This letter was originally published in the Hattiesburg American on Wednesday, June 23, 2004.  For all you new faculty and staff, I want you to see what you have been missing. I know a lot of you don’t have tenure, and you are afraid to speak your real thoughts, but try not to let yourselves be mislead by the improper tactics of the silly faction. Read below and look what the silly faction did for us.

“Faculty should work with Thames”

It saddens me to still see negative opinions being expressed about President Thames. I had hoped that with the summer break, the faculty and alumni would stop the barrage of criticism. Some of the former students who are writing letters have been out of school for as many as 40 years, but they think they know what is really going on. I doubt any of them has even met President Thames.

I admit Thames should not be given a contract extension, but the IHL and Thames have made it clear that he is not going anywhere for the next two years. Therefore, the professional and responsible thing to do would be to work with the Thames administration instead of trying to frustrate it.

But some of the faculty - and some of the former students who are not even involved in the problem - apparently do not possess these qualities: professionalism and responsibility.

The faculty now attack in print those who support President Thames because it is the only thing left for them to do. They are embarrassing themselves and USM and they do not care. But they brought this upon themselves. If they had not started going public with this controversy or had not begun a misguided and improper investigation into the administration, no one would be criticizing the faculty now.

The faculty can still stop this.

I really wish they would.

Patricia Jackson,

Hattiesburg