Liberty and Power on Black Friday - USM Forum -- Message Board

Date: Feb 5, 2005

Liberty and Power on Black Friday

Date: Feb 5, 2005

robert--someone just suggested another possibility for the conspiratorily minded. maybe the idea was also influenced by angie dvorak. heads up the ADP. i can hear it now--"the local business leaders want more help from those CoB people who sit in their invory towers doing basic research."

Date: Feb 5, 2005

RC,

Very humble reference to your own great letter in the HA! The "threat" language in the eyewitness paragraph and "now this minute" language in the MSU paragraph are not accurate and perhaps unnecessarily inflammatory.

As always,

Thanks

Date: Feb 5, 2005

P.,

I took advantage of your advice to go back and do a little editing.

Besides moderating the language that you thought was inflammatory I added a paragraph on the SACS consultant's specific advice not to start new academic programs while on probation.

Frankly, I think that Grimes' letter threatened to fire Dean Doty, and maybe threatened a good deal more...but when the letter is leaked to the press, or obtained under the Public Records Act, it will speak for itself.

As for ceasing to do basic research, right now, this minute... I'll admit that when I first read the descriptions of the material that Doty read out loud yesterday, I was reminded of the scene in Bananas, where the new, rather Castroish dictator of an unnamed Latin American country declares that the new official language will be Swedish, and everyone must now wear their underwear on the outside, so it can be inspected at any time.

Robert Campbell

Date: Feb 5, 2005

quote:
Originally posted by: Robert Campbell
"I was reminded of the scene in Bananas, where the new, rather Castroish dictator of an unnamed Latin American country declares that the new official language will be Swedish, and everyone must now wear their underwear on the outside, so it can be inspected at any time. Robert Campbell"

I think those instructions were included in the sections not read aloud!

Date: Feb 5, 2005

Another great post, Robert; thanks! When someone DOES write a book on this whole fiasco (and it is more and more obvious that someone SHOULD), all that person will need to do is read your L&P to get a sense of the on-going narrative. In fact, have you given any thought to writing the book yourself? I would definitely buy a copy! The only question is whether it would be shelved with the tragedies or the farces.

Date: Feb 6, 2005

USM Sympathizer,

Monte Piliawsky is working on a sequel to Exit 13. I don't think I'm giving away any secrets by mentioning that. I expect the sequel will be colorful and incisive, as Monte's original book was.

Meanwhile, I have two book projects going already--one in theoretical psychology and one in jazz and R&B history. And I'm running behind schedule on both.

So I haven't made the commitment to writing a book about the USM crisis. Though it's not a commitment that needs making right away, as far as I can see...

Whether a book about USM will be a tragedy or a farce depends on how the story ends.

Robert Campbell

Date: Feb 6, 2005

quote:
Originally posted by: Robert Campbell
"I have two book projects going already-- one in jazz and R&B history."

Swingin' Down The Lane

Robert: Although this site is devoted largely to the big bands, some of the old jazz and R&B musicians themselves, and others intimately knowledgable with the history of jazz & R&B, frequently post thereon. They are a friendly group, and I enjoy viewing their interaction online (and I occasionally post along with them). I know this is not relevant to the mission of this message board, but - in view of your jazz/R&B interests - I did want to take this opportunity to call your attention to this site in case you are not already aware of it.

Date: Feb 6, 2005

Lost,

Thank you for the pointer. It's a nice site. I visisted it once before--a couple of years ago--but need to give it a closer look.

If you want to see what some colleagues and I have been up to, much of it is at

http://hubcap.clemson.edu/~campber/rsrf.html

Our focus is jazz and R&B in Chicago, from around 1940 to around 1960, but there's plenty of blues and gospel mixed in because the same independent record companies were recording them as well.

Now back to the present day...

Robert Campbell

Date: Feb 6, 2005

quote:
Originally posted by: Robert Campbell
"USM Sympathizer,
Monte Piliawsky is working on a sequel to Exit 13. I don't think I'm giving away any secrets by mentioning that. I expect the sequel will be colorful and incisive, as Monte's original book was.
"

Just out of curiousity, where is Piliawsky these days?

Date: Feb 6, 2005

foot soldier,

Monte Piliawsky is a professor of Educational Sociology at Wayne State University.

