H.A. Update--Southern Miss film program to move to Gulf Coast - USM Forum -- Message Board

Reporter · Status: Offline

H.A. Update--Southern Miss film program to move to Gulf Coast

Godless Liberal · Status: Offline

Dean? Not Interim Dean?

Coast Watcher · Status: Offline

Reporter wrote:

Southern Miss film program to move to Gulf Coast

"The relocation of the film program and the creation of an Entertainment Industry Center are designed to capitalize on the state’s efforts to attract the entertainment industry to the Coast, said Denise von Herrmann, dean of the College of Arts and Letters."

Again, this looks like another desperate legacy-grab by an isolated, moribund administration.

This "Entertainment Industry Center" thing has been in the works ever since the late El Pood first got here, hasn't it? It's been announced, postponed and rescheduled at least twice in that time, on both occasions with considerable fanfare, and I, for one, have always felt that the idea had all the earmarks of a pipedream. Pood did something similar at Middle Tennessee, with considerable success. But UMT is close to Nashville, which is the Mecca of country western music recording, a huge industry with dozens of recording studios and record labels. USM-GC is close to . . . eaxctly what? A dozen mostly tacky casinos. The city of New Orleans? Maybe. But even before the storm, it was a ninety minute drive away, and the cultural distance was even greater. Now, only about half the tourist trade and half the population have come back and large parts of it are still little more than destroyed and deserted houses.

So now, in the aftermath of the worst hurricane in American history, is the time to put a USM "Entertainment Industry Center" on the Coast? Isn't that kind of, well . . . insane? Has anybody up there in H'burg even seen the Coast lately? Barring a concerted effort by the federal government--a kind of post-Katrina Marshall Plan-- a full recovery is 10 years away at least.

The USM Coast operation is still squeezed into a portion of the old Garden Park hospital building--it shares the building with a hospice--and the CoAL is projected to be housed in an adjacent building for at least three years longer. Similarly, more than half of the Gulf Park campus will be out of operation for the forseeable future, although the "new" classroom building (constructed 2001) is supposed to be up and running in the Fall. The "new" campus touted in the news lately will probably take 5 years to build after groundbreaking, and after the IHL finally decides where and when. So where is this new "Center "going to be housed and officed? Where are faculty going to live? Where are things like a recording studio and film production facilities going to be built?

It looks like Elliot Pood's pipedream has become Thames' delusion du jour, and it's going to be overseen by an interim dean in the last months of a disintegrating administration? Can't this kind of stuff be stopped somehow?

LeftASAP · Status: Offline

Coast Watcher wrote:
...So where is this new "Center "going to be housed and officed? Where are faculty going to live? Where are things like a recording studio and film production facilities going to be built? ...

Maybe they will teach it all "on line", Coast Watcher, along with brain surgery.

You don't need buildings for pipe dreams in cyber space.

Lily · Status: Offline

Coast Watcher wrote:
Isn't that kind of, well . . . insane?

It looks like Elliot Pood's pipedream has become Thames' delusion du jour, and it's going to be overseen by an interim dean in the last months of a disintegrating administration? Can't this kind of stuff be stopped somehow?

That about sums it all up. I nominate Coast Watcher for President. Somebody with a grip on reality.

info · Status: Offline

Student Printz, 2/8/07

http://media.www.studentprintz.com/media/storage/paper974/news/2007/02/08/News/Usm-Film.Program.Heads.To.Gulf.Coast-2704369.shtml?sourcedomain=www.studentprintz.com&MIIHost=media.collegepublisher.com

USM film program heads to Gulf Coast

After a three-year delay, the film and entertainment industry programs are moving to the Mississippi coast, causing mixed reactions among students....

Curmudgeon · Status: Offline

I hope someone has taken a look at the housing situation on the coast. There's not much of it, and the rents are through the roof.

First Ant at the Picnic · Status: Offline

info wrote:

. . . the film and entertainment industry programs are moving to the Mississippi coast. . .

I realize that the show must go on, but wouldn't USM be well advised not to make major changes until a new president is aboard?

