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(December 10, 2008) GH Chatter The “planegate” saga at USM is often a topic of conversation among CoBers and USMers alike. According to the chatter, those who missed the Dec-08 USM faculty senate meeting should take a listen to the podcast. Doing so promises to provide a clearer picture of just who new provost Robert Lyman is, and just how gullible some of USM’s faculty appear to be.

(December 11, 2008) CoB News, 11 December 2008 Regarding the lease of the USM Foundation’s plane to USM, which USM provost Robert Lyman told the USM faculty senate would cost USM $800 per hour: “$800/hr? What a bargain! By the way, expedia.com shows a flight next Tuesday (return Wednesday) to Seattle, WA, from Hattiesburg/Laurel Airport for $417. What a savings!” “I . . . listen[ed] to the audio of Fac/Sen meeting. Very interesting. Summary: usm did ‘no prospective’ analysis. They simply thought it was a good idea and were shooting from the hip. USM's Foundation is a profit center that feeds off of USM as a captive customer. That seems to contradict the mission of the Foundation. Provost [Lyman] reveal[ed] himself as an ****. Faculty asked excellent questions.”

(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.”

(February 3, 2009) 31st & Pearl A Spoonful of Budget Cuts Helps ECO Go Down There are .. . . no sacred cows. when it comes to cutting USM.s budget, or at least that's what USM provost Robert Lyman told the USM Faculty Senate in late Jan-09. One of those cows, according to Lyman, is academic programs, and as far as academic programs go, the CoB's economics major is one of the more bloated the institution has ever known. About a dozen faculty for the dozen or so economics majors -- it doesn't get any fatter than that. And it's not just the inflated faculty ranks in ECO, it's also the salaries there.

(February 5, 2009) CoB News, 5 February 2009 Grim and Grimmer In his 3-Feb-09 article in The Student Printz entitled “Faculty Senate planning for cuts,” TSP reporter Andy Hess spells out in detail just how “grim” the budget situation facing USM (and the CoB) really is.