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USM Forum -- Message Board -> AAUP-USM MESSAGE BOARD -> Time for action
Post Info TOPIC: Time for action
Jameela Lares

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Time for action
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With all due respect, nay gratitude, to the two awards committees that kept up our spirits during the waiting times, we now need to be putting our energies into contacting the media and the IHL rather than into self-congratulation.


I'm trying to formulate my own letter to the IHL and will post it once its done.  In fact, though many of us post until pseudonyms, any of us who can report back about something we've written will be encouraging the rest.  As promised, I've copied this note from an old thread (not post, sorry) to start a new one.


There was some question about the most recent addresses of ALL the IHL board members.  Remind me, has that been updated on the AAUP main page?  And when, again, is the IHL meeting?


Jameela



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Invictus

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I am in about the 14th draft of my letter to trustees. It took a half dozen drafts to get the venom toned down. If anyone could post the snail mail addresses of the new board members, I would also be indebted.



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Robert Campbell

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Invictus,


When you come up for breath between drafts, please take a little time to make your revised USM-SACS timeline available to more media outlets.


Robert Campbell



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Invictus

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quote:
Originally posted by: Robert Campbell
"When you come up for breath between drafts, please take a little time to make your revised USM-SACS timeline available to more media outlets."


I believe this has been done. Any media person who receives a copy of the timeline does not need verification from its author -- it was taken 100% from the USM release & anybody who has a passing familiarity with the 10-year cycle of SACS accreditation can verify what is "on schedule" & "standard procedure." It requires absolutely no "insider knowledge" of USM to decipher the timeline that USM released.

I must add that I was very disappointed in the HA's choice of headline this morning. Mr. Walters swallowed USM's spinner bait & ran with it, hook, line & sinker. There is no gap in the records. USM's officials, if they have any comprehension of the accreditation cycle at all, know there is no gap in the records. OK, that's a big "if" right there. They very well may not know there are no communications to find.

A world class university run by amateurs. What a concept.

Question, Dr. Campbell: What would be happening in Clemson SC today if this had happened to your institution?

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stinky cheese man

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i talked to someone today who believes they have a copy of a compliance letter sent in 2000 or 2001.

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stephen judd

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quote:
Originally posted by: Invictus
" I believe this has been done. Any media person who receives a copy of the timeline does not need verification from its author -- it was taken 100% from the USM release & anybody who has a passing familiarity with the 10-year cycle of SACS accreditation can verify what is "on schedule" & "standard procedure." It requires absolutely no "insider knowledge" of USM to decipher the timeline that USM released. I must add that I was very disappointed in the HA's choice of headline this morning. Mr. Walters swallowed USM's spinner bait & ran with it, hook, line & sinker. There is no gap in the records. USM's officials, if they have any comprehension of the accreditation cycle at all, know there is no gap in the records. OK, that's a big "if" right there. They very well may not know there are no communications to find. A world class university run by amateurs. What a concept. Question, Dr. Campbell: What would be happening in Clemson SC today if this had happened to your institution?"

I don't think we'll be disappointed in Kevin for long. For one thing he doesn't write the headlines. I also think it will take him a while to understand some of the implications of these things -- he is a smart guy and not an academic so he'll need help to discern the spin from the truth. But he is real capable of getting there and I believe will keep asking the right questions. All I have to do is think about my own lack of experience with SACs and how long it takes me to discern the pattern of incosistencies to know that this isn't easy stuff for someone outside academia to digest.


All he needs is the right information, and good background from folks who know it. You are doing a great job at doing that Invictus so please keep it up. If I had a guess we'll see another story tomorrow.


 



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LVN

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Right you are -- HA has some problems in its headline-writing department. About once a week I have a throw-the-paper-down-and-scream experience with headlines which distort, editorialize, or even contradict what's actually in the story. Not that writing headlines is an easy job, but there should be some attention paid to what the story actually says.

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Robert Campbell

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Invictus and LVN,


I'll add my voice to the chorus on headline-writing.  The authors of news pieces are not responsible for the headlines that go over them, and even the top newspapers have been known to affix foolish, lurid, or grossly distorted headlines to well-reported and well-written articles.  What I have seen of Kevin Walters' work lately suggests a much smarter and more dedicated reporter than normally gets assigned to articles about a university by a daily newspaper.


If Clemson underwent an administrative meltdown of the present magnitude, it's hard to know how the local media would handle it.  The Greenville News (nearest daily newspaper of note--also now part of the Gannett chain) sucks up to the local power structure, which for it includes the Clemson Board of Trustees, runs editorials about the university to please the Board, does little investigative reporting, and assigns 2nd-string reporters to cover Clemson University.


During the major scandal at the University of South Carolina in the 1980s, which led to the fall of USC's megalomaniacal president, James Holderman, and a two-year takeover of the university by the State Law Enforcement Division, the story was broken by a big out of state newspaper, the Charlotte Observer.  Neither the Greenville News nor the State (in USC's home town, Columbia) showed any appetite for it initially.


I think Thames has vaporized all of the deference that was starting to creep back into the Hattiesburg American's coverage of USM, and that overall the Hat Am is doing a well above average job handling the probation story.  (I should add that WDAM and WLOX seem to pay more attention to university affairs than the major TV news operation in this area, WYFF.)


Robert Campbell



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foot soldier

Date:
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quote:
Originally posted by: Invictus
"

There is no gap in the records. USM's officials, if they have any comprehension of the accreditation cycle at all, know there is no gap in the records. OK, that's a big "if" right there. They very well may not know there are no communications to find.
"


Okay, help me here. I read the time line, but can some one please explain to me, again, why there is no gap in the records? I believe there isn't, I just don't quite get how we know that. Also, if you can explain it clearly and simply here, maybe Kevin W. or others lurking will get it faster. (End of the semester fatigue setting in, 35 term papers to go . . . . )

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