Lead Academic Makes Visit? - USM Forum -- Message Board

Date: Mar 11, 2005

Lead Academic Makes Visit?

Date: Mar 11, 2005

quote:
Originally posted by: Let the Academics Govern
"Was Dr. Richard Crofts, Interim Commissioner for Higher Education, actually on campus in Hattiesburg yesterday?"

Is this a serious post? If so . . . . where did you hear the rumor . . . ?

Date: Mar 11, 2005

I think you'll remember that I have been a credible poster. The source(s), now multiple, are good although not first-hand.

Date: Mar 11, 2005

yes crofts was on campus. may have been here to meet with the SACS consultant.

Date: Mar 11, 2005

That was the reason that I was given.

Date: Mar 11, 2005

quote:
Originally posted by: Let the Academics Govern
"That was the reason that I was given."

I wonder if the timing was to kill two birds with one stone . . . meet with Sullivan and to take the temperature of the water? If so he should have gotten a good feel for the unease and the anger . . . there were articles and meetings about THE meeting. He can't have missed that.

Neither can Sullivan, who seems like a very tough minded lady with a good sense of humor and a backbone of steel.

Date: Mar 11, 2005

quote:
Originally posted by: stephen judd
"Neither can Sullivan, who seems like a very tough minded lady with a good sense of humor and a backbone of steel. "

She's terrific, isn't she? I'm a big fan of Dr. Sullivan. She knows her stuff & she knows how to handle people, too. An awful lot of colleges & universities owe an awful lot to her. It's a shame USM didn't bring in a SACS consultant when it received the request for the first monitoring report instead of waiting until the eleventh hour.

Date: Mar 11, 2005

all reports i get indicate she's very good. what i also find fascinating is that the non-academic side of the house is doing well with respect to SACS. it brought in some consultants a ways back--too bad, as invictus says, the academic side didn't bring in some help. but maybe that's the way of academics--we don't need no "stinkin" help cause we got Ph.Ds.

Date: Mar 11, 2005

Can you tell me anything more about Professor Sullivan, such as her first name and her affiliation? My school will be coming up for SACS re-accreditation in the next couple of years, and if she is as good as you say, maybe we ought to hire her. Thanks.

(Of course, we could just hire Shelby and then shoot ourselves to spare ourselves the misery.)

Date: Mar 12, 2005

kick

Date: Mar 12, 2005

her first name i believe is Margaret. she is head of the SACS consultant network. she may be listed on the SACS webpage.

Date: Mar 12, 2005

quote:
Originally posted by: stinky cheese man
"her first name i believe is Margaret. she is head of the SACS consultant network. she may be listed on the SACS webpage."

Thanks!

Date: Mar 12, 2005

quote:
Originally posted by: stinky cheese man
"all reports i get indicate she's very good. what i also find fascinating is that the non-academic side of the house is doing well with respect to SACS. it brought in some consultants a ways back--too bad, as invictus says, the academic side didn't bring in some help. but maybe that's the way of academics--we don't need no "stinkin" help cause we got Ph.Ds. "

scm,

I'd appreciate further information about the consultants brought in by human resources, the business office, student affairs, etc.

It could be a further sign--if any were needed--that if Thames had his way, he'd be presiding over a university that consisted entirely of administrators, and was able to bring in tons of revenue without having to deal with faculty or students any longer.

Robert Campbell

Date: Mar 12, 2005

robert--i don't know whether i'd draw your conclusion in the second paragraph. i do know that some had the foresight to know that things ought to be going on with regard to reaccreditation before any "official" startup began. someone went to a SACS convention, i think, and sat through an informative presentation about how to handle some aspect of the non-administrative side of the house for SACS. (SACS doesn't focus on just the academic side--institutional effectivness includes it all). one area of the non-academic side was having difficulty seeing how missioning, visioning, etc. applied to their area and the person who attended the session recommended that they bring this person in. they brought him in, learned alot, and seem to be good to go with SACS.

Date: Mar 12, 2005

scm,

What areas of "missioning" and "visioning" were covered?

Is the five-point plan that Thames imposed on the university included, or is that categorized as "academic"?

Robert Campbell

Date: Mar 12, 2005

i don't know--this all happened about 2 years ago. it was coming up with a unit mission, goals, objectives, vision. the unit was trying to link theirs to the then USM mission, but was finding it difficult. as i understand it the consultant said they couldn't because the mission at that time was too specific. the current one (up on USM's webpage) would have been much easier for this unit to link to.