Coast Watcher · Status: Offline

Curmudgeon wrote:

I hope someone has taken a look at the housing situation on the coast. There's not much of it, and the rents are through the roof.

IT's me again, sorry to be so loquacious but . . .

The film school profs cited in the Printz article as saying that student housing won't be a problem on the Coast might be as delusional as Thames. Maybe if you're only talking about a couple of dozen students . . . But, face facts, folks: the HUD estimate for single dwellings (houses and apartments) totally destroyed was like 68,000. Another 65,000 were rated as damaged severely. How's housing on the Coast? A comparison is useful. When Andrew wrecked Homestead, Florida back in the 1990's it took out 28,000 homes. It was a decade before housing could be brought back to par. There are about 4 times as many lost on the Coast. Does this mean that the MS Coast will take 40 years? A Biblical period of suffering for sure.

Another thing going on with housing down here is that insurance companies are only willing to insure even existing apartments at a rate that adds several hundred dollars to the old rents. Add this to a market where demand far exceeds supply and . . . you get the picture.

I googled stuff like this and came up with an EconSouth article from 3rd quarter 2006 (Vol 8, No. 3) that discussed how casino operators said they were considering building or buying apartments and other housing for their workers--the casinos are booming--but that this would take awhile, so employees will "probably have to cope with longer commutes than they were accustomed to." Luckily USM's plan is to fix a Tuesday/Thursday schedule so film students can easily drive back and forth between H'burg and the Coast--a mere 75 miles/90 minutes--so such commutes won't be so onerous because . . . of what, exactly? Maybe we'll allow those students to deduct the cost of their gasoline from their tuition or something. That would only be fair.

Finally the Printz mention of a "new multi-million dollar facilty" is, if I may be frank, pretty ridiculous, real castle-in-Spain/pie in the sky stuff. Coast insiders will tell you that it took 10 years of brutal political infighting merely to get the IHL and legislature to approve funding for a decent classroom building and library at Gulf Park.Then it took another three years of law suits--both the Ayres plantiffs and the community colleges sued--to open the place to freshman and sophomores. Then anti-Coast groups in H'burg and Jackson--the principal plotter's name rhymes with "Finn"--managed to stall the construction of a new science building at Gulf Park, even after SACS told us that not having one was a threat to our, as in USM's, accreditation. And now we're supposed to think that a highly-specialized film and music facility for the Coast is just waiting to be born, to appear out of thin air, or perhaps to leap from the bald pate in the Dome like Athena from Zeus's brow, sans labor, san politics, sans planning, sans everything

It boggles the mind.

BAD · Status: Offline

Coast Watcher wrote:

Curmudgeon wrote:

I hope someone has taken a look at the housing situation on the coast. There's not much of it, and the rents are through the roof.

IT's me again, sorry to be so loquacious but . . .
The film school profs cited in the Printz article as saying that student housing won't be a problem on the Coast might be as delusional as Thames. Maybe if you're only talking about a couple of dozen students . . . But, face facts, folks: the HUD estimate for single dwellings (houses and apartments) totally destroyed was like 68,000. Another 65,000 were rated as damaged severely. How's housing on the Coast? A comparison is useful. When Andrew wrecked Homestead, Florida back in the 1990's it took out 28,000 homes. It was a decade before housing could be brought back to par. There are about 4 times as many lost on the Coast. Does this mean that the MS Coast will take 40 years? A Biblical period of suffering for sure.

Another thing going on with housing down here is that insurance companies are only willing to insure even existing apartments at a rate that adds several hundred dollars to the old rents. Add this to a market where demand far exceeds supply and . . . you get the picture.

I googled stuff like this and came up with an EconSouth article from 3rd quarter 2006 (Vol 8, No. 3) that discussed how casino operators said they were considering building or buying apartments and other housing for their workers--the casinos are booming--but that this would take awhile, so employees will "probably have to cope with longer commutes than they were accustomed to." Luckily USM's plan is to fix a Tuesday/Thursday schedule so film students can easily drive back and forth between H'burg and the Coast--a mere 75 miles/90 minutes--so such commutes won't be so onerous because . . . of what, exactly? Maybe we'll allow those students to deduct the cost of their gasoline from their tuition or something. That would only be fair.

