Reports for June 1, 2012 - June 22, 2012
usmnews.net
June 1, 2012
June 5, 2012
June 6, 2012
No Interdepartmental Invoice. Personal Use? Part 12 -- Costs
and Uses of King Air N777AQ Let's give Dr. Saunders the
benefit of all doubt. Assume negligent record keeping and
that the purpose of the flight really was USM business. Then
ask yourself what it would have cost to drive from Gulfport to
Madison and to Hattiesburg? A tank of gas? Why did
Saunders squander more than eleven thousand dollars of
student and taxpayer money when alternative transportation
would have cost students and taxpayers less than a hundred?
Dear usmnews.net, I've been in and around the academy for
many years. Used to be when an administrator was invited to
step down, the announcement said that he or she was
returning to their first love -teaching. We all knew it wasn't
true, because many administrators around schools like
Southern Miss, didn't like to teach or research.
June 8, 2012
Is the CoB’s SoA a Twilight Zone? A Guest Viewpoint The
USM business college’s (CoB’s) two newest accounting faculty,
Kirby “Skip” Hughes and Michael Dugan, were said to be
big-time researchers. Hughes came to USM from LSU, while
Dugan came in from Alabama – both top tier national
universities. However, a recent perusal of the CoB’s School of
Accountancy’s (SoA’s) new journal articles webpage reveals
that these two scholars are now publishing in the same types
of low-level journals in which so many of the CoB’s long-time
accountants have been, and are still, publishing. (Note from
the editor: The SoA publication record has not been updated
since 2010. Therefore, we must ask the question whether
anything has been published in the last year and a half to
justify an update.)
June 10, 2012
June 12, 2012
Godwin Named President of PHCC Former USM Vice
President back in Higher Education Administration
While USM president Martha Saunders is readying to
leave higher education administration, former USM vice
president for research, Angeline Godwin, is preparing to
re-enter that arena after being named as the new
president of Patrick Henry Community College in
Virginia.
31st & Pearl Back to Harold Now that current CoB
dean Lance Nail is off the market, having just recently
accepted the lucrative and prestigious position of dean
of the Rawls College of Business at Texas Tech
University, the focus shifts back to former CoB dean
Harold Doty, the sitting dean at the University of
Texas – Tyler.
June 13, 2012
Martha’s Podium: An Editorial Cartoon Series from
USMNEWS.net I am so happy that, on my way out of
office, some of the sweetheart contract deals here at
Southern Miss are being scrutinized by the media. This
media focus should help my successor clean things up
here in the coming years. We . . . and I mean those of us
who love Southern . . . are so fortunate that someone had
the guts to speak to the media about these things.
An update to The BSD Pay Project, A Compilation of the
Salaries of Southern B-School Deans
June 14, 2012
USM’s Foundations and the Open Records Act A
Hattiesburg American news story, “USM eyeing contracts,”
reported about potential “sweetheart deals” and “‘sloppy’
university contracts.” It reported that “Southern Miss
denied a Hattiesburg American public records request for
the contract [involving Noetics] on the grounds that it is
technically not with the university, but rather with its
501(c)(3) nonprofit research foundation.”
June 15, 2012
Incompetent or Corrupt or Both? Part 2 The 1996-2005
Coca Cola Contract In January 1996, when the contract
was signed by Vice President of Business and Finance
Jim Henderson, Aubrey Lucas was USM's President. He
and other administrators not only granted Coca-Cola a
campus-wide monopoly but also granted them
significant and exclusive promotional rights, using USM
logos and symbols, with the imprimatur-seal of
approval-of USM. USM, in effect, was vouching for
Coca-Cola products over others.
June 18, 2012
Incompetent or Corrupt or Both? Part 3 Our last report,
Part 2, recounted the commission benefits Coca-Cola
paid to USM for imposing and enforcing a soft drink
monopoly on its students. What other benefits did USM
receive from Coca Cola?
Dear usmnews.net, Part 4 of the series “We’ve [USM]
Won the Silver Anvil Award! contains an interesting
question. “USM is an educational institution, isn’t it?”
Many of the faculty are no longer sure that the answer to
your question is “yes.” Southern Miss is a fourth tier
university.
June 19, 2012
Incompetent or Corrupt or Both? Part 4 Parts 1, 2 and 3 in
the series "Incompetent or Corrupt or Both?" recounted
the history of the Coca-Cola contract with USM for the
period 1996 through 2005. Now, let's review the
Coca-Cola contract with USM for the period 2006 through
2015. What kind of deal did USM administrators strike
with Coca-Cola?
June 11, 2012
Special Report WHEN DID PROVOST WEISENBURG
START TO WORRY ABOUT THE VALUE OF NOETIC?
The Hattiesburg American's June 9, 2012 report, "USM
eyeing contracts Noetic, beverage, team doctor agreements
raise concerns" begins, "When Denis Wiesenburg took
over as University of Southern Mississippi vice president
for research in June 2010, President Martha Saunders told
him to run a 'squeaky clean research operation.'"
According, to the same THA report,
June 20, 2012
Dear usmnews.net, One of my colleagues asked this
question, and at first I thought he was nuts, but maybe not.
Crazier things have gone on around here.
June 21, 2012
June 22, 2012
. . breaking news . . Duke Resigns from USM Directorship
HATTIESBURG – According to Ed Kemp’s 22-June-2012
report for The Hattiesburg American, after only 2 years at
the helm, Rick Duke, the director of USM’s Trent Lott
Center, is resigning his post. Duke’s departure continues
a string of resignations from USM during the 2011-12
academic year, including that of USM president Martha
Saunders, who is moving to the faculty at USM’s Long
Beach campus.
