As fall semester approaches, all six Southern Miss teaching and research campuses have kicked into high gear in anticipation of students return. Athletes are returning as training begins, Greek life participants are readying for recruitment and residence halls are getting a final sprucing up for arriving students.  Most importantly, our faculty members are putting the finishing touches on their syllabi and course materials in preparation for their fall classes.

As president, I am looking forward to my first academic year at Southern Miss and have spent the summer months getting ready for a great time in the life of our university.  I think the fall is going to bring us to a new level of excellence. 

• Preliminary enrollment reports are promising, especially for our Gulf Coast campuses. 
• We are entering the New Year with a two-year average of $100 million in external research funding.
• We will be welcoming nearly 100 new faculty members from distinguished programs around the world. 
• Southern Miss is attracting significant gifts from private donors. 
• Our athletic programs will soon enjoy spectacular new facilities.  FYI:  Sporting News just named us as having the Best Fans in the conference with the Best Game Day Atmosphere!

Here are some other recent headlines from around Southern Miss.

Northrop Grumman Corporation Ship Systems recently gave a $2,000 donation to The University of Southern Mississippi's chapter of National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE). The money will be used for book scholarships for NSBE members. About 40 Southern Miss College of Science and Technology students belong to NSBE, two of whom interned this summer at Northrop Grumman Corporation Ship Systems in Pascagoula.

Southern Miss will offer a Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) workshop in the fall semester for pre-medical students that are planning to take the MCAT exam in 2008. The workshop will be offered on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. and practice exams will be on Saturdays. For students taking the workshop at Southern Miss Gulf Coast, the course will be offered through the interactive video network. Students will learn the content of the exam; which includes physical sciences, verbal reasoning, writing samples and biological sciences; and become familiar with the exam based on the question format. At the end of the semester, students who earn two hours of course credit will be given the opportunity to take a full practice MCAT.

The University of Southern Mississippi Institute for Disability Studies has received a $2.5 million five-year grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration on Developmental Disabilities for continued funding for Mississippis University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities. This program has been located at Southern Miss since 1979.

A helicopter carries the first of six long LED boards to the upper decks of M.M. Roberts Stadium, Sunday on the University of Southern Mississippis campus in Hattiesburg, Miss. Workers used the helicopter to help complete the first portion of a state-of-the-art video scoreboard installation, as they connected the boards to the upper deck on both sides of the stadium.

The School of Human Performance and Recreation is taking the classroom experience one step further while preparing students for a more advanced technological world using Dartfish, motion analysis software that lets students study digital video of athletic performance. Whether analyzing a person's walking gait after an injury, a baseball pitcher's throwing technique or tennis player's serve, Dartfish provides the user several modes to highlight the critical elements of the movements. Capturing these critical elements is key to the students' abilities to detect errors or deficiencies in the movements, as well as pinpointing prospective strengths. The program is currently used in an undergraduate biomechanics labs and graduate sport skills analysis class. Read more here.

The research of two Southern Miss graduate students is being supported with scholarship funding by the RAND Gulf States Policy Institute. The scholarships are awarded to students conducting research on issues facing the Gulf States region and who attend universities that are members of the RGSPI university partnership, which includes Southern Miss. Qualified research topics may address issues that evolved following hurricanes Katrina and Rita; or they may cover long-term, systemic issues in the region. Get the full story here.
 

Researchers at The University of Southern Mississippi Gulf Coast Research Laboratory (GCRL) need fishermens help gathering data on sharks in Mississippi waters. Anglers who catch a tagged shark are asked to call GCRL and report some basic catch information said Dr. Eric Hoffmayer, fisheries biologist at GCRL and project leader. Were tagging tons of sharks, but we need the publics help reporting this information to us, so we can learn more about these sharks. Anglers who catch a tagged shark are asked to call in information to the phone number listed on the tag, 228.872.4257. Information to record and call in includes: tag number, date, GPS location and total length of the shark from the tip of the snout to the upper lobe of the tail fin. Read more about this story here.

Ive spent the summer meeting with constituent groups and discussing how best to communicate and relate.  Ive tinkered a bit with the executive cabinet structure and streamlined the leadership team.  Working from the Gulf Coast facilities has greatly enhanced my understanding of the challenges facing recovery there and the opportunities for significant growth.

I hope youll come to campus this fall. Maybe Ill see you at the Power House restaurant on campus, in the bookstore or tailgating before a game. This fall its Southern Miss To the Top!

Dr. Martha D. Saunders

President