Finally the Printz mention of a "new multi-million dollar facilty" is, if I may be frank, pretty ridiculous, real castle-in-Spain/pie in the sky stuff. Coast insiders will tell you that it took 10 years of brutal political infighting merely to get the IHL and legislature to approve funding for a decent classroom building and library at Gulf Park.Then it took another three years of law suits--both the Ayres plantiffs and the community colleges sued--to open the place to freshman and sophomores. Then anti-Coast groups in H'burg and Jackson--the principal plotter's name rhymes with "Finn"--managed to stall the construction of a new science building at Gulf Park, even after SACS told us that not having one was a threat to our, as in USM's, accreditation. And now we're supposed to think that a highly-specialized film and music facility for the Coast is just waiting to be born, to appear out of thin air, or perhaps to leap from the bald pate in the Dome like Athena from Zeus's brow, sans labor, san politics, sans planning, sans everything

It boggles the mind.

In the words of Stewie Griffin...Spot on, spot on.

Delusional Faculty Member · Status: Offline

I read with interest the comments on this thread.

The fact is, I proposed moving the Film Program to the coast within my first year of employment at USM (1989). That was well before the the Thames administration, casinos or Katrina. The proposal was met with interest by those in the (Lucas) administration and the USMGC leadership. At that time space was the primary obstacle. Since all film courses are 300 or higher even the junior college restrictions that existed at that time were irrelevant. The idea finally received an enthusiastic reception by Dr. Pood and grew into the idea of an Entertainment Industry Center.

The rationale for moving the film program remains the same as when I first mentioned it: to position the program near the entertainment center of the state (this was the case even before the casinos); to be close to Interstate 10 faciltating access from both Mobile and New Orleans; and to take advantage of the appeal of the coast to students seeking film education. Likewise the chief difficulty facing such a move has remained unchanged - housing. USMGC has no dorms. It never has and never will.

The film program has attracted students from Louisiana and Alabama for many years. The only competing program in the region, UNO, suffered major damage in Katrina. It is not clear if it will survive. The popularity of New Orleans as a location for feature filmmaking and televsion production in recent years has meant an increase in demand for crew in the region. Even after Katrina, productions in New Orleans were outstripping the available crew population.

At USM Hattiesburg the film program has no dedicated space for technical instruction in lighting, cinematography, or directing. These subjects are currently taught in a regular classroom, with equipment hauled in, set up, demonstrated and dismantled to get out of the way of an incoming class. The temporary site which has been identified for the film program offers a dedicated production space, ample office space, equipment storage and check out space, space for a sound studio and more. It is vastly superior to the status quo.

I appreciate the concerns expressed about where faculty will live. I moved to the coast three years ago when the plan was first announced. Our elevated house weatered 8 feet of water in the storage areas on the ground floor and roof damage. It is back to normal. Houses are available for sale and rent, although prices have risen about as much here as they have in Hattiesburg.

As for student housing, most of the destroyed houses were single family dwellings. Apartment complexes were for the most part further inland. One such complex near my house has been completely remodeled and is now leasing. I regularly see others being built or remodeled.

Yes, it will be 10 years before the damage due to Katrina is completely repaired. During those years the coast will experience an economic boom. If this program can be a part of the recovery and revitalization of the coast, it will share in that growth. Waiting another year or two or three for things to look better will just as likely meaning "missing the wave" of the rebound.

The vision of a multimillion dollar Center Entertainment Industry is a long term vision. No one expects it to be realized next year or the year after that. No one expects the funding to come form IHL. It is precisely the time to pitch this idea to a wide variety of stakeholders. I believe they will appreciate the educational potential of such a facility, the opportunity be part of the the Katrina recovery effort, and long time cultural benefit such a facilty will provide to the fastest growing part of the state.

Yes, I have seen the coast lately. I live here. I have been involved with recovery efforts for the last 16 months. I see the opportunity as well as the challenge. I quess I prefer to work toward the the potential rather than shake my head in bewilderment at the scale of the problem.