weeklyreports_08_29

Over the past several years, usmnews.net has published literally thousands of reports from current and former faculty who share my belief that USM has ineffectively and inefficiently employed far too much of its resources, both in terms of money and people. The purpose of usmnews.net is not to provide a public relations view. That is amply supplied by The University of Southern Mississippi's public relations department.

Based on recommendations from usmnews.net's readers, we are relaunching usmnews.net. Your comments, criticisms, recommendations and news are greatly appreciated. Also, as we troubleshoot links, please let us know if you find any broken or missing links.

Chauncey M. DePree, Jr., Editor
marcdepree@gmail.com

breaking news . . . USM Reports Almost Two Dozen NCAA Violations HATTIESBURG – According to two separate 27-Aug-2011 reports for The Hattiesburg American by Patrick Magee, the USM athletics department reported 21 separate NCAA violations across seven sports during only a two-year period under current president Martha Saunders.

Update 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.

Dear usmnews.net, I read your story on the Samsung Galaxy Tab. Why would anyone make a commitment to the Tab when it is not going to be around much longer? I picked up a HP TouchPad for a bargain basement price.

Will 2011-12 be a Banner Year? During the 2010-11 academic year, USMNEWS.net staff followed the progress of USM's athletics. As you can see, the Golden Eagles sports units won only 50.1% of their contests (i.e., 228.5 wins, incl. ties, in 456 contests) during 2010-11, a result representing anything but a “banner year.”

“Ripsniptious!” USM President Martha Saunders’ Tweets Now Open to Public Multiple reports/editorials here at USMNEWS.net have noted that USM president Martha Saunders’ Twitter tweets have been off limits to the general public. That situation has changed in recent weeks with the overhaul of Saunders’ webpage at usm.edu.

Special Report Preemptive Pardon Niroomand Gets Political Cover from Embattled Provost Official documents recently received by USMNEWS.net indicate that former CoB associate dean and current b-school dean at the University of Houston-Victoria, Farhang Niroomand, was handed what sources refer to as a preemptive pardon by his em-battled provost.

Dear usmnews.net, Thanks for the "Ripsniptious" report. As best I can tell, "ripsniptious" is a new word used by "cool" people or those who want to appear to be "cool".

University Administrators And the Decline of American Higher Education Part 1 "Administrators and staffers actually outnumber full-time faculty members at America's colleges and universities�Forty years ago, America's colleges actually employed more professor than administrators." (The Fall of the Faculty: The Rise of the All-Admin- istrative University and Why It Matters (Oxford University Press), by Benjamin Ginsberg.)

University Administrators Part 2 President Saunders is the Princess of Puffery President Saunders revels in the art of puffery, claiming that the University of Southern Mississippi is "The Premier Research University of the Gulf South."