PUC meeting, any news? - USM Forum -- Message Board

Date: Feb 9, 2005

PUC meeting, any news?

Date: Feb 9, 2005

quote:
Originally posted by: In the News
"Can anyone who attended the PUC meeting this morning provide an update?"

Amy, I hope you don't mind me copying from the other thread. Reporter

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Back from PUC (or whatever it's called now).

Kevin Walters attended and said that the letter from Grimes will appear online in HA today. We can all examine the evidence ourselves. From Walters' brief comments, there should be a story on this today.

Thames also responded in his typical fashion to questions regarding the Faculty Senate resolution. Essentially, Thames said that he is communicating, through PUC, through monthly meetings with FAC SEN exec. committee, with some community committee, through his "newsletters." It seemed to me that he is unwilling to acknowledge the many many many issues that faculty have regarding the decisions he has made for this university. He fails at at least half of communication (which is listening). But more, he fails to involve the appropriate individuals AT THE BEGINNING of planning and decision-making.

Thames also briefly covered the problem of state appropriations. He anticipates a 5% cut, which is not at all surprising. This is "probable" and could even be more!

Amy Young

Date: Feb 9, 2005

There were quite a few faculty in attendance in the "peanut" gallery.

Oh, yeah, one other item of discussion was email monitoring. Homer Coffman announced that there has been none. But there is a new "policy" that in cases of non-criminal behavior, members of Grade Review Council (an anonymous group) will be selected to review the matter before monitoring occurs. This policy is not set in stone because there are other security issues that need to be addressed because of the many federal requirements.

This new policy is available on the website.

We shall all continue to monitor email monitoring!

Amy Young

Date: Feb 9, 2005

The University of Southern Mississippi needs to do some soul-searching about its mission given all the changes of the past two and a half years, the budget concerns, and the new composition of faculty and staff. BUT, the honest soul-searching that needs to be done CANNOT be done with Shelby Thames and his administration in place. It is ALIEN to them. Now cannot be the time for the soul-searching. Now MUST be the time to oust this administration. One singular focus. One unified faculty. This administration will continue to feed your fears and play you against each other. If you succomb, then Shelby will spend the next 18 months deciding your future for you by putting all of the pieces in place so that his legacy continues when he is "officially" gone. NO ONE, at this point, thinks that he will get a second term. Many, many more of you will leave and much more damage will be done to this university if he remains in place for another year and a half. The best solution is to replace him NOW with a temporary professional educator/administrator from the outside. Dr. Robert Campbell offered an excellent solution this weekend. An interim president from the outside would give everyone a chance to take a breath, work on accreditation issues, honestly debate future directions, stem the fleeing of faculty, and collectively decide what kind of a president will come next. The board meets next week, keep the pressure high because IT IS WORKING. Don't let all his old tricks work this time.

Date: Feb 9, 2005

FROM FACULTY SENATE LISTSERV:

Good Afternoon Faculty Senate Colleagues:

We were both in attendance at the President's Council this morning. The agenda now follows with some of our observations under each topic. Thanks. Anne and Myron

Approval of Minutes

The minutes were approved without discussion.

Legislative Update (Dr. Thames)

Thames talked in terms of a five percent reduction in State support, or a 3.8 million dollar reduction for USM. Some losses could be made up in tuition.

Update on Email Monitoring (Homer Coffman)

Mr. Coffman described the email monitoring policy that is now in place. He also stated that no one's email is being monitored now, and that it would take a committee (the Grade Review Committee is the entity but we aren't sure why) to authorize monitoring of an individual's email. Your Faculty Senate PC representatives asked Mr. Coffman how the monitoring was done last year. He emphasized that he wasn't in his current position last year. Mr. Coffman then declined to answer because of "security reasons" and claimed that if he talked in a public venue about how email monitoring might be done, he would be in violation of federal law. He did say that this topic could be discussed in closed session with assurances that participants would not reveal what was discussed. As someone whose email was monitored last year, Myron asked that such a session be scheduled and that he be a participant.

Status of the Faculty Handbook (Dr. Exline)

A meeting of this committee has been scheduled for February 23. The precise agenda has not yet been provided. Myron and Michael Forster are Faculty Senate representatives to the Faculty Handbook Committee.

Faculty Senate Resolution

Dr. Thames provide basically the same response to this resolution today as he did in the Hattiesburg American. Tammy Greer talked about trust and how Dr. Thames could reclaim it by involving faculty and others on the front end. Your Faculty Senate representatives stated that there are real issues and gave a few examples (e.g., Gulf Coast Library, EMBA, letters of reprimand, classroom invasion and incorrect information by administrators on that matter). We also stated that not acknowledging that there are real issues is an issue. We then asserted that unless colleagues are involved in meaningful ways upfront instead of after the fact, the issues would remain and there no doubt would be more of them.

Drug and Alcohol Policy (Dr. Berman)

Mitch Berman gave a short update on this much improved policy.

Questions

Myron read parts of two paragraphs from the Grimes memo to Dean Harold Doty, and stated that if the statements were carried out, then AACSB accreditation would be threatened. He also stated that Provost Grimes compared the USM MBA enrollments with MBA enrollments at William Carey and the University of Phoenix, both institutions with distinctive missions that do not require AACSB accreditation. Anne tied academic quality to AACSB accreditation and stated that the University should not compromise the quality of our MBA program as we try for more quantity. Trellis Green indicated that there were now discussions going on between the College and the Administration. Dr. Thames then talked about MBA enrollments at William Carey and expressed his concern about our own MBA enrollments. He then stated that he supported AACSB accreditation and that he did not wish to discuss any more on this topic in public. That pretty much ended the meeting.

There was a good audience that included AAUP President Amy Young, faculty senator Stephen Judd, and others. For those who are interested in the College of Business Administration MBA issue, Kevin Walters has a Hattiesburg American story on-line today to which the Grimes letter is electronically linked.

Date: Feb 9, 2005

quote:
Originally posted by: Reporter
" Dr. Thames then talked about MBA enrollments at William Carey and expressed his concern about our own MBA enrollments. He then stated that he supported AACSB accreditation and that he did not wish to discuss any more on this topic in public. That pretty much ended the meeting. "

Boy, he's an effective communicator, isn't he?

His door is always open...as long as you don't ask the wrong questions and you let him set the agenda. What a crock.

Date: Feb 9, 2005

Truth, I heard it put well recently: his door is always open, but his mind is closed.

Date: Feb 9, 2005

quote:
Originally posted by: replier
"Truth, I heard it put well recently: his door is always open, but his mind is closed."

Mr. Wonderful's committee, this is a good one.