Interestingly, their proposal – to move the economics department into the CoAL – is not original. Nail and CoAL dean Denise von Herrmann had this idea several months ago. The problem is that the economists opposed it, as did von Herrmann's faculty in the CoAL. It would seem this alternative is a non-starter, and needs to go back into the drawer from whence it came.

(August 17, 2009) Shaking the Trees on USM's Budget Crisis If you're searching around for more news about the USM budget crisis, you're not likely to find any on the USM Faculty Senate's homepage. That's a real shame because the FS represents the faculty and is in a position to know more than the average USM constituent about what is going on around the USM campuses. One would think that there would be some sort of flashing bulletin(s) there, especially given that the FS felt the need to hold an emergency meeting on 22-July-09 to discuss the crisis. Apparently, this is wishful thinking.

(August 17, 2009) Even After Cuts, Economists Remain at USM A Special Report on the Elimination of the Economics Major Much has been made on various Internet sites about instruction of economics once the CoB's current crop of 9 tenure/tenure-track faculty have vacated their offices by 30-June-2010. Stories are being perpetuated, and proliferated, that USM will not be able to offer economics courses after 30-June-2010. Most of these, if not all, are believed to originate with the CoB's economists.