Kenbot: "I want to see KW lynched" - USM Forum -- Message Board

Date: Mar 4, 2005

RE: Kenbot: "I want to see KW lynched"

Date: Mar 4, 2005

quote:
Originally posted by: Angeline
" I think that Malone needs a visit from some "night-riders." And - don't flame me - I am poking fun at Malone's callousness."

Flame you? Hell, I say yea verily! This Malone character is beneath contempt.

Date: Mar 4, 2005

quote:
Originally posted by: Sparkplug
"
Are you still employed by Southern Miss? If so, I think you need to quit immediately. How can you, with a clear conscience, work for an institution you so obviously loathe? Do me a favor and kindly pack your bags and quit drawing a paycheck from this institution that I happen to love."

I am potentially every faculty member (or former faculty member) at USM who believes Thames should go. Do you realize what would happen if every faculty member adopted the "diploma mill" mentality but dissuaded excellent students from attending? It would cripple USM. Enrollment would drop while faculty bailed out. USM's only saving grace right now is that faculty haven't gone into total revolt.

By the way, at a real university, faculty drive the train. They elect an engineer (president) and a conductor (provost, etc.), but the decisions are faculty-driven. USM is a joke. It's not a university any more. It's becoming a clown college run by bozos like Thames and Malone.

Date: Mar 4, 2005

New academic regalia are available online.

Don't let Ken Malone see anything whatsoever mentioning clown college. He may figure it's a big market & wide open for economic development. If so, Venice Florida had better watch out!

Date: Mar 4, 2005

RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: Kenbot: "I want to see KW lyn

Date: Mar 4, 2005

quote:
Originally posted by: Tripe for Dinner
" Did it take you 15 minutes to look up the word "tripe" so you could use it in a sentence correctly? Maybe you should try www.m-w.com next time."

No, I didn't have to look it up in a dictionary. I am an educated person.

Date: Mar 4, 2005

RE: Kenbot: "I want to see KW lynched"

Date: Mar 4, 2005

I completely agree!!!

Date: Mar 4, 2005

RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: Kenbot: "I want to see KW lynched

Date: Mar 4, 2005

RE: RE: Kenbot: "I want to see KW lynched"

Date: Mar 4, 2005

That should have been

"the number of faculty members he's driven out of the liberal arts departments."

USM isn't down to one liberal arts department. Yet.

RC

Date: Mar 4, 2005

I was typing away...I hope you all realize I meant if "one is," not one are. But geez some of you folks are so brutal. I am sure it will be critiqued anyway and, no I wasn't an English major.

Date: Mar 4, 2005

quote:
Originally posted by: Sparkplug
"Thanks LVN... I am painfully aware of how much brain-power has fled and is fleeing. I guess that the overriding point I would like to make is this: If one are still an employee, shouldn't one still strive to perform one's job to the best of one's ability? Shouldn't one take pride in what one does? Shouldn't one perform one's tasks as best as one can? Shouldn't one try to save USM's "tookus with SAC's" and earn one's pay...if that in fact is part of what is outlined in one's job description? Isn't taking care of one's job description one's responsiblity? And if you can't do that, isn't it time to move on? Take it a step further...if a person were working in the private sector, oh say at Wesley Medical Center and said person didn't care for the CEO. Could they come to work every day and bash him and his top administrators and how they run things and honestly expect to keep that job? I really don't think so. So, we really work in a very liberal world...the academic world that allows us to do the very things that we are and have been doing. I thank you for working to get our "tookus" out of the crack it is in.Continued negativity from whomever...the mysterious "them", this time obviously Ken Malone, will get us nowhere. We need to move forward and getting past this accreditation problem is the big step."

There's a dimension to the faculty job situation I didn't understand until recently. Someone else can clear up the details, but as I understand it, faculty who were hired more than about 10 years ago (this is probably not the right number) have a situation with their retirement that makes it almost impossible to leave without taking a horrible financial blow to their retirement fund. Some people are truly "stuck" in that regard. Also, I did leave USM for the very reasons you describe, but I was staff (and adjunct) and I have flexible job options. Were I a tenured PhD in an academic field, I would have a much, much harder time finding a new job. But notice, too, that many of those who have left have gone to better schools.
As I said elsewhere, a lot of people post in anger and negativity and then get up and go to work and give it their all. Stephen Judd is one, Amy Young is one, I'm afraid to start naming names in English and history, there are so many. Faculty are not dropping the ball, but they are getting very worn out.
Also, the president of a university is NOT the same as the CEO of a company. A lot of folks lose sight of the principle of "shared governance" as it exists everywhere else but here. A university is not (yet) a factory, and the president is not the "boss" -- on many college campuses most students don't even know the president's name, because that person is just doing his/her job instead of wreaking havoc.

