HA, 3/11/07: Faculty will cheer new president - USM Forum -- Message Board

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HA, 3/11/07: Faculty will cheer new president

Interested onlooker · Status: Offline

Great letter. Thanks, Myron.

LVN · Status: Offline

Thanks to whomever asked "Powereagle" to stop typing in all caps. "Powereagle" doesn't seem to be very knowledgeable about the way universities OR message boards operate.

-- Edited by LVN at 18:20, 2007-03-11

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HA comments

http://forums.hattiesburgamerican.com/viewtopic.php?t=4019

powereagle
PostPosted: Sun Mar 11, 2007 11:10 am Post subject:

A SIMPLE GOOGLE SEARCH WILL SHOW YOU THAT EVERYONE AT USM IS UNDERPAID-EVERY COACH, ADMINISTRATOR, AND FACULTY. EVERYONE KNOWS THIS WHEN THEY TAKE THE JOB. THE NEW PREZ WILL MAKE APPOX 100,OOO LESS THAN MSU AND OM DESPITE INCREASES FROM ALUMNI GROUPS.
THE AVG FACULTY BONUS FOR GRANTS IS 12,000. FACULTY THAT TEACH 3 SEMESTERS AND PARTICIPATE IN GRANTS MAKE AN AVG SALARY OF 76,000. MYRON OPPOSES FACULTY INCENTIVES. I HAVE TALKED TO FACULTY AND THEY DON'T UNDERSTAND WHY HE OPPOSES THIS. AS OF FEB, GRANT PROPOSALS WERE UP BY 100 FROM THE PREVIOUS YEAR.
WHILE MYRON CONTINUES TO BE CRITICAL OF THE ADMINISTRATION, THESE ADMINISTRATORS SAVED EVERY JOB ON THE GULF COAST CAMPUS POST KATRINA DESPITE 7 MIL INCREASE IN FUEL COST FOR THE CAMPUS AND LOST REVENUE OF 8 MIL FROM 1000 STUDENTS FORCED TO LEAVE CAMPUS. TULANE WAS FORCED TO FIRE 25% OF THEIR FACULTY.
MYRON MAKES A BASE SALARY OF 125,000 AND TEACHES ONE CLASS. WHEN WILL MYRON LEAD BY EXAMPLE???????

russ
PostPosted: Sun Mar 11, 2007 11:44 am Post subject: Another Rant

Powereagle, learm to write without all caps: it's very rude, for starters.

Dr. Henry is, of course, right: Thames has been a disaster from the start, unless you consider a university part of ADP/Coca-Cola. Alienation of faculty and top-down governance do not define the word.

Yogi
PostPosted: Sun Mar 11, 2007 11:44 am Post subject:

Most faculty at USM do not receive a "bonus" from grants. Most are happy to get summer salary from grants since faculty are on 9 month contracts. To get a "bonus", one must actually buy out a significant portion of one's 9 month contract and only then is one given back a small percentage of this buyout. Myron simply points out that many, perhaps even most, faculty are in research areas that do not have the possibility of such externally funded buyouts.

Powereagle is certainly correct about the administration saving jobs after the hurricane. In fact, I commend the administration, faculty, and staff for the amazing recovery from the hurricane. Well done!

jonelib
PostPosted: Sun Mar 11, 2007 9:19 pm Post subject: Raises for Faculy and Staff?
When I went to the Clinic the other day the visit cost me $5. There was a sign that stated "ask about the new charge." The answer was pretty much as it has been all over campus for a long time. They had not received a raise in pay in at least 4 years. This was the only way that they could supplement office requirements. We have lost some great people...helpful staff as well as faculty because not only has there not been any raises, they don't have the money to make copies of needed materials for students.

I was raised in a family of outstanding professional men and women and never have I seen anything as unprofessional as this current administration.

Left Too · Status: Offline

The lack of class of Thames will NEVER cease to amaze me. However, to all the brave souls who have endured this onslaught from the gnome and his allies, not for much longer. PLEASE tell me that y'all have a party organized to celebrate the end of his destruction. I will be in Prague and if I know when you will be celebrating, I promise that I will raise a glass at the appropriate time (it does not matter that there's a 7-hour time difference) and thinking about a Hattiesburg and USM that once used to be and when I get to the Trevi fountain I will toss in a coin, wishing that the recovery will be shift and that dignity will be restored. The mere fact that he's leaving the dome will help, now if only there was a way to keep him out of the classroom.

Interested onlooker · Status: Offline

I, too, will be out of the country. But I want to know when the celebration begins so I can raise a glass with you all.

Godless Liberal · Status: Offline

PowerEagle lives in a dream world. Faculty base salary increases during SFT (except a select few family and friends), on average, have not even come close to tracking inflation or increases in HI premiums. My buddy at Penn State who bailed from Southern Miss (To the TOP!) never fails to point out that their faculty have received regular increases that are indeed meaningful.

