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Originally posted by: almost retired
"I visited the home last night ...
This person never revealed "which college" or "which dean," and I didn't want to even ask any follow questions. 
 "

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What school does she have ANY credentials to lead? Her PhD is in English, and her new field of expertise is Business. Surely not COAL. Surely, surely . . .

This story (at the top) actually supports something I've heard a few times lately, and it even supplies additional details.  I've been hearing that SFT found out that Dvorak would get the ADP position a few weeks ago.  At that time, he moved economic development out of the CBED and into the COAL and COST.  Up until that moment, he fully planned to install Dvorak as Dean of the CBED, and to do so would keep the economic development people over there.  When it became apparent that AD was leaving USM, he gave in to Doty's request to have economic development divorced from the CBED.  I heard that Thames planned to make the move some time soon.  The Christmas break sounds logical for a plan of this sort.

Just chiming in to say that others have heard musings about this covert operation.  It seems to have been the real deal.  It just didn't come to fruition.

 

 

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Originally posted by: About town
"Can't imagine that ANY faculty member would want someone with Dvorak's credentials as his/her dean. Talk about tenure and promotion decisions. "

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What's your point? /sarcasm

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Originally posted by: Chicken Soup Lady
"Let me get this straight - - Hollandsworth wasn't "qualified" to teach history, published books or not, but AD was "qualified" to be Dean of the College of Business, without having a degree, publications, etc. in the field. EXCUSE ME???"

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Is there any rule that says that a dean must be qualified to be a faculty member in the college that they oversee? Or is that just a line in the "mandatory requirements" section, a line that could be deleted?

But assuming that a dean must be qualified as a faculty member, let's see what comfortable words the scriptures, er, SACS regulations, have for us...

First, let's assume that AD would have been made dean of a College of Business & ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT. We know she doesn't have a degree in business. So we turn to Economic Development. According to USM, no other university offers a doctorate in this field <CHUCKLE>, so we would have to qualify AD using the SACS rules regarding faculty "who have demonstrated exceptional scholarly or creative activity, or professional experience, but who may not possess the required academic credentials." As we all know, AD brought in untold hundreds of new businesses to Mississippi & untold gazillions of dollars in tax revenues to the state. Why, without her efforts prior to coming to USM, the State of Mississippi would be in dire financial straits, right? So, it would be a breeze to write up a special exception to qualify her as an economic developmentationist.

OK. All levity aside, would somebody please post a description of the economic development activities that Angeline Dvorak directed prior to coming to USM? Name the specific companies, business & industry that she attracted to the state. How many new jobs resulted solely from her efforts? I want to know.

If you can't do that, would somebody re-post the name of the nonprofit that she ran under the Muskrat administration?

PUNCH - you spell as well as Seeker. Any connection?

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Originally posted by: Huck Finn
" You're barely qualified to post."

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The ultimate insult...thanks for the chuckle!

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Originally posted by: PUNCH
"You people need to get real jobs and get a life!  Talk about credentials you half whits are not qualified to go elsewhere and now your mad because your stuck here under Shelby!"

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The half-wits are people like you who scatter shoot without aiming.

Some of us are not stuck at USM under Shelby. I'm not. Some of us aren't speaking from uninformed opinion when we talk about how a university should be administered, because some of us are (or have been) administrators. Some of us don't think shared governance is just some "bothersome" theory; some of us know that it is sound management practice.

When some of us talk about sound management practice in higher education, we are not talking out of some sub-baccalaureate-level sub-theoretical understanding of how a mom-and-pop small businesses are generally run. We are talking out of experience in actually managing an educational enterprise. Regardless of the hogwash that politicians (including the current USM administration) like to spout, the profit-loss bottom line is not an indicator of the quality of an educational institution.

Shelby Thames is fighting like crazy to keep USM solvent financially, give the Devil his due. Unfortunately, he is destroying the quality of the institution to do it, largely because he doesn't have the depth of experience, willingness to learn, or personality traits necessary to be an effective college president. All he had going for him were a brief (unsuccessful) tenure as a USM vice president, an overblown reputation as an "entrepreneurial researcher," the ability to manipulate the press during the selection process & a back pocket full of political connections.

Some of us actually care about the university. Not what the current USM administration tells us is "caring" for the university but an actual vision of what a university can & should be. Until the top administration changes at USM, the university will continue to muck along looking for quick-fix solutions to long-term problems, insulting various constituencies along the way & losing its status & reputation.

the name of the operation was the Mississippi Technology Alliance.  Here's a link to its site:

http://www.technologyalliance.ms/