weeklyreports_12_01

Bo’s Cost Overrun Final Printing Cost of Centennial History 50% Higher than Originally Stated Documents obtained by USMNEWS.net indicate that the cost to Mississippi taxpayers and USM students of the USM centennial history book, Treasured Past, Golden Future, ultimately rose from $40,000, as stated in the original contracts, to almost $60,000 by the time production of book was closer to completion. The insert below – the first page of a letter from Craig Gill, the editor-in-chief at the University Press of Mississippi, to Robert Pierce of USM

Dear usmnews.net, How much more money is Southern Miss going to waste on nonsense wholly unrelated to the academic mission of the university?

. . . breaking news . . Federal Auditor: USM Misused $5.3 Million in FEMA Aid HATTIESBURG – According to a 4-Dec-2012 report for The Hattiesburg American by Associate Press reporter Jeff Amy, a federal audit indicates that USM misused more than $5 million in Hurricane Katrina aid that it received from FEMA after the 2005 storm destroyed the USM-GC campus in Long Beach.

Special Report Saundersgate The number of scandals – aka “___gates” – that dogged the Martha Saunders administration of USM (2007-12) is, according to sources, mind boggling. From “Tabletgate” to “Boudoirgate,” the amount of student and taxpayer funds lost in such ill-advised endeavors has not heretofore been counted. This particular Special Report addresses that accounting by providing some estimates in Table 1 below.

Updated 6-Dec-2012 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.

Lucas Spills Contract Info to Faculty Senate Former USM President Blamed for More Problems USM interim president Aubrey Lucas addressed the USM faculty senate on 7-Dec-2012 about the financial problems facing the institution’s athletics department. According to The Hattiesburg American’s higher education reporter Ed Kemp, part of that discussion centered on the contract that former head football coach Ellis Johnson inked with USM

Editorial What else is Lucas not yet ready to reveal? From The Hattiesburg American: "Lucas addresses Johnson contract buyout" by Ed Kemp: "Just because Ellis Johnson has landed on his feet with an $800,000 per-year contract at Auburn University doesn't mean that Southern Miss is off the hook for any of his $2.1 million buyout...".

Dear usmnews.net, A number of recent articles and editorials posted on your website suggest that there are other financial problems [at USM] that will come to light. For what it's worth, the consensus around the water cooler is that you are right. What do you think the next disclosure will be?

. . breaking news . . . WDAM-TV News: Fingers Point Back to Lucas on Contract HATTIESBURG – The WDAM-TV News team headed by Randy Swan has delivered yet again, this time on 10-December-2012 by constructing a timeline of events surrounding the contract awarded to former USM football coach Ellis Johnson. The work of Swan’s team turns on its head the discussion that current interim USM president Aubrey Lucas led with the USM faculty senate back on 7-December-2012.

Updated 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 Joseph Peyrefitte is the current interim dean of the CoB,

The Top CoB Stories of 2012 By Duane Cobb Each year at about this time I provide USMNEWS.net my top news items involving USM’s business school for the year. This is Part 2 in that countdown for the top CoB stories of 2012. Part 1 can be found here. 4. Groundbreaking for the CoB – One of former USM president Martha Saunders’ final acts atop USM was to host the groundbreaking ceremony for the CoB’s forthcoming facility.

CoB Reviving MBA Program on Hattiesburg Campus ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF WHY HIGHER ED INFLATION IS SO HIGH According to Van Arnold’s 13-Dec-2012 presser, the CoB’s MBA program on the Hattiesburg campus is being restored. As Arnold states, the program was shifted from the Hattiesburg campus to the Long Beach campus in 2011 in order to deal with budget cuts that were facing the university in 2010.

Editorial What's all the fuss been about lately at USM? Football. Step back from the noise and think about what has happened. When was the last time such a fuss was made over any academic failures at USM? And there have been many.

Dear usmnews.net, In a Sunday morning The Hattiesburg American article [Monken: It's my job to win] Coach Monken said he had the following question before taking the job as USM's head coach: "And who am I latching onto? How am I moving my family all the way here for, who? I mean, who's got my back?"

check and see how accurate usmnews.net's predictions for 2012 actually were reprint Holiday Predictions for 2012 3. Call it wishful thinking, but I predict that Martha Saunders will embarrass the University (and more importantly the IHL) once too often this year. She will be asked to and will regretfully tender her resignation.

Dear usmnews.net, Any word on what has happened to Martha Saunders' airplane? Is anyone using it at all? Why wasn't it used to fly Coach Monken in for his interview? Has it been discretely offloaded? Or, is it just sitting in a hangar while the taxpayers and students continue to lay out tens of thousands of dollars every month?

Congratulation, Steve Jackson Southern Miss Now reported on December 10, 2012 that "Dr. Steven Jackson has received the 2012 Joseph A. Greene Excellence in Teaching Award from the College of Business at The University of Southern Mississippi."

The Top CoB Stories of 2012 By Duane Cobb Each year at about this time I provide USMNEWS.net my top news items involving USM’s business school for the year. This is Part 1 in that countdown for the top CoB stories of 2012. 8. Slow Start to Find New Dean – Visitors to USMNEWS.net’s HELP WANTED series have seen that several universities are moving quickly in the 2012-13 academic year in filling their b-school dean openings.

. . . breaking news . . Allegations of Animal Cruelty Facing USM HATTIESBURG – According to a report on 10-Dec-2012 by Ed Kemp for The Hattiesburg American, the animal rights group known as Stop Animal Exploitation Now!, or SAEN, has filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Agriculture alleging negligent treatment of animals by researchers at USM. As Kemp reports, SAEN executive director Michael Budkie has reported to the USDoA