KIRBY "SKIP" E. HUGHES, PROFESSOR, DIRECTOR, SCHOOL OF ACCOUNTANCY
For more articles and editorials concerning Dr. Hughes, please click here.
(July 20, 2009) Another Do-Nothing CoB Administrator? During the Tyrone Black administration of USM's b-school, administrators developed teaching schedules/loads, handled accreditation duties, attended to students' needs, attended meetings, and taught courses. Since the Harold Doty administration (2003-07), administrator teaching has become a rarity, at least relative to the old days of Black.
(July 20, 2009) Skip's First Rodeo The first few weeks of the Skip Hughes administration of the CoB's School of Accountancy have made it clear that this is Skip's first rodeo. If he bothered to read any of the "Dear Skip" entries that were submitted to USMNEWS.net during the spring of 2009 there is little evidence (in his actions) of it.
(July 28, 2009) Inherited Legacy The recent re-running of the 5-July-07 report, Games People Play, about former SoA director Steven Jackson's double-counting highlights the legacy that new SoA director Kirby E. "Skip" Hughes (pictured below) inherited in July-09. Just what has Hughes done with this legacy since assuming the SoA reins a few weeks ago? His first official duty was to "reward" former SoA directors Robert Smith and Roderick Posey with larger, more secluded office spaces on the second floor of JAG. In providing such a reward, Hughes seems to be rewarding Smith's past double- and triple-counting, as reported in Double and Triple Counting in Accounting from the same spring/summer 2007 time period.
(August 3, 2009) Dear Skip: In addition to needing larger offices, you want to over-haul the accounting curriculum. That, unlike the offices, is long overdue. The theory of it is great, but I think you will find the practice of it is not. You have many old dogs that not only do not want to learn new tricks, but also are offended by your asking.
(August 4, 2009) Dear Skip: In this critical time of budget cutting and fiscal reduction, why do you have two people performing one job? You have Dr. Marc DePree at home researching and an instructor (or another professor) teaching the classes he should be teaching. Does that make sense? How can you justify this? Should the taxpayers of Mississippi be grateful that you, and your predecessors, did not hire a third person for the service component? Luckily the School of Accountancy as a whole has never been known for being service-oriented, so the lack of production in this area has not been missed.
(August 5, 2009) Dear Skip: Have you considered eliminating your abundance of instructors in favor of hiring a new tenure-track position? Some faculty members may have to teach a few more students, but since many of them are not doing much else, where is the harm?