Robert Campbell

Date: Feb 6, 2005

quote:
Originally posted by: Robert Campbell
"Monte Piliawsky is working on a sequel to Exit 13."

Shortly after I arrived at USM, a good departmental colleague sent to me, through campus mail, a copy of Piliawsky's Exit 13. The interesting thing is that he sent it in an unmarked plain brown paper wrapper. I viewed that particular method of transmision as an ominous and symbolic warning. Unfortunately, I paid little attention to it at the time.

Date: Feb 7, 2005

quote:
Originally posted by: Robert Campbell
"Monte Piliawsky is working on a sequel to Exit 13."

Reserve a copy for me! No - make that two copies. Whoever writes that sequel could very well make a bundle if it were marketed properly (and such a book would also be a service to mankind). Could it be that this is what your administration meant when it talked about creating millionaires? How ironic. I hope that when the book is finally published, Monte will come down here for a book signing - maybe at JavaWerks.

Date: Feb 7, 2005

Monte, if you read this board, you are hereby invited to the post-Shelby party. I think many of us would like to meet you.

Date: Feb 7, 2005

SFT has recently been quoted as saying:

“Why would I retire? I'm having more fun than I've ever had in my life. I feel good. I enjoy coming to work,” said Thames, who will turn 69 in August. “When you see the growth in our student body and you see what the youngsters are doing, you see faculty members developing themselves - heavens no, I'm having a great time.”

Growth of the student body? He can only boast of a statistically insignificant “blip” of growth this year, and considering the plummeting reputation of USM during his tenure as its president, a precipitous decline in both quantity and quality of students is inevitable -- unless prospective students and their parents are ignorant enough to be duped by the spin that emanates from the Dome these days.

Faculty members developing themselves? Sure, telling them to stop basic research is one hell of a way to help them develop themselves! It's no secret how they’re “developing” themselves: by sending out their résumés and getting the hell out of “Camp Shelby” as quickly as they can.

He's “having a great time,” he says? No doubt at some point in their careers, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and quite a few other dictators also have had a great time, imagining that they’re doing great things when in fact they’re wreaking unimaginable havoc, misery, and destruction.

He states that he has no intention of reading the Faculty Senate’s resolution asking the state College Board to begin immediately searching for his successor. Then he boasts that he is “communicating,” and that “communications is a two-way street.” How can he live with such contradictions, such lies?

It is inconceivable that someone such as SFT could be allowed to remain in a position of power and responsibility. If he wants to see USM survive, he must step down as USM’s president immediately. It may already be too late to save USM, but with him in the Dome, USM is doomed for certain.

NO QUARTER!!!

Date: Feb 7, 2005

quote:
Originally posted by: Left (formerly Leaving Soon)
"It's no secret how they’re “developing” themselves: by sending out their résumés and getting the hell out of “Camp Shelby” as quickly as they can. "

There's already been a "Camp Shelby" in the Hub City, but sFT has created a "Prison Camp Shelby" for my trapped former colleagues on the faculty.

Date: Feb 7, 2005

quote:
Originally posted by: already gone
"There's already been a "Camp Shelby" in the Hub City, but sFT has created a "Prison Camp Shelby" for my trapped former colleagues on the faculty."

Mr. Wonderful and Committee: this is a good one-liner for this week's competition!

Date: Feb 7, 2005

quote:
Originally posted by: truth4usm/AH
"Mr. Wonderful and Committee: this is a good one-liner for this week's competition!"

Duly noted!

Date: Feb 7, 2005

Folks, the nuclear option is to tell ALLLL--everything for the past 3 years to SACS. The nuclear option is really the neutron option---kills everybody in the dome, leaves all else to rebuild a decent school. All of the CoB stuff speaks to GOVERNANCE--definitely a SACS concern. If Shelby F*&%^Thames backs off, we still have to launch. Jerking everyone around all of the time is as destructive as anything else this guy does...The fact is that Shelby has already gone nuclear. If we do not stop this SH+*t there will not be a pile of rubble left in a couple of years...The f+*king poor town of Hattiesburg will go down the tubes with the school, and that stupid Lawrence Warren will be clueless about how he made it all happen.

SACS must be told ALLL and the Board must be made to understand that its failure to act at this point has potential SACS IMPLICATIONS for Governance issues at all eight universities which they oversee...If they are accomplices in making one University a fraud on the taxpayers, they will create questions about their management of all eight.