usmnews.net
usmnews.net has published thousands of reports from current and former faculty who share my belief that USM has ineffectively 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.
Chauncey M. DePree, Jr.
Click here for editorial policy.
Chauncey M. DePree, Jr.
Click here for editorial policy.
Non-Fiction
Fiction
TobaccoPharm
FICTION: What if a tech-savvy young man decides to end the “the industry of death,” the tobacco-marijuana industry? How does he do it? What are the consequences?
FACT: Scientists are currently coaxing tobacco plants to trans-genetically produce valuable human proteins and pharmaceuticals. For example,
“The mission of the Kentucky Tobacco Research and Development Center (KTRDC) is ... the use of science, including molecular biology, genomics, plant genetic engineering ... for discovering new plant natural products having potential for commercialization... This includes ... plant breeding, plant analysis, disease screening and genetic engineering research. The goal is to ... facilitate the development of new crop-based businesses and technologies ....” https://ktrdc.ca.uky.edu
FICTION: TOBACCOPHARM.
SYNOPSIS: Initial deaths seemed limited to two smokers, a student and a farmer. Other casualties were soon identified. Evidence pointed to a source, a Kentucky Tech University plant biologist who was experimenting with tobacco as a medium to create pharmaceuticals. Dr. Karl Hauer had no idea of the danger he was in until he found himself bound, gagged, and at the mercy of people who thought he could save their trillion-dollar cigarette business.
FICTION: What if a tech-savvy young man decides to end the “the industry of death,” the tobacco-marijuana industry? How does he do it? What are the consequences?
FACT: Scientists are currently coaxing tobacco plants to trans-genetically produce valuable human proteins and pharmaceuticals. For example,
“The mission of the Kentucky Tobacco Research and Development Center (KTRDC) is ... the use of science, including molecular biology, genomics, plant genetic engineering ... for discovering new plant natural products having potential for commercialization... This includes ... plant breeding, plant analysis, disease screening and genetic engineering research. The goal is to ... facilitate the development of new crop-based businesses and technologies ....” https://ktrdc.ca.uky.edu
FICTION: TOBACCOPHARM.
SYNOPSIS: Initial deaths seemed limited to two smokers, a student and a farmer. Other casualties were soon identified. Evidence pointed to a source, a Kentucky Tech University plant biologist who was experimenting with tobacco as a medium to create pharmaceuticals. Dr. Karl Hauer had no idea of the danger he was in until he found himself bound, gagged, and at the mercy of people who thought he could save their trillion-dollar cigarette business.
Or Just Plain Dumb
The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) accredits business colleges. It’s like a Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval. I suspect most people have never heard of the AACSB. That’s not surprising. It’s a secretive organization. AACSB’s Executive Vice-President and Chief Accreditation Officer, Jerry Trapnell, asserts that secrecy is best for students, parents, and schools. He and the AACSB won’t tell you anything about the details of their assessments. Rest assured he pledges that the AACSB is a rigorous accreditor. We’ll test that claim in many ways. We’ll do it by telling secrets Mr. Trapnell would never reveal.
More Cash
More Cash offers one and only one skill: identification of profitable mutual funds. What's the problem? Just compare their earnings.
Mutual fund performance, however, is reported in ratios, not dollars. The ratios are difficult to interpret.
More Cash shows how to translate ratios to easily interpreted dollars. The translation is offered in a step-at-a-time process and provides interactive spreadsheets to do the calculations. The spreadsheets are constructed to accommodate YOUR mutual fund investment opportunities and their ratios so that YOU can assess YOUR mutual funds in terms of dollars.
More Cash offers one and only one skill: identification of profitable mutual funds. What's the problem? Just compare their earnings.
Mutual fund performance, however, is reported in ratios, not dollars. The ratios are difficult to interpret.
More Cash shows how to translate ratios to easily interpreted dollars. The translation is offered in a step-at-a-time process and provides interactive spreadsheets to do the calculations. The spreadsheets are constructed to accommodate YOUR mutual fund investment opportunities and their ratios so that YOU can assess YOUR mutual funds in terms of dollars.
