... and clothes, rock concerts, cell phones, music collections, and apartments.

What is going on is so complicated and hard for the non-academic community to understand, that none of it translates over to the public.  I don't think this will ever be possible.  The only rallying points we have are the drop in ranking and probation.  The USM PR machine has down-played the porobabtion, and the US News seems long ago and "just another paperwork thing."  I am at a new school and it is even difficult for other academics to really grasp the problems at Southern Miss and the way MS itself works.  It is unique.  You have to understand the IHL, cronyism, the North vs. South in the state, casinos, etc., etc.  We'll never get momentum going in the public.  Hard, cold reality.  Doesn't mean we shouldn't try to keep exposing scandals and uncovering sordid dealings...in fact, this might be the only way to finally topple the top.   

What is not so unique is teh declining state budgets of many public universities who are also inventing new ways to bolster the bottom-line, tuition driven programs like distance learning.  USM is a follower in this regard, for better or worse, but is not unique to USM.  USM is doing these things without any eye on quality or backing them up with the necessary resources...we want something quick for nothing, it's as simple as that.

What is USM's bottom line?  No one knows.  No one shares this information.  What kind of business does not share these financial facts and figures and has accountability?  Most schools, public and private, have these available.  Even so, so much is hidden at USM and is impossible to uncvover.  I wonder how close to being broke we are?

USM is a growing quagmire and it is very, very sad.  It is hard to concentrate on scholarship, creativity, and teaching in an environment that is unpredictible and unstable like USM's. 

I don't know what else can be said or done.  At a total loss. 

Well, we can all sit around and argue over our ideals, and idealism or we can face hard practicle truth. The shelby is in power. Nothing is about to get rid of him. You want PR? than you have to mobilize students and parents. How do you do that. A little hard organizing but is relatively simple. SGA or anyone can do a survey of on the ground actual students via their views on processing of financial aid and transfer credits. How is that situation now? Publicize the results. Sure, we can sit around and say it has ever been thus and so and so forth and factionalize ourselves into inaction forever. Or, we can get the students to moblize themselves and their parents about the money they spend.

How many required classes are cancelled this year? Simple survey of all depts will answer that question, too. Vague, sillly, waste of time. Ok. Maybe. But right now one fat man sits in the dome sending contracts and fees to cronies all over the state. Who wants that to change?

so; the issue is this:

There is a war on the students and they suffer for real, right now. Simple surveys will give the data.

Dont want to collect the data. Of course not. Dont want to use it in a nice student organized press conference. Of course not. Why? What are they going to do fire the students?

So you can be scm and basically insist on policies that only support the status quo, or get the students mobilized on the issues that matter to them.

Finally, if things werent so bad why the hell am I too chicken to use my own name? And why is everyone else including scm. If things were ideal and just wouldnt we use our own names around here. What have we got to fear. Plenty, as it turns out.

quote:

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Originally posted by: wass'up?
"from Robert CampbellPS. It might be worth noting that the Provost at Clemson has actually pushed for a reduction of all undergraduate degree programs to 120 hours so they really will be four-year programs for most students. She didn't get what she wanted from Engineering (which continues to run five-year programs while pretending they take just four) but the rest of the university will see 120-hour BA and BS programs starting in Fall 2005. -------------- Isn't it common knowledge that IHL is putting pressure on our academic veeps to get all IHL university undergraduate degree programs down to 120 hrs?"

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124 Now officially (landed right smack dab in the middle of 128-120). There are a fair number of exceptions: specialized degrees, requirements of accrediting agencies. So while some will have to contract -- many will not. Also our GE shrank a bit when we went to a new GenED core.

Invictus dear, you're my hero too. That being the case, would you please make some comments about distance education and part-time and/or working students, particularly as relating to the mission of a public university.

I prefer not to rile this individual again.

Kickback,

Thanks--here are the Board minutes that refer to the Pileum contract.

http://www.ihl.state.ms.us/admin/downloads/BdAug2003.pdf

The contract had to be scaled back from the original $1,282,000.

It's reasonable to assume that Gary Stringer and others were being spied on the minute Pileum took over iTech at USM.

Robert Campbell

 

 

Robert,

Let's not forget that there are apparently at least two Pileum contracts.  Taken together, they're quite suspicious.  First there was the one approved, on an almost unheard of split Board vote, at the August 2003 Board meeting.  That contract was originally set for $1,282,000 but then reduced by $195,000 to $1,087,000.  Then there's the second contract, the "penny less" contract for $249,999.99, that was granted later in the fall (someone with the Glamser-Stringer evidence packet can verify the date).  On the matter of this second contract, Thames was open at the hearings about how the amount was designed to fly under Board radar: http://www.geocities.com/wwfwhywefight/50.au.  That he expected everything to possibly blow up in his face at the hearings could be seen by how closely Jill Beneke followed Thames into the room that morning.  He needed someone there to scapegoat if any real questions were asked about the contracts.

It would appear that once the Board reduced the first contract by $195,000 that Thames wrote a second one to make up the difference -- and then some.  The idea, if not Thames's, came from one of the dissenting Board voters, Klumb and/or Nicholson being the most likely.

An honest state auditor would be looking into this matter, but, as one can see in yesterday's President's Message, the auditor won't look into Thames unless there's a scream heard all the way to Jackson.

 

IllEagle

quote:

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Originally posted by: Dick the Butcher
" If the law were really about defining what is "right" . . . , we would need no lawyers. "

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Eh, what?  I'd say rather,  if people would obey, we'd need only one law: "Do unto others ..."

kick