Date: Mar 4, 2005

quote:
Originally posted by: LVN
" There's a dimension to the faculty job situation I didn't understand until recently. Someone else can clear up the details, but as I understand it, faculty who were hired more than about 10 years ago (this is probably not the right number) have a situation with their retirement that makes it almost impossible to leave without taking a horrible financial blow to their retirement fund. Some people are truly "stuck" in that regard. Also, I did leave USM for the very reasons you describe, but I was staff (and adjunct) and I have flexible job options. Were I a tenured PhD in an academic field, I would have a much, much harder time finding a new job. But notice, too, that many of those who have left have gone to better schools. As I said elsewhere, a lot of people post in anger and negativity and then get up and go to work and give it their all. Stephen Judd is one, Amy Young is one, I'm afraid to start naming names in English and history, there are so many. Faculty are not dropping the ball, but they are getting very worn out. Also, the president of a university is NOT the same as the CEO of a company. A lot of folks lose sight of the principle of "shared governance" as it exists everywhere else but here. A university is not (yet) a factory, and the president is not the "boss" -- on many college campuses most students don't even know the president's name, because that person is just doing his/her job instead of wreaking havoc."

I know what you mean about the shared governance and how we've moved away from that. Anyway...it seems that we've moved away from the topis of this string.

Why hasn't Kevin Walter's written anything in the HAM about what happened?

Date: Mar 4, 2005

I imagine Kevin can't write about it without documentation. Unless it's on tape, or unless several people are willing to corroborate the statement, there's not much the HA can really do. Kevin has actually been quite fair, but he hasn't rolled over and played dead the way some other reporters have. What's going on behind the scenes at the HA we have no idea.

Oh, and all threads lose their original focus. Sometimes we get silly, and sometimes it's just the normal conversational sidetracking. Feel free to redirect.

And I would like for you to ponder this: Mr. Malone showed his true nature. Dr. Thames is the person who put Mr. Malone where he is, and who keeps him there, and from whom Mr. Malone derives every single bit of "power" he has - - what does that tell you?

As someone posted a while back, it's a principle of management that first-rate people hire first-rate people, while second-rate people hire third-rate people.

Date: Mar 4, 2005

quote:
Originally posted by: Sparkplug
"If one are still an employee, shouldn't one still strive to perform one's job to the best of one's ability? Shouldn't one take pride in what one does? Shouldn't one perform one's tasks as best as one can? Shouldn't one try to save USM's "tookus with SAC's" and earn one's pay...if that in fact is part of what is outlined in one's job description? Isn't taking care of one's job description one's responsiblity? "

Well, yes. The problem is, when the whole focus of the institution changes--or I should say, change is instituted from the top down--then this gets harder to do. The reason I left USM was that when I did what I thought I was hired to do, and when I did things that made me professionally successful outside of USM (publish, etc.), these things were NOT valued by the institution. At some point, one's personal values conflict too much with the "money and polymers is all that is important" attitude that is shoved down one's throat. It became very apparent to me that while some of my colleagues appreciated my efforts, the institution as a whole didn't. I would go to the FAR report and there weren't even blanks for much of what I was doing. What there was was box after box after box to fill in with dollars. And do you think the administration cares about good teaching? No, just 20,000 students either in class or online--no concern for the quality whatsoever. The resources were not there to support my research, and I couldn't even photocopy enough handouts for my classes due to budget cuts. It got harder and harder to do my job, and it wasn't my supposed "bad attitude" that was preventing me from doing it. I don't think I've explained this very well, but one can only spin gold from straw for so long, and only if somebody is saying, "Great job! you're spinning gold from straw!" not "your spinning is worthless because it is not bringing in enough grant money to fuel economic development."

Date: Mar 4, 2005

quote:
Originally posted by: foot soldier
" Well, yes. The problem is, when the whole focus of the institution changes--or I should say, change is instituted from the top down--then this gets harder to do. The reason I left USM was that when I did what I thought I was hired to do, and when I did things that made me professionally successful outside of USM (publish, etc.), these things were NOT valued by the institution. At some point, one's personal values conflict too much with the "money and polymers is all that is important" attitude that is shoved down one's throat. It became very apparent to me that while some of my colleagues appreciated my efforts, the institution as a whole didn't. I would go to the FAR report and there weren't even blanks for much of what I was doing. What there was was box after box after box to fill in with dollars. And do you think the administration cares about good teaching? No, just 20,000 students either in class or online--no concern for the quality whatsoever. The resources were not there to support my research, and I couldn't even photocopy enough handouts for my classes due to budget cuts. It got harder and harder to do my job, and it wasn't my supposed "bad attitude" that was preventing me from doing it. I don't think I've explained this very well, but one can only spin gold from straw for so long, and only if somebody is saying, "Great job! you're spinning gold from straw!" not "your spinning is worthless because it is not bringing in enough grant money to fuel economic development.""

Thanks foot soldier. What you described happened to me and many, many others at USM. You explained it well.

Date: Mar 4, 2005

Didn't Trent Lott lose his congressional position by speaking only a few words?

Date: Mar 4, 2005

Lott said them in front of a TV camera.

But your point is well taken.

RC

Date: Mar 4, 2005

quote:
Originally posted by: Reporter
"Thanks foot soldier. What you described happened to me and many, many others at USM. You explained it well."

