Year One

Summer 2002 All staff members in the department of Institutional Research are fired, locked from their offices and escorted off campus by security.

Summer 2002 Eight top administrative positions are filled without a search.

Summer 2002 USM PR Director, Bud Kirkpatrick is dismissed from his job after 40 years of service to the university.

Summer 2002 Director of Purchasing, Ken Hayman, returns to his office to find the lock changed.  He is informed that he has been dismissed from his job and escorted off campus by security.

Summer 2002 Associate Provost Jim Hollandsworth is demoted to Dean of the Graduate School, a position soon abolished.  He is forbidden by the new administration to teach in the history dept. though he had done so for years and has been the author of a number of award-winning history books.  While on vacation, the contents of Dr. Hollandsworths office were moved into a closet sized space without his knowledge.  He subsequently retired.

Summer 2002 Invasive Technology Security Policy is instituted allowing university officials to seize for any reason faculty/staff computers.

Fall 2002 The FAR (Faculty Activity Report) is introduced to faculty.  Faculty already complete lengthy evaluations annually.  Concern is expressed by faculty about duplicating evaluative information and are concerned about the FARs ability to accurately reflect teaching responsibilities and accomplishments. 

January 10, 2003 USM receives its first letter from SACS citing problems in institutional planning and evaluation and distance learning.

January 16, 2003 President Thames holds a gathering at his home for local business people and tells them about the reorganization of the universitys nine colleges to five.

January 17, 2003 A day after informing business leaders, President Thames calls a meeting of the deans at 8am to tell them about the reorganization and to inform them that their tenure as deans will end June 30^th.  Searches for new deans will begin and they are welcome to apply for the job.

January 17, 2003 President Thames calls an emergency convocation of the faculty at 9am and announces the reorganization.

January 31, 2003 Faculty Senate sends an open letter to the President requesting a reconsideration of some aspects of the restructuring and also requesting that faculty be more involved in university decisions.

February 2003 Dr. Ruth Ann Cade, Chair of Engineering Technology, is summarily fired as chair without explanation and over the objections of the faculty in her department.  Dr. Cade was four months from retirement. 

March 2003 An economic development requirement is added to letters of appointment for new faculty.

March 6, 2003 - Provost Jay Grimes notifies department chairs that economic development will be added to teaching, research, and service as a fourth major category for faculty evaluation.

March 19, 2003 Provost Grimes addresses the IHL Chief Academic Officers at a meeting in Jackson and raises the issue of eliminating faculty status for university librarians throughout the state.  Faculty Senate passes a resolution against such a move. 

May 2, 2003 Faculty Senate passed A Resolution to Facilitate Conversation Between Selected Members of the Faculty Senate and the Senior Administration seeking a facilitator to foster communication.  The president refuses.

Year Two

Summer 2003 Selected administrators are given raises of 11% or higher.  Faculty receive a 2% state appropriated raise.

August 26, 2003 University announces record enrollment for fall semester (largest enrollment in the state).  Subsequently, an investigation determines that the enrollment numbers were artificially inflated by placing hundreds of students, some of whom were not enrolled at USM, in a graduate level class.

October 2003 Chief Financial Officer position is filled without a search.  The individual named to the position was actually hired two months earlier in August 2003.

October 28, 2003 Dr. Terry Kinney, Director of the School of Human Performance and Recreation was notified that his contract was terminated three days later (October 31^st).  No reason for termination is given.  Dr. Kinney left a tenured position at another university and was promised a tenured position at USM by the Lucas administration.  The Thames administration stated that a paper snafu resulted in the tenure never actually being awarded.  Dr. Kinney sued the university for $2 million 

November 2003 Rep. Gene Taylor announces a proposed venture between USM and the Gulf Coast Veterans Hospital.  IHL Board members (as well as USM faculty) are surprised by the news.  Dr. Thames has already hired Dr. Richard Hadden M.D. to run the program, another administrator hired without a search.

November 3, 2003 - Faculty receive and are told to sign a new Drug & Alcohol policy which states that faculty and staff can be fired immediately if any detectable level of alcohol is found in their bodies.  This policy is later rescinded.

December 5, 2003 USM AAUP asks for an official investigation by the IHL into the enrollment numbers announced in the fall. An internal audit conducted by the university finds human error as the cause and the director of the Office of Institutional Research/Office of Graduate Studies steps down.  This person is later restored as Office of Graduate Studies director.

December 10, 2003 Another administrator is hired with no search.  Public Relations Release: Les Goff, who received his doctorate in polymer science from the University of Southern Mississippi, has been named the school's executive director of innovation and business ventures.  Shortly thereafter, Ken Malone, who also received his doctorate in polymer sciences from USM, is named Chief Operating Officer for the Gulf Coast Campus of USM without a search.

January 16, 2004 USM receives its second letter from SACS citing problems with institutional effectiveness and distance learning programs.

January 2004 67 faculty members receive an 8% merit raise.  No criteria were given to the deans other than based on performance and governance options are not followed in determining the raises. These new deans are given a short time to submit names of the top 10% of faculty in their college who will be given the raises.