Articles
The Failure of Higher Education -- Accreditation
Minding the Campus - Reforming our Universities 8/15/2020
Minding the Campus - Reforming our Universities 8/15/2020
In Ethics Seminar, Lawyers Say They’d Report A Client For Legally Owning A Gun
The Federalist, 05/02/2019
The Federalist, 05/02/2019
Publications: Dissertation and Related Articles
"Testing the Conceptional Framework of Accounting Through an Application of a Formal Structure"
Dissertation
By: Chauncey M. DePree, Jr.
The Graduate School
University of Kentucky
1987
Lexington, Kentucky
Dissertation
By: Chauncey M. DePree, Jr.
The Graduate School
University of Kentucky
1987
Lexington, Kentucky
"Earnings Management and Ethical Decision Making: Choices in Accounting for Security Investments"
Issues in Accounting Education
Vol. 14, No. 4
November 1999
Issues in Accounting Education
Vol. 14, No. 4
November 1999
"An Evolution of Form and Content: A Practical Guide to Use of the FASB's Conceptual Framework"
SSRN, June 12, 2011
SSRN, June 12, 2011
New Reports and Opinion Pieces from Around USM
"The fun money is private money. At Southern Miss, I've got state dollars and I've got Foundation dollars. It's real easy to tell them apart. I tell people I've got two checkbooks. I've got my booze account and my non-booze account. Out of the state money I'm pretty constrained what in I can do. ... Foundation dollars, that's when I take my money out of my booze account, I can pretty much do anything I want with it." D. Harold Doty, former Dean, College of Business, University of Southern Mississippi, former Dean, University of Texas at Tyler. For more re Harold Doty, click here.
Editorial, December 3, 2022
Joe Paul makes $650,000 per year
PressRegister.com reports that Joe Paul, Southern Miss’ new president, makes $650,000 per year. Compare this to the average salary in Mississippi of $72,613 USD per year, with the most typical earnings of $47,012.
Is he worth it? While usmnews.net has its opinions based on years of academic experience, it seems fair to say that given his self-professed love for Southern Miss and its students he might lead the way for other college presidents and administrators to accept a salary equivalent to an average professor. By doing so, Dr. Paul could set a public example and take a first step toward reducing the terrible burden on students and their parents.
Readers, let us know what you think. Send any comments to marcdepree@gmail.com.
PressRegister.com reports that Joe Paul, Southern Miss’ new president, makes $650,000 per year. Compare this to the average salary in Mississippi of $72,613 USD per year, with the most typical earnings of $47,012.
Is he worth it? While usmnews.net has its opinions based on years of academic experience, it seems fair to say that given his self-professed love for Southern Miss and its students he might lead the way for other college presidents and administrators to accept a salary equivalent to an average professor. By doing so, Dr. Paul could set a public example and take a first step toward reducing the terrible burden on students and their parents.
Readers, let us know what you think. Send any comments to marcdepree@gmail.com.
Editorial, October 31, 2022
Questions
After his retirement in 2015, the IHL has summoned Joe Paul to serve as Southern Miss’ eleventh president. A Southern Miss alumnus Dr. Paul has served various administrative functions for more than 40 years. He replaces Dr. Rodney Bennett who was touted as “… the first African-American president of a historically and predominantly white higher education institution in Mississippi.”
After his retirement in 2015, the IHL has summoned Joe Paul to serve as Southern Miss’ eleventh president. A Southern Miss alumnus Dr. Paul has served various administrative functions for more than 40 years. He replaces Dr. Rodney Bennett who was touted as “… the first African-American president of a historically and predominantly white higher education institution in Mississippi.”
For readers who have requested quicker access to reports about Dr. Saunders' and now Dr. Bennett's airplane, please click here. A good place to start is Cost Per Flight Hour which includes links to the detailed cost and usage data obtained through open records requests.
In August 2011, Martha Saunders smiled as she presented Galaxy Tabs to selected students. Three senior adminstrators were suspended. Two are no longer employees of the University. Saunders subsequently declared herself "tired" and resigned as president. (For more reports re "Tabletgate", click here.)
Farhang Niroomand, AGB Conference, circa 2006
Once usmnews.net published the parody UH-V SBA Faculty Loyalty Pledge, we began to hear from colleagues that the parody was in effect what Niroomand said he expected from them when they were junior faculty. From the personal experience of this editor, Dr. Niroomand is a blowhard and a bully.