Reporter - as you say, there have been many. I was one of them too. Many stories in Nitchampburg city. Many of the victims are no longer there. I suspect that some of the victims are lurking on this board. I have known many faculty members to leave USM, but I am aware on none who left happy.

Date: Mar 4, 2005

Since word got out about Malone's "lynching" remark, I wonder whether anyone at USM still thinks that a public call for his removal would be "petty."

Are USM's Faculty Senators still afraid that a resolution of no confidence in this enforcer without portfolio would be radical and polarizing?

As though the FS could get more radical and polarizing than Malone already has...

Robert Campbell

Date: Mar 5, 2005

There's a dimension to the faculty job situation I didn't understand until recently. Someone else can clear up the details, but as I understand it, faculty who were hired more than about 10 years ago (this is probably not the right number) have a situation with their retirement that makes it almost impossible to leave without taking a horrible financial blow to their retirement fund. Some people are truly "stuck" in that regard.

You just described about half of the faculty in COB. The upside is the quality of instruction and the amount of research being done is rising as faculty prepare for their next job. For the untenured assistants, the story is much the same.

Date: Mar 5, 2005

Improvements to teaching and research that benefit the individual, the students and the university? Sounds like perfect alignment to me.

Date: Mar 5, 2005

It's amazing to me that so many people love KW when in all actually he gets the truth correct about 75 percent of the time.

Date: Mar 5, 2005

Given mostly falsehoods out of the dome, that's a major accomplishment!

Date: Mar 5, 2005

quote:
Originally posted by: Smurf-eater
"It's amazing to me that so many people love KW when in all actually he gets the truth correct about 75 percent of the time. "

Great Smurf-eater! You should be able to supply many examples of KW's errors for this board. I always strive to be correctly informed. If 25% of what KW writes is not correct, please inform us or at least give examples. From what I read he mostly reports what people say. The people he interviews may be wrong, but that is a different issue from what you stated above.

Date: Mar 5, 2005

Yes - Smurf-eater! Pahleeeze let us know exactly the 25 per cent that is wrong.

Facts, we want facts.

Date: Mar 5, 2005

I have given my reaction to all of this a good bit of thought. Though I love this place (even after all of this) I have the ability to leave -- and have often thought about it. I am a faculty member in the Liberal Arts, the area of so much scrutiny and the focus of so many attacks from the dome. Even so, I have decided to stay and see the thing through. I will continue to teach well, and I will not allow these issues to pervade my class or even enter my class. I will continue to research and write. I will continue to tell the best students to come to USM (which I refuse to call Southern Miss -- when this place was fun it was called USM, so that is what it will remain). Though it is difficult and I often come home disgusted or with a headache -- I will be here to see the end of this. I will be here when SFT is a distant memory and I will speak of him like the senior faculty once spoke of General McCain. If I leave. If I reduce my standards. If my scholarly output falls. If the student base of USM declines in standards. If any of this happens, USM has lost and SFT has won. I will fight by being good at what I do. I might not be "world class" but I will struggle for USM by having some "class." I am not knocking those who have departed for greener pastures -- good luck to you. However, pray for us who are left behind. Wish us well in our efforts to fight on -- even if our method of fighting is by being the best we can be in service of the memory of a university that once existed, and could exist again.

Date: Mar 5, 2005

quote:
Originally posted by: justme
"I have given my reaction to all of this a good bit of thought. Though I love this place (even after all of this) I have the ability to leave -- and have often thought about it. I am a faculty member in the Liberal Arts, the area of so much scrutiny and the focus of so many attacks from the dome. Even so, I have decided to stay and see the thing through. I will continue to teach well, and I will not allow these issues to pervade my class or even enter my class. I will continue to research and write. I will continue to tell the best students to come to USM (which I refuse to call Southern Miss -- when this place was fun it was called USM, so that is what it will remain). Though it is difficult and I often come home disgusted or with a headache -- I will be here to see the end of this. I will be here when SFT is a distant memory and I will speak of him like the senior faculty once spoke of General McCain. If I leave. If I reduce my standards. If my scholarly output falls. If the student base of USM declines in standards. If any of this happens, USM has lost and SFT has won. I will fight by being good at what I do. I might not be "world class" but I will struggle for USM by having some "class." I am not knocking those who have departed for greener pastures -- good luck to you. However, pray for us who are left behind. Wish us well in our efforts to fight on -- even if our method of fighting is by being the best we can be in service of the memory of a university that once existed, and could exist again."

We do pray for you. We do remember you. We do care, even if we are gone. And we are still frustrated that even emmancipated from USM that there is so little we can do to help. You are the most courageous by far.

Date: Mar 5, 2005

quote:
Originally posted by: justme
"I might not be "world class" but I will struggle for USM by having some "class.""

Your words show that you are not only "world class" but classy, as are many of your colleagues, who have won the respect and admiration of fellow academics far and wide. We are ALL praying for you and wishing the best for every one of you. Thanks for a very inspiring post.