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(March 3, 2008) Meet Your Next Dean? A number of USMNEWS.NET readers have contacted us to predict that Danny Arnold, the Dean of Business at Frostburg State University, will become the fifth (permanent) business Dean in the history of USM's College of Business. According to sources, Arnold has a number of years in the PERS system in Mississippi, so a return to the Magnolia State would be financially rewarding for him in for a number of reasons. However, Arnold has made a previous attempt to become USM's business college Dean (late 1990s), but failed to gain the support of the central administration.

(March 11, 2008) Breaking News Economic Development Hits the CoB Where It Hurts HATTIESBURG – Based on information contained in Jana Bryant’s latest press release, USM’s economic development group is starting to hit the CoB where it hurts. According to Bryant’s 11-March-2008 presser (inserted below) entitled “Former Hanes Companies CEO to Receive Trent Lott Center Award from Southern Miss,” USM’s economic development group has awarded R. Philip Hanes, former CEO of Hanes Companies in North Carolina, the Trent Lott National Center of Excellence for Economic Development and Entrepreneurship Innovation Award. Hanes is set to receive the Award from former Mississippi Senator, Trent Lott, at a noon luncheon on 20-March-2008 (at the Bottling Company in downtown Hattiesburg).

(March 17, 2008) Special Report More Z, Y, X Publicity An Investigative Report on CoB Public Relations The Hattiesburg American's 15-March-08 story, "College takes over publication," shows just what can happen when THA allows press releases from USM to sit around for a while. Weeks ago the CoB issued a press release indicating that the Journal of Tourism was being incorporated in USM's Tourism Management department. The presser also stated that TM professor, Tony Henthorne, would be the lead editor, while TM visiting assistant professor, Babu George, would serve at the JoT's managing editor.

(March 23, 2008) On the Pascalau Curve A Brief Look at the Results of Razvan Pascalau's Grading Scale A number of reports here at USMNEWS.NET have discussed the CoB's learning deficiencies in managerial statistics. One of the most recent showed how the loose grading scale of new visiting instructor of economics, Razvan Pascalau, will contribute to masking learning deficiencies. This report provides an example of how grade point averages differ from a traditional grading scale (i.e., (A=90+, B=80-89, C=70-79, etc.) and Pascalau's grading scales. The example provided here comes from the winning percentages of USM's athletics programs, as found in the report entitled "Aunt Martha's 'Banner Year'." These are shown in Table 1 below, along with the traditional grades and the Pascalau grades.