miscellaneous30

(May 17, 2009) Who's On First? The Latest Comparison of USM and WCU A number of reports here at USMNEWS.net have delved into institutional comparisons of one sort or another. One recent theme has been the comparison of the business schools at the University of Houston – Victoria and the University of Texas – Tyler, the current professional homes of former CoBers Farhang Niroomand and Harold Doty, respectively. These two individuals recently became deans at these respective institutions. This particular report compares Hattiesburg's two main institutions of higher education – USM and William Carey University.

(May 18, 2009) Save the Date In and Around USM’s College of Business With summer 2009 approaching, the central administration at USM has released the dates for summer preview sessions. According to usm.edu, these are:

(May 21, 2009) Dear USM news, I am hoping you can print this letter anonymously. I could run into some trouble with certain members of my discipline in the COB otherwise. That is because I can tell you that [EFIB chairman] George Carter told an assembled group of COB faculty back in May of 2007 that USM news had run its course and it had nothing further that could threaten the "cushy existence" (my words) that COB administrators had built for themselves.

(June 5, 2009) The Games A USMNEWS.net source once stated that if you want to go to a serious institution of higher education, you have to go to one that was founded before the 20th Century. That is because colleges and universities founded after that time were basically desired and set up by local politicians as economic development projects, in order to provide (somewhat) recession-proof industry to areas that could use some economic assistance.

(June 30, 2009) GH Chatter CoB faculty and staff can't help but chat these days about all the changes happening in and around Joseph Greene Hall. Vending machines and an eating area are going in just outside of the School of Accounting office, while new accounting director Skip Hughes is now moving in.

(July 6, 2009) New Era Dawns With all of the crises (e.g., budget, numerous interim administrators) facing USM these days, one hardly noticed that the calendar turned on July-09 at midweek last week and that the "new CoB" was born. Gone is the CoB that former associate CoB dean Farhang Niroomand told the world, or at least all of the colleges and universities he applied to during the past 18 months, he alone created. Yes, 1-July-09 ushered in the "new [Lance] Nail CoB," complete with about twice as many departments as the old version headed by former CoB dean Harold Doty. There were no parades or fireworks, just new administrators, like Kirby "Skip" Hughes in accounting, moving into their new suites.

(July 14, 2009) The CoB's New BEDS Reporters at USMNEWS.net have noted time and again that the CoB's webpages have failed to note the presence of new faculty members since 2008 (and partially since 2007). Again, as of 14-July-09 there is no evidence of new CoB faculty like Barry Cumbie (MIS), Deniz Gevrek (ECO), Bret Becton (MGT), or Jamye Foster (MKT), etc. Not only that, CoB dean Lance Nail's "Dean's Message" has yet to be uploaded, despite Nail having been on board since 1-July-08.