FRANCIS E. LAATSCH, CHAIR FINANCE, REAL ESTATE, AND
BUSINESS LAW
(January 24, 2008) Breaking News FIN Invites Laatsch HATTIESBURG – After having offers turned down by
candidates from Arkansas, Texas, and Ohio, the CoB’s finance faculty are going back to the (Ohio) well by inviting
a fifth candidate to campus. The most recent invitation goes to Francis Laatsch, a finance professor at Bowling
Green State University. Born in 1951, Laatsch (shown below) received his PhD in 1988 and joined the faculty at
BGSU that same year.
(June 5, 2008) CoB News, 4 June 2008 FIN Instruction Quality Profile Sinking A recent search of
www.ratemyprofessors.com reveals that incoming CoB Dean, Lance Nail, currently an associate professor of
finance at the University of Alabama -- Birmingham, is serious about quality instruction. Nail's RMP quality score
from UAB is a stout 4.2 (out of 5), easily placing him among the top 10 instructors in USM's CoB. However, as dean
of the CoB, Nail's impact on the quality of the CoB's instruction will not likely come from his participation in
teaching duties, at least not if one goes by the teaching habits of the CoB's previous two deans, William Gunther
and Harold Doty. Neither of these did much, if anything, in the way of instruction while dean.
(August 1, 2008) CoB News, 1 August 2008 What Beef does Carter have with Laatsch? A recent installment in the
Special Report series here at USMNEWS.net touched upon the fall 2008 teaching schedule that EFIB chair George
Carter delivered to new finance professor Francis Laatsch. As that report indicated, Laatsch will be teaching one
section of FIN 300, one section of FIN 310 and one section of REI 340 in his inaugural semester in the CoB. Sources
indicate that this schedule seems "out of bounds," and it is in no way congruent to the treatment that Carter has
extended to other new EFIB faculty. In particular, it does not match Carter's treatment of economist Akbar
Marvasti, whose academic career began around 1985, and who joined the CoB in August of 2006, more than 20
years after beginning his academic career.
(October 14, 2008) Special Report Hub FINs An Investigative Series on CoB Faculty Research Credentials With a
number of tenure and promotion decisions looming large in the finance section of the EFIB over the coming
months, USMNEWS.net reporters are taking a look at the quality of the economics and finance research coming
from the CoB’s FIN faculty.
(October 19, 2008) Special Report "Gappy" An Investigative Series on CoB Faculty Research Credentials This
installment in the Special Report series makes use of two of EFIB chairman George Carter's famous phrases.
These are "gappy" and "in print." The first is often used by Carter in describing holes in a particular faculty
member's publication record. The second is increasingly used by Carter to let young, untenured faculty
understand that only journal articles that have actually been published by a journal, not those that are "in press" or
"forthcoming," count toward tenure and promotion.