Checking in after several months (years?) away.  USM seems to have moved far from FireShelby days, but then again . . .   Threats from lawyers, employees intimidated and threatened in private by the highest ranks of the Administration, mid-level administrators installed in the Shelby era still in power, mediocrity still the ruling principle, Faculty Senate in a coma, library still starving, ever more resources  poured into athletics (how are those new football and basketball coaches doing?) . . .  And yet, some students still excel thanks to the herculean efforts of underpaid, under-benefited faculty and staff.  Same as it ever was.