Miss. Business Journal Online

Google cache http://www.msbusiness.com/article.cfm?View=2&ID=901 as retrieved on Dec 11, 2004 05:06:14 GMT

Issue of the week [poll]

In light of the SACS probation situation at Southern Miss, do you think President Shelby Thames should resign?

Yes - 62%

No - 39%

[Voting is closed.]

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Transcript, American Assoc. of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers

http://www.aacrao.org/transcript/index.cfm?fuseaction=show_view&doc_id=2427


Written by: Heather Zimar
Published: 12/14/2004

Accreditor Places University of Southern Mississippi on Probation

The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools placed the University of Southern Mississippi on academic probation for one year, reports The Associated Press.

In a written statement, USM officials said the accreditation group is concerned about the university’s “deficiencies in the areas of assessment of institutional effectiveness, assessment of distance-learning effectiveness and strategic planning in academic units.”

USM President Shelby Thames said students won’t be negatively affected. “The areas of concern do not have anything to do with faculty teaching,” Thames said. “This status does not in any way negatively affect our students and their education.”

Richard Crofts, the state’s interim commissioner of higher education said the school will not lose accreditation.

“Since the last SACS visit in 1995, the reporting and documentation efforts were not done as they should have been,” said Thames. He said he will work to remedy the situation by SACS’s next annual meeting in December 2005.

College Board President Roy Klumb said he was concerned and plans to meet with Thames this week. SACS did not respond to inquiries by the Associated Press.

SACS is the regional accrediting body in 11 southern states and Latin America for institutions that award associate, baccalaureate, master’s or doctoral degrees.
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Related Links:
Associated Press Article
http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/news/state/10370137.htm

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Mississippi Smartass [blog]

http://yowyowgabriel.blogspot.com/

[Filtered by activeboard's profanity screen.]

Sunday, December 12, 2004
 

On Why You Should Take Care of Tyrants ASAP, And Not Wait

The University of Southern Mississippi, the college that I attend, is on probation. The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, the local accreditation board, has given USM one year of probation to clean up their act, or the school loses its accreditation. Do you know what that means, ladies and gents?

That means that, if the school hasn't cleaned its **** up in one year, any degree earned from this institution will be utterly, completely useless. The university has to scramble so that this does not happen.

"Where does the blame lie?" one may ask. Blame does not actually lie on one person, but on numerous people who did not bring this to the attention of the school that reporting to SACS was less than efficient. Typically, I find it easy to blame the presidents at the time. Including our embattled president, Shelby Thames.

Thames is an incredibly unpopular president. He's a ****ing tyrant. Among other things that he's done:

Dividing USM's nine colleges into five, in effect firing the nine deans. Among other complains, we no longer have a college of liberal arts. Now, said college has been brought, along with the college of fine arts, into the general "College of Arts and Letters". I have all the respect in the world for the fine arts, but they deserve their own college, as do we.

Using nepotism to hire for several positions, including hiring one Angeline Dvorak, a highly unqualified individual, to be responsible for research and economic development. Her academic writing has been criticized as unacceptable by those who have examined it, and she has since been demoted. Notably, her husband was assigned a new position, something like risk assessment manager or something to that effect.

Misquoting the amount of students here, claiming that USM was the most populated university in the state. Actually, that honor belongs to Mississippi State University. He would later blame somebody else for the mishap, rather than take responsibility himself.

Firing two tenured professors without a moment's notice, then, finding that he was not legally able to do that, forcing the school to go through a long litigation process to try and get them fired.

The College Board, run also with an iron fist by one Roy Klumb, voted to put him in in spite of the overwhelming outcry from the faculty who claimed that Thames was unacceptable.

The university was on the way up, until Shelby Thames began his administration. Under his tyranny, this university has seen massive problems.

We could not get him fired last time we protested. We need more help. Now is not an opportune time, with exams and whatnot. However, when the semester starts again, I want to mount a campaign to get rid of Shelby Thames. I do not want my degree to be meaningless, and I feel that, with Thames at the wheel, it will be soon enough.

# posted by Kirke @ 7:31 AM 0 comments

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Accreditation of Distance Learning Programs Resource Directory

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