weekly_report_05_15

Investiture: What does it mean? Of USM's New President?
Celebration of first among equals? In times past, maybe. Today, it is a declaration from the powers that be. You must obey. You must not speak truth. You must understand your place in the commercial standards that are dictated from the IHL. You are no longer a member of an academic community that practices academic integrity.

Diversity: Why is it so poorly understood? Get a good idea why diversity is so poorly understood by reading "How Do You Measure Diversity?" by Jonah Newman, Chronicle of Higher Education, May 5, 2014. Diversity with regard to race and gender is incomplete. Woefully incomplete.

Academic Corruption You've Seen This Kind of Dishonesty Locally Take a look at "UCLA Professor Blows Whistle on Illegal Admissions Practices at University," Larry Elder, May 08, 2014 Consider an excerpt: "But perhaps more interesting than the data and statistical analyses is Groseclose's documentation of the suspicious ways that UCLA faculty and senior officials reacted when he asked for the data...".

Dear usmnews.net I wonder if any of the legion of administrators at USM have the self knowledge to realize they are superfluous? From Professor David Graeber at the London School of Economics:

Our Very Own Intolerant ..and Corrupt Academicians See, "The Closing of the Collegiate Mind," May 11, 2014, The Wall Street Journal. An interesting read. University of Southern Mississippi administrators and ally faculty can take comfort that they are right in tune with other intolerant and corrupt universities and colleges.

Surprised by New Book, New Allegations? Take a look at a report from Inside Higher Education titled New Book, New Allegations by Colleen Flaherty You shouldn't be surprised. When an accrediting organization defends, condones, and supports plagiarism, i.e., copying "without proper citation,"-the language of defense of plagiarism in the reports cited below-you get the idea that plagiarism has gone mainstream.

Stupid small stuff Harbinger of stupid big stuff What the folks at Big Gold Nation are saying: "SouthernMiss.com is as bad a web site as I have seen. I'm not saying this to bash the school, I'm saying it because it is an embarrassment to the school. You can't see parts of it because of the banner adds, and then you can't navigate it because it lags so badly. It's just plain STUPID...".

Updated 20-May-2014 Aunt Martha’s Coaches Did Saunders Lose the Magic Touch? Or, Did She Ever Have It? After the University of Wisconsin at Whitewater won the Division III national championship in 2007, former USM President Martha Saunders blogged that during the 2006-07 academic year while Chancellor at UW-W she had hired the first-year coach who led UW-W to the title.

Updated 20-May-2014 HELP WANTED A Look at Business Dean Openings from Around the Country With four current/former CoB deans moving around in the academic world, some USMNEWS.net readers have requested an ongoing report that tracks current b-school dean openings. Long-time readers of USMNEWS.net are aware that Faye Gilbert is the current dean of the CoB, having replaced Lance Nail, who is now the business dean at Texas Tech University

Updated 20-May-2014 Will 2013-14 be a Banner Year? During the 2012-13 academic year, USMNEWS.net staff followed the progress of USM's athletics. As you can see, the Golden Eagles sports units won only 40.8% of their contests (i.e., 200.5 wins, incl. ties, in 492 contests) during 2012-13, a result representing anything but a “banner year.”

"Stupid is as stupid does" Forrest Gump In the May 19, 2014 Chronicle of Higher Education, Arthur F. Kirk, Jr. tried to make the case that government is the cause of the increase in costs of higher education.

Lee Gore. Where You At? What You Up To? "...We have visitors, of course. Thousands and thousands of them. Recently, there's interest in Mr. Gore coming from Loyola University, New Orleans or is it that Mr. Gore is interesting in a position at Loyola? Let's make sure everyone has access to the most recent reports about Mr. Gore...".

Updated The BSD Pay Project A Compilation of the Salaries of Southern B-School Deans Recent reporting here at USMNEWS.net regarding the salaries of two former USM b-school administrators – Harold Doty, a former dean, and Farhang Niroomand, a former associate dean – has drawn interest among USMNEWS.net readers.

Are High-Sounding Words Meaningless? At The University of Southern Mississippi They Are Peter Schmidt reported in The Chronicle of Higher Education on May 29, 2014 that "U of Oregon's New Academic Freedom Policy Protects Student's and Staff." "'Members of the university community have freedom to address, question, or criticize any matter of institutional policy or practice,