weeklyreports_04_10

2012 NCAA Basketball Tournament Central Issue 6, 10-April-2012 March Madness, YouTube Style The scandal surrounding the USM pep band’s racist chant near the end of the Eagles’ loss to Kansas State in the 2012 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament is receding a bit. Still, videos of the public relations disaster remain on YouTube, and view counts related to these continue to rise.

... breaking news ... breaking news ... Wiesenburg Named New Provost at USM HATTIESBURG – According to a report on 10-Apr-2012 from The Hattiesburg American, the Martha Saunders administration of USM has named USM vice president for research and interim provost, Denis Wiesenburg, as the new permanent USM provost.

Report Says Eustachy Leaving USM ESPN Sources Indicate that USM Head Coach to Become Next Coach at Colorado State ESPN college basketball analyst Andy Katz is reporting that USM head basketball coach Larry Eustachy will soon become the next head basketball coach at Colorado State University. According to Katz’s sources in the college basketball world, a press conference will be called for 12-Apr-2012

Martha’s Podium An Editorial Cartoon Series from USMNEWS.net, part 15 I have listened, and responded, to critics who did not want me to wait until summer 2012 to initiate a national search for a new provost. Today, I am happy to announce that interim provost Denis Wiesenburg will become our new provost. Thus, I have also eliminated the need for an ad in The Chronicle of Higher Education.

2011 Costs and Uses of King Air N777AQ, part 9, What Good Is This? Our news in this series continues with records recently received from USM via open records requests. This report is entitled "What Good Is This?" for good reason. What good does an obscure public relations award do to advance the education of USM students?

Eustaychying No Longer USM BASKETBALL COACH BOLTS FOR COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY University administrators at Colorado State University introduced Larry Eustachy – now the new head basketball coach at CSU – to Rams fans and various media gathered on the Fort Collins campus on 12-Apr-2012. As part of the introduction, Eustachy delivered an opening statement to media and CSU faithful, the whole of which is inserted at the end of this report. In that statement, Eustachy introduces three staff members from USM.

IS COPYING BUREAUCRATIC BOILERPLATE PLAGIARISM? I recently took the opportunity to recount a practical experience with a university ombudsman. An article in The Chronicle of Higher Education, "How dare you question my integrity," provided the impetus. I began by offering the author the following: "Good advice, but a caution seems appropriate. The belief that "investigators" will "ask intelligent questions" is subject to the political influence an investigator [an Ombudsman, in this example] accepts.

Dear usmnews.net, It’s good to know that Martha Saunders thinks its okay to suspend faculty based on accusations of being dangerous, but doesn’t seem to care what fellow administrators say or do.

Martha’s Podium An Editorial Cartoon Series from USMNEWS.net In order to deal with upcoming budget issues without firing more faculty, we will be holding a yard sale on the lawn of the AKLB. Several items have been made available, like the audio recording equipment the faculty senate once used to record meetings for the public, and some of the brass instruments surrendered as a result of the pep band’s racist behavior during the NCAA tournament. Please get the word out around town.

Trifling Title IX ANOTHER LOOK AT ATHLETICS MANAGEMENT AT USM The USM football and men’s basketball teams enjoyed unprecedented success during the 2011-12 academic year. The football team, under the leadership of Larry Fedora, won 12 of 14 games, including a victory over Nevada in the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl in Dec-2011. Under Larry Eustachy, the men’s basketball team compiled a 25-9 record and received the program’s first invitation to the NCAA tournament in 20 years. Still, success in these two sports came at a cost, as both coaches departed USM for other venues.

Colleges Need To Do More To Cut Costs A January 30, 2012, Chronicle of Higher Education report is worthy of review and comment: "College Officials Welcome Obama's Focus on Higher-Education Costs, but Raise Some Concerns."

Is Texas Too Big for Doty? A Guest Column from C. Anna Hall Here’s a little something to think about as we wait for new word from former CoB dean Harold Doty’s 2011-12 job searching. Texas is too big for Doty, at least judging by the data from USMNEWS.net’s BSD Pay Project, which lists the current salaries of business school deans throughout the South.

Updated 24-April-2012 Aunt Martha’s Coaches Has Saunders Lost the Magic Touch? Or, Did She Ever Have It? After the University of Wisconsin at Whitewater won the Division III national championship in 2007, 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. Apparently, Saunders believed that much of credit for the UW-W national championship was due to her special talents at selecting coaches.

Second Harassment Complaint Filed Against Hammond HATTIESBURG – Well into the evening of 24-Apr-2012 The Hattiesburg American is reporting that a second harassment complaint has been filed against USM interim athletics director Jeff Hammond. This time another female administrator, senior associate athletic director Sonya Varnell, has filed a complaint with the Mississippi Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against Hammond,

Showing the Way An Editorial from Susan Green-Lewis Diane Stark and Sonya Varnell, one a former associate athletics director at USM and the other a current associate athletics director at USM, have filed complaints with the Mississippi Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The complaints allege that interim USM athletics director, Jeff Hammond, verbally harassed them on the job on multiple occasions over the past few months.

Martha's Podium, An Editorial Cartoon Series from usmnews.net In response to my recent announcement regarding modifications to the USM Beechcraft King Air, VPAA Chad Driskell commissioned this concept structure. It’s a small single-wide that professors in our polymer science department are working to construct an attachment mechanism for, and that we hope to install atop the plane sometime this summer.

