Liberty and Power on Klumb's preemptive strike - USM Forum -- Message Board

Date: Feb 1, 2005

Liberty and Power on Klumb's preemptive strike

Date: Feb 2, 2005

Robert,

Need some help! The link is not active to your article................

Date: Feb 2, 2005

Green Hornet,

I see that Liberty and Power's technical woes have continued--in fact, my post from last night has been erased.

Until the Web master can get that problem fixed, here's what I posted for a little while last night:

USM: Thames' Most Vocal Backer Attempts a Preemptive Strike

<html>
<body>
At the University of Southern Mississippi, the Faculty Senate will soon
be voting
on a second resolution of no confidence in president Shelby F. Thames.
The crucial
meeting takes place tomorrow at 5 PM on the main campus in Hattiesburg.

During the nonstop crises that have characterized the Shelby Thames regime
since the fall of 2003, Roy Klumb, the current President of the Mississippi
IHL Board of Trustees, has
become his most vocal backer.
So it should come as a shock to no one that Klumb is out front today,
<a href="http://www.hattiesburgamerican.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050201/NEWS01/502010301/1002">
in the pages
of the Hattiesburg American,</a>
telling the USM Faculty Senate not to bother
with the no confidence resolution because he's already made up
his mind to ignore it.

<blockquote>Shelby Thames job as president of the University of
Southern Mississippi is safe and any effort by the school's
faculty to hold a vote of no confidence would have little
impact on the state College Board, the panel's president said Monday.</blockquote>

<blockquote>"I don't see how that it would be prudent to
remove the president right now," said Roy Klumb of Gulfport.</blockquote>

But even Klumb's advocacy is wearing thin. He has run out of
praise for Thames' sage leadership and exceptional management skills. He is
no longer trying to convince anyone of USM's "world class" status. He has given
up minimizing the seriousness of USM's accreditation problems.

<blockquote>If Thames were to be removed, the options for
the College Board are limited, Klumb said.</blockquote>

<blockquote>"We have no president in waiting," Klumb said.
"We can't go back to Dr. (Aubrey) Lucas [the long-time
president of USM who came out of retirement to serve on an interim
basis in 2001-2002]. We have no one in our
system that can sit in that chair. We have no one at USM that can sit
in that chair. We can't sit here facing a death bill from SACS without a
president, without a leader. It doesn't make sense to me."</blockquote>

What doesn't make sense is Klumb's notion that no one can replace Thames.

Shelby Thames is a 69-year-old man with a bad heart. Any Board of Trustees would
have to be thinking about possible successors to someone of his age and health
status.

In December, the Board asked an experienced university system administrator,
Richard Crofts, to monitor the accreditation situation at USM.
Crofts is presently
the interim IHL Commissioner, but the Board is in the process of hiring a
permanent commissioner. If the Board made Crofts an attractive
offer, he could be ensconced in the Dome (as USM's central administration
building is known) before the spring semester is out.

Klumb did get one thing right. There are no possible successors in
USM's upper administration. Thames' major
henchpeople (such as "Chief Operating Officer" Ken Malone and Chief Financial
Officer Gregg Lassen) were put in place because they share his ruthlessness and
his complete disrespect
for the university's mission. His minor
henchpeople (such as his Special Assistant in charge
of accreditation, Joan Exline, and his Dean of
Arts and Letters, Elliot Pood) have little credibility now and will have
none at all once Thames is gone. And because Thames is strongly opposed to
letting academic officials make academic decisions, his Provost, Jay
Grimes, sits and waits for orders from the major henchmen.

The USM Faculty Senate needs to throw Klumb's pronouncements back in
his face, by voting no confidence in Shelby
Thames, asking the Board to appoint Richard Crofts in his place --
then following up with a resolution of no confidence in Roy Klumb.

And if you still think that Thames and his henchpeople are going to help
get USM off probation with its accrediting body--you need to check out
<a href="http://www.usm.edu/ecodev/pages/faculty.htm">
the new Web page for USM's department of Economic and Workforce Development.</a>
(E and WD now houses the Master's program that was hastily shifted out of the
College of Business into the College of Science and Technology.) In 6 months
at USM, Judson Edwards has gone from Assistant Professor to Visiting Assistant
Professor back to Assistant Professor. As of January 1,
Ken Malone has been promoted to Full
Professor, apparently without applying for a
promotion or leaving any of the paper trail that goes along with it.
Are faculty titles in the Economic Development program
created and altered by presidential fiat? And if they are, dDoes Shelby
Thames think he can sneak all of that past the site visitors who will be arriving
soon from the Southern Association
of Colleges and Schools?
</body>
</html>

Date: Feb 2, 2005

Sorry about the HTML tags and uneven lines, but at least it can be read until L and P can handle new entries again.

Robert Campbell

Date: Feb 2, 2005

Thank you, Robert

Date: Feb 2, 2005

The technical problems at L and P are still not solved. I'll let everyone know when new entries can be put on the site again.

RC

Date: Feb 2, 2005

The technical problems at Liberty and Power may be fixed now. At any rate, the entry is back, slightly revised, with a real HNN entry number:

http://hnn.us/blogs/entries/9969.html

Another hour or two, and parts of it would have been obsolete...

Robert Campbell

Date: Feb 2, 2005

Nick Ortego (from WDAM), who is live at campus just reported that the FS is in closed session. His commentary was interesting - referred to Thames as the "teflon president" b/c "his boss" Roy Klumb backed him 100% - summed up by saying something like he may slide through this "mess". Back at 10:00.

Date: Feb 2, 2005

My prayers are with the FS. They have, as a unified body, provided the academic muscles in an effort to keep USM's academic respect, even with an attack against their own personal respect if they don't agree with the littlest red blooded American male of all time, SFT. Godspeed, SF. We all await your decision.