Ugly Gold has posted recently, and others before him, that faculty are the source of the problem at USM; and SFT merely inherited this mangy group of faculty that then proceeded to go berserk. The implication is that, if SFT had been appointed president of Ole Miss, the faculty of Ole Miss would have rolled up their sleeves and helped him turn Ole Miss into a WURL CLASS super university.

If we do a statistical test between the pre-SFT regime and the post-SFT regime, the only difference that would show up significant is the Pre-Post dummy variable representing (fittingly) SFT. Although some faculty have left, for most of SFT's reign the faculty have remained constant. The budget change has not been large and the student body has changed very little, only a .642% increase last year. A rate of increase that will increase the enrollment to 20,000 students in 47 short years. Thus, blaming faculty for the present situation depends on some unknown new behavior