The popular press is replete with stories of corruption in higher education such as the recent college admissions cheating scandal. They're immaterial when compared to skyrocketing costs traced to mundane misconduct of faculty and administrators we describe in this report. Former president IHL, former president USM Foundation, and former CPA, Carl Nicholson, Interim Dean Rod Posey, Director Jim Crockett, his underperforming friend, Marvin Albin, and Instructor Patty Munn cannot claim ignorance about the implications of their behavior on University finances because they were all CPAs.
Breaking News: Carl Nicholson Found Guilty on Eleven Counts of Tax Related Fraud Carl Nicholson, former Hattiesburg CPA, former member and President of the Mississippi Institutes of Higher Learning, and former President of the University of Southern Mississippi Foundation found guilty on eleven counts of tax related fraud. After a little more than two hours deliberation by the jury, Mr. Nicholson was found guilty of 11 felony counts, including conspiracy to defraud the United States government, four counts of false statement on income tax return and six counts of willfully aiding/assisting in preparation of false tax returns. No sentencing date has been set, but Nicholson faces up to 35 years in prison and $2,750,000 in fines.
Picture from happier days from USM Foundation website announcing Mr. Nicholson (center front) as president.
Editorial, September 23, 2019
James Crockett
Rod Posey
Marvin Albin
Patty Munn
February 8, 2019
June 16, 2020
The Victoria Advocate is reporting that University of Houston - Victoria Professor Olga Chapa has accused former business school dean Farhang Niroomand of sexual harassment. Dr. Niroomand was an associate dean at the University of Southern Mississippi College of Business until being “relieved” of administrative duties under questionable circumstances. After a tumultuous few years at UHV, including AAUP’s “… concern about reports of coercion of untenured faculty members”, and discrimination lawsuits by three faculty, Dr. Niroomand returned to teaching.
For more reports re Martha Saunders, click here
Once usmnews.net published the parody UH-V SBA Faculty Loyalty Pledge, we began to hear from colleagues that the parody was in effect what Niroomand said he expected from them when they were junior faculty. From the personal experience of this editor, Dr. Niroomand is a blowhard and a bully.
Farhang [Niroomand] Bullies Senior Faculty, Too Readers want to know if Farhang Niroomand's "coercion" of untenured faculty is anything new. The answer is "no." Nor is Niroomand's bullying limited to untenured assistant professors. The following is the sworn testimony of a professor in the CoB at Southern Miss. At the time Niroomand was Associate Dean in the College of Business. The testimony was not questioned or refuted by Southern Miss or its legal counsel.
June 18, 2017
A former colleague of Dean Farhang Niroomand sent the following editorial/parody. Many of us who have had the misfortune of working with Niroomand first laughed, then recalled the bullying and threats used at Southern Miss to keep subordinates in line.
UH-V SBA Faculty Loyalty Pledge I, ____________________, hereby pledge my allegiance to Farhang Niroomand, Dean of the School of Business Administration at the University of Houston – Victoria. In doing so, I affirm that it is only through the infinite benevolence of Farhang Niroomand that I have a salary, health benefits, and a retirement plan with which to support myself and my family. I also recognize that any raise I am to receive, whether secret or made public, comes only through his grace, and that I am entitled to nothing, including the air that I breathe, which comes only through his grace as well. Whether I teach online or face-to-face, in Victoria or in Katy, I am forever indebted to my supervisor, Farhang Niroomand.
June 15, 2017
If you doubt that the parody, UH-V SBA Faculty Loyalty Pledge, is in effect what Niroomand expects of junior faculty, take a look at a copy of a letter from AAUP President of the Texas Conference to the Provost at UH-V "convey[ing] ... concern about reports of coercion of untenured faculty members in the School of Business Administration (SBA) at the University of Houston-Victoria (UHV)." As the letter says, "That this pledge of support was placed before untenured faculty members, several of whom, we understand, are eligible for promotion and tenure this year, and that members of the SBA administration were reportedly present when these signatures were solicited, heightens our concern." As the letter indicates, "... such a request [is] contrary to the fundamental principles of academic freedom."
For more re Farhang Niroomand click here.
Consider a brief example: ARTMX and VIMAX, are grouped as Mid Caps and compared to each other because they invest in corporations generally valued between $2 billion and $10 billion. Their return ratios for years 1, 3, 5, and 10 were reported as follows
Which is more profitable? Translation of their return ratios into dollars implied the following profitability: The translation of return ratios into dollars implied the Participant’s Cash Inflow choices:
VIMAX earned more than twice the cash and satisfied an intuitive investment principle More cash is better than less. Investment choices become obvious when ratios are translated to dollars. Now, think about evaluating two or three dozen funds reporting 60 to 100 ratios. That's the number of mutual fund investments commonly offered as investment opportunities of a 401(k) or 403(b). (Note that our spreadsheets can handle evaluations of hundreds of mutual funds.)
More Cash shows how to translate ratios to dollars a step-at-a-time and offers interactive spreadsheets to do the calculations. The spreadsheets are constructed to accommodate YOUR mutual fund investment opportunities so that YOU can assess YOUR mutual funds. Visit www.conlinhoward.com to discuss your questions with the authors.
More Cash shows how to translate ratios to dollars a step-at-a-time and offers interactive spreadsheets to do the calculations. The spreadsheets are constructed to accommodate YOUR mutual fund investment opportunities so that YOU can assess YOUR mutual funds. Visit www.conlinhoward.com to discuss your questions with the authors.
Epilogue
OR JUST PLAIN DUMB
OR JUST PLAIN DUMB
Following rules and standards, Dr. C. M. DePree and colleagues reported instances of faculty and administrator plagiarism to AACSB accreditors and University of Southern Mississippi administrators, including then-President Martha Saunders. Instead of investigating the allegations, President Saunders assigned Dr. Gordon Cannon, USM chemistry professor, to investigate Dr. DePree. DePree’s attorney’s deposed Dr. Cannon.
The Gordon Cannon Doctrine of Plagiarism.
Dr. Cannon revealed his method of deciding whether a document is plagiarized. He simply asked a few friends, Would you consider copying bureaucratic boilerplate plagiarism?
Dr. Cannon did not define plagiarism or boilerplate or provide the original and copied documents or any context. He merely asked friends, Would you consider copying bureaucratic boilerplate plagiarism? His friends' answers, Of course not!
Given The Cannon Doctrine, there is no plagiarism. None at all. Ever. His methodology proves there can be no plagiarism.
If The Cannon Doctrine seems absurd, you ain't seen nothin', yet. Read Or Just Plain Dumb.
The Gordon Cannon Doctrine of Plagiarism.
Dr. Cannon revealed his method of deciding whether a document is plagiarized. He simply asked a few friends, Would you consider copying bureaucratic boilerplate plagiarism?
Dr. Cannon did not define plagiarism or boilerplate or provide the original and copied documents or any context. He merely asked friends, Would you consider copying bureaucratic boilerplate plagiarism? His friends' answers, Of course not!
Given The Cannon Doctrine, there is no plagiarism. None at all. Ever. His methodology proves there can be no plagiarism.
If The Cannon Doctrine seems absurd, you ain't seen nothin', yet. Read Or Just Plain Dumb.
Dr. Gordon C. Cannon
Short Stories, Free to Download
Students chanting threats of revolution and an irritating perfume allergy slipped from his thoughts as Dean Overstreet bounced into his palatial office singing to himself:
Oh, what a beautiful mornin',
Oh, what a beautiful day,
I've got a wonderful feelin',
Everything's going my way.
After months of preparing tons of documents, Dean Overstreet and dozens associate and assistant deans, along with a small army of department chairpersons were poised to celebrate re-accreditation. Click here to download this free short story.
Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin”
Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II Music by Richard Rodgers
Oh, what a beautiful mornin',
Oh, what a beautiful day,
I've got a wonderful feelin',
Everything's going my way.
After months of preparing tons of documents, Dean Overstreet and dozens associate and assistant deans, along with a small army of department chairpersons were poised to celebrate re-accreditation. Click here to download this free short story.
Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin”
Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II Music by Richard Rodgers
The Billy-Ray Beauregard College of Business
By Marc DePree
By Marc DePree