We have had a full boat of administrators and managers at USM during Thames. Unfortunately, we have had few leaders. A public university without leadership is doomed to mediocrity or failure.

stephen judd · Status: Offline

It isn't clear to me how anyone would easily determine what faculty base increases have been over the past five years beyond the anecdotal evidence that most of us have on our own increases. The figures cited by the administration include everything including the kitchen sink -- one time raises;midas raises; salary equity adjustments, summer and alternative learning salaries; and increases of administrators who are , technically, members of the faculty as well (talk about distorting the curve!).

And in the interest of transparency I personally have probably come close to hitting the 20% thanks to an equity adjustment, a year spent as a director of the theatre program for which i negotiated a small recompense when I returned to the faculty and a fairly generous raise in the last round of raises. However, had I not had the equity and the recompense I'd be looking at about 9% spread over the five year period. That certainly doesn't do much to begin to cover the higher insurance premiums we have been paying in recent years.

Incidently, my own feeling is that before merit raises are given EVERYONE should be given a reasonable cost of living adjustment first. Merit money should of out of what is left. That is the only civilized way to handle the issue of raises -- particularly in times when increases are not given every year. If you don't keep people even with the cost of living over a period of time then you can't really talk about giving "raises".

stephen judd · Status: Offline

And a reminder that this issue of "raises" would not be nearly as critical if the raises given to some admnistrators were not so out of whack with everyone else. We all know this is a poor state; we all know that we are comparatively well-paid compared to others in the state -- it only REALLY huts when you see the people at the top taking quite a big chunk of the pie and (despite the many mistakes made by administrators) acting as though these things are deserved. In my experience, administrative people usually get big raises when it looks like they are getting better offers and an institution wants to keep them -- I'm not at all clear why this gang deserves all of this -- especially at the end of the season as they are on the way out.

stinky cheese man · Status: Offline

i generally agree with stephen. raises and salaries at USM, in general, have been lagging for years, well before Thames. Thames didn't help the rank-and-file faculty much. the last data I saw indicated that the longer you stay at USM, meaning associate and full professor ranks, the worse our salaries are relative to comparative universities.

info · Status: Offline

http://forums.hattiesburgamerican.com/viewtopic.php?t=4019

...myron henry

Joined: 12 Mar 2007
Posts: 1

PostPosted: Mon Mar 12, 2007 8:01 pm Post subject: Faculty Will Cheer

Powereagle, I don't generally repy to posted comments. But your claim that I teach but a single class really ought to be augmented by additional information. Specifically, I am PI and Co-PI on grants totaling about $580,000 this fiscal year, and I have been traveling on average about two days a week on grant related work.

stephen judd · Status: Offline

Hello SCM. Glad to know we are generally of the same min don this one.

I agree that the whole picture must include the pre-Thames era. In 1996 the pay of faculty at USM was equal to or slightly ahead of both State and Ol Miss. It has been consistently down-hill since then -- we are now significantly behind both of our sister research institutions.

My problem -- as always -- is that this administration has a habit of making false claims based on poor or manipulated data. One of the worst aspects of what has happened under this administration is the loss of credibility this administration has had because of its eagerness to promote the institution through distortion of fact and the creation of a Thames legacy similarly based upon a small mountain of exaggerations (at best) and falsehoods) at worst. It is possibly the way a business might be run (althoughI'm sure there are business people out there who would contest this).

It is a terrible way to run a university -- which ought to be a bastion of credibility. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that is the chief attibute a university has -- its claim to truth, verifiability and transparency. In that the university should stand as a contrast to whatever social operatives exist. Otherwise, we have no business teaching young people.

-- Edited by stephen judd at 09:32, 2007-03-13

Curmudgeon · Status: Offline

Are you telling me we don't have the largest enrollment and highest faculty salaries in the state?

Googler · Status: Offline

stephen judd wrote:

. . .In my experience, administrative people usually get big raises when it looks like they are getting better offers and an institution wants to keep them -- I'm not at all clear why this gang deserves all of this -- especially at the end of the season as they are on the way out.

The big raises will make a big difference in their PERS checks. This gang has made out like bandits in boosting their four highest salary years.

qwerty · Status: Offline

The Thames gang likes to talk about how they run USM like a business, but all they are about is converting public money and public assets into private profit for themselves. That's why the only way they can operate is through nepotism and cronyism. Maybe SFT's business model is Ken Lay & Enron.

Voter · Status: Offline

qwerty wrote:

The Thames gang likes to talk about how they run USM like a business, but all they are about is converting public money and public assets into private profit for themselves.

The best description I've seen of this crew to date. They're not even robber barons, just plain crooks.