HA: We've Lost an Outstanding Leader - USM Forum -- Message Board

ram · Status: Offline

HA: We've Lost an Outstanding Leader

info · Status: Offline

Royal Purple, 3/28/07

http://www.royalpurplenews.com/displayArticle.php?id=42&section=daily

Chancellor selected as top candidate for position at University of Southern Mississippi
Royal Purple Staff
Article Date: March 28, 2007

     A campus-wide e-mail sent out by University of Wisconsin-Whitewater Chancellor Martha Saunders on Tuesday said she has been selected as the preferred candidate for the presidency of the University of Southern Mississippi.

     Here is the text of Saunder's e-mail:

     "To the UW-Whitewater campus community:

     "I have been selected as the preferred candidate for the presidency of my alma mater, the University of Southern Mississippi. Joe and I agree this is an opportunity I really must pursue. A campus visit has been scheduled for April 5 during which I will meet with a variety of USM constituent groups. I will keep you advised as things develop."

     Check www.royalpurplenews.com for further updates as this story develops.

USM Sympathizer · Status: Offline

Two interesting quotations from the article:

"She empowers people because she believes in the best in people," he said. "She creates a climate of collaboration and positivity rather than adversity. We've lost an outstanding leader."

That seemed to be the university community's unanimous sentiment Wednesday after it had a day to digest a campus-wide e-mail Saunders sent announcing she had been selected as the "preferred candidate" for the ninth presidency of her alma mater, the University of Southern Mississippi.

+++++

Saunders and her husband are staples in the stands at an array of sporting events, Plinske said. She once walked right off a commencement stage and onto a plane to make it to a national football championship game in Virginia, and also traveled to Pennsylvania to cheer UWW students on at the national championship wheelchair basketball game.

Maybe the second quotation will help reassure USM's athletic supporters.

Invictus · Status: Offline

USM Sympathizer wrote:
+++++ Saunders and her husband are staples in the stands at an array of sporting events, Plinske said. She once walked right off a commencement stage and onto a plane to make it to a national football championship game in Virginia, and also traveled to Pennsylvania to cheer UWW students on at the national championship wheelchair basketball game. Maybe the second quotation will help reassure USM's athletic supporters.

In this day & age, I suspect that a candidate who didn't interview well regarding intercollegiate athletics, especially at a school that has a lot of reputational capital tied up in athletics (as does USM), wouldn't become the preferred candidate, even if s/he was an alumnus.

I'm also at a loss as to why the athletic board's posters think that faculty don't support or enjoy athletics. But hey, I don't understand a lot of stuff.

stephen judd · Status: Offline

Ditto on your last Invictus.

But then, that also goes along with the incorrect image of faculty as "ivory tower" people who are isolated from the "real world". That is so much more untrue to day than in the past (if it was even true then) especially in research universities.