The Intolerance at the University of Southern Mississippi is No Mystery An April 17, 2012, Chronicle of Higher Education article, "Studying Bioethics at Scandal-Plagued Universities," by Carl Elliott is must reading for anyone interested in science, ethics, and the behavior of university administrators and faculty.

Dear usmnews.net, When I read your report Closing in on Big Donations, Again?, I was reminded of an earlier report about Dr. Saunders' trip to Los Angeles. Was this the same trip? Was there any return on the whopping cost of her trip?

EaglePost, Thank You for the Opportunity We welcome visitors from EaglePost, among them NutJob-Juggernaut and FingerYouTheFinger-GooGooGooJoob. You asked about J. Robert Coltharp's dog attack. Let me help you with what happened.

Martha's Podium, An Editorial Cartoon Series When I saw this photo of the space shuttle being flown to Washington, D.C. on the back of a passenger jetliner I immediately tasked USM VPAA Chad Driskell with looking into how we can modify the USM Beechcraft King Air.

updated Will 2011-12 be a Banner Year? During the 2010-11 academic year, USMNEWS.net staff followed the progress of USM's athletics.

Gypping MBA Students Hey, Who Cares? The Chronicle of Higher Education published an opinion piece on April 19, 2012 by Milton Greenberg entitled "Accreditation and Faculty." Mr. Greenberg admonished readers that "more faculty members should participate in the routines and procedures of accreditation practices...".

President Martha Saunders Resigned this Morning. What Happened? President Martha Saunders resigned this morning. The question on everybody's mind: What happened? An experienced university administrator, one who is quite familiar with Saunders, commented to usmnews.net on her resignation: "A president usually announces that they are leaving a year in advance to allow time for a search and to make the transition. They literally told her to get out by sundown. Retiring presidents usually do not return to the faculty. They just leave, and her body language and remarks shows that she was forced out."

. . breaking news . . . USM President Martha Saunders Resigns Suddenly HATTIESBURG – A press conference was hastily called for the morning of 27-Apr-2011 on the campus of USM, and when the media and other interested parties arrived, they were greeted by USM president Martha Saunders, Mississippi IHL Commissioner Hank Bounds and IHL Board President Ed Blakeslee.

USM Interim AD Outs Financial Crisis Amidst Controversy Surrounding Saunders’ Resignation, AD Goes Public with Some Sordid Details Mere minutes after the 27-Apr-2012 announcement from USM president Martha Saunders that she is resigning, effective 30-June-2012, her post as USM president, the Saunders-appointed USM interim athletics director, Jeff Hammond, aired the USM athletics department’s proverbial dirty laundry by providing to The Hattiesburg American some of the details of an ongoing financial crisis in his unit. department.

Special Report Some Faculty React Bizarrely to Saunders’ Sudden Resignation . . . Maybe A number of USMNEWS.net followers have recognized that comments on Martha Saunders’ sudden resignation as USM president on 27-Apr-2012 seem bizarre, and that the behavior of faculty senate president Timothy Rehner leads the way in that charge.

an update to Dear usmnews.net: I appreciate your report about the reactions of USM faculty to Martha’s [Saunders] resignation yesterday [as USM president]. Your report actually missed commenting on [USM political science professor] Kate Greene’s comments. She told The Hattiesburg American “I am very sorry about this” in responding to the situation. I, for one, can’t believe Dr. Greene took very well Saunders’ attempt to fire almost 50 faculty to deal with the budget cuts a few years back. Greene also took on, publicly at that, Saunders’ decision to criminalize the “Impeach Saunders”campus.

Students, You May Not Pay Much Attention To Detailed Reports About USM Administrators Squandering Your Money, But I Bet USM Gets Your Attention When Administrators Increase Your Tuition And Fees. Now, Maybe You'll Be Motivated To See Why Your Tuition And Fees Increase.

31st & Pearl Circling the Wagons Noticed how the Martha Saunders administration is turning inward in filling high-level administrative positions at USM? The most recent example is the naming of Steven Moser to serve as the new dean of the College of Arts & Letters. Prior to having that position, Moser was interim dean. Before that, he was the associate dean of the CoAL.

Hammond Fires Shot at Giannini, then Calls for Civility by Duane Cobb USM interim athletics director Jeff Hammond’s 27-April-2012 call for a return to civility in the USM family seems a bit hollow coming directly after he publicly rebuked his predecessor, former USM athletics director Richard Giannini, for creating what is being referred to as a financial crisis in excess of $1 million in that USM division. According to Hammond, the $1 million hole that became public yesterday, amid the sudden resignation of USM president Martha Saunders, was created by mismanagement and a lack of accountability under Giannini.

Retired USM Prof Breathes Reality into Chaos at USM PARKER EXPLAINS HOW SAUNDERS’ DECISIONS WERE NOT ALL GOOD Retired USM political science professor Joseph Parker told The Hattiesburg American’s higher education reporter Ed Kemp that not everything that occurred during the Martha Saunders administration (2007-12) at USM was positive. Parker’s USM career began in 1974, and he has seen many USM administrators come and go.

Who’s Next? Predictions from a USMNEWS.net Reader With the Southern Miss community dealing with the surprise resignation of President Martha Saunders, now is a good time to begin preparing for the next President of the university. This column offers a list of potential successors to Saunders, in no particular order of course. Frances Lucas The campus community has expected this one for many years, going all the way back to the before the Shelby Thames administration. Then Frances Lucas was President of Millsaps College in Jackson, but her father, Aubrey Lucas, had served for many, many years as Southern Miss President.