February 2004 USM announces closure of Van Hook Golf Course to make room for an innovation and commercialization park. The Van Hook surviving family members (donors and supporters of USM) are not contacted by university officials before the announcement and were angered by that fact. "I think that would have been a better approach to the situation than by finding out by reading the front page of the newspaper," [great grandson] Forte said.

March 5, 2004 Two distinguished and long time professors, Drs. Glamser and Stringer, are suspended from the university pending termination proceedings.  The two professors are locked out of their offices and escorted by security off campus.  The chairs, dean, and provost are not previously informed.

April 2004 A termination hearing is held for Drs. Glamser and Stringer, involving legal counsels and the services of a retired Supreme Court justice.  The hearing is suspended after Dr. Thames testimony and by later that afternoon a settlement is announced whereby the two professors will receive two years pay (estimated at over $300,000)  Other costs to the university include legal fees, lost productivity, etc.  The hearing draws state and local press attention as wall as attention from the Chronicle of Higher Education.

March 6, 2004 Ten USM students and alumni were escorted by security from a USM basketball game for bringing protest signs after the suspension of the two professors.

March 7, 2004 Faculty Senate, in a specially called meeting, votes 40-0 no confidence in President Thames.

March 10, 2004 At a special faculty convocation, the full faculty votes no confidence by a vote of 430-32.

Year Three

August 2004 U.S. News and World Reports annual Americas Best Colleges report lists USM as a fourth tier university.  On September 2, 2004 President Thames blames the former provost for failing to provide information to U.S. News.

August 2004 20 USM faculty names are submitted to the IHL as unsatisfactory in terms of Post-Tenure Review.  Deans are given little guidance determining unsatisfactory status and the procedures in the USM Faculty Handbook are ignored.  President Thames says that he never saw the names that were submitted.  All the names are later withdrawn by the USM administration.  Blame is again given to former Provost Hudson.

October 12, 2004 Two Gulf Coast administrators invade a faculty members classroom to correct information that the faculty member gave her students about distance education on the coast campus.  No administrators talk to the faculty member to ascertain what she actually said nor do the administrators request permission from the faculty member before addressing the class.  

October 2004 Department of Economic Development and Planning, originally housed in the College of Business and Economic Development, is split in two (because of lax standards, this department endangered accreditation of the College of Business) International Development is moved to Political Science while Economic Development is moved to the College of Science and Technology.  No faculty are involved in the decision or planning of the move. 

December 8, 2004 USM is placed on academic probation by SACS for reporting issues involving distance education.

January 2005 As is required by SACS, USM supposedly has a university-produced Strategic Plan in place.  A Strategic Plan is released in January bearing no resemblance to anything developed with faculty involvement. Instead, goals within the plan closely resemble goals outlined by President Thames at a Faculty Senate meeting in September 2002.

January 2005 - Enrollment caps on numerous classes are lifted without chair or faculty approval/knowledge by the Customer Service department on the Gulf Coast campus.  Because the classes were overbooked (not enough chairs, microscopes, etc), many students are forced to drop but are given $100 scholarships if they re-enroll in a different class.  The administration later rescinds this type of action.

January 2005 Gulf Coast faculty complain after seeing a plan to renovate the 3^rd floor of the new coast library to make way for an Executive MBA hybrid curriculum.  Two of these faculty members are given written reprimands by the provost.  The reprimands are later rescinded. 

January 2005 Dr. Thames announces that, because of budget concerns, he is canceling faculty sabbaticals.  This decision is later rescinded.

February 1, 2005 The University Librarian, at a SACS Compliance Team meeting, indicates that the university could easily be out of compliance on core requirement 2.9 because the library has no money for books.  The University Librarian has been soliciting the administration for money for the last two years. 

February 2005 Post Tenure Review Policy At a campus meeting of the provost, deans, university lawyer, and Faculty Senate (FS) leaders, a decision is made that the university does not need to respond to an IHL-mandated deadline concerning the revision of the universitys Post-Tenure Review policy.  Rationale given is that the university can do this sometime later within a revision of the USM Faculty Handbook.  FS leaders object since FS spent considerable effort making revisions requested by IHL.

February 2005 The provost and the dean of the College of Business publicly argue about the research direction and academic plan for the College of Business.

March 2005 Business leaders meet to communicate good things about the university.  The press and USM faculty are not included to this invitation only event.

March 2005 The American Library Association accreditation committee makes a site visit to USMs School of Library and Information Science (SLIS).  At the exit interview with the Provost, President, and SLIS Department Chair, the Committee expresses concerns about no money for the purchase of library books.  President Thames denies any knowledge of the problem.  March 31, 2005, $130,000 was transferred to the University of Southern Mississippi Libraries for the purchase of  books.

March 23, 2005 President Thames announces that he is closing the months-long provost search due to intense institutional focus on SACS and the uncertainty of our legislative budget appropriations.

March 26, 2005 The local newspaper publishes an article that USM [is] on Track to Offer Courses at High Schools.  Supposedly, two USM departments will offer classes at area high schools.  The chair and faculty in one of the departments and the Academic Council are unaware of these plans.