saunders10

(May 7, 2008) Too Busy To Blog? The President’s calendar must be frightfully full to starve her reading public on news of teas, alumni news, and other social gatherings. She does not teach anything, so it cannot be that she is giving or grading exams. Perhaps she is exhausted from all of her strategic planning committee meetings. Maybe it is trying to hire more deans than she is losing. The important thing is that you are having fun, right?

(May 9, 2008 ) CoB News, 9 May 2008 Father Tommy Kicked to the Curb According to the Jason Munz report in the 8-May-08 The Hattiesburg American entitled “Conway no longer chaplain,” Father Tommy Conway, team chaplain for USM’s football team since 2003, has been relieved of these duties by new USM head football coach, Larry Fedora. According to Conway, the news came around 24-April-08, when Fedora informed Conway that he (Fedora) “wanted to go in a different direction.” According to Munz, USM Athletics Director, Richard Giannini, did not want to comment on the matter.

(May 11, 2008 ) GH Chatter CoB faculty are still waiting on Lance Nail's decision regarding USM President Martha Saunders' offer for Nail to become the fifth business school dean in USM history. From stories circulating around the CoB, there is a lot riding on Nail's answer. It is being reported that the other two finalists for the position, Danny Arnold (Frostburg State) and Glenn Pitman (SUNY Binghamton), withdrew their names from future consideration once they heard that Nail was Saunders' top choice.

(May 13, 2008 ) CoB News, 13 May 2008 Hattiesburg Speaks Out on Father Tommy Fiasco Members of the Hattiesburg community are beginning to voice their displeasure with the decision by new USM football coach Larry Fedora to terminate the services of USM football chaplain Father Tommy Conway. One member of the Montague family, a prominent branch on the USM family tree, wrote an Op-Ed in the 11-May-08 issue of The Hattiesburg American that equated things going on now in the Martha Saunders administration at USM to what was occurring during 2002-07 under former USM President Shelby Thames. According to Montague, the ousting of Father Tommy equates to the same kinds of "dirty politics" that occurred routinely during the "Napoleonic administration" of Thames. According to USMNEWS.NET sources, nothing about the Father Tommy fiasco is, or will likely be, positive for the new Saunders administration.

(May 19, 2008) CoB News, 19 May 2008 Aunt Martha's "Banner Year" USM President, Martha Saunders, stood before USM faculty, staff and students, along with local media, at the University's Fall 2007 Convocation and proclaimed that USM's athletics would be producing a banner year during 2007-08. How has Saunders' proclamation stood up to the test of time? If Table 1 below is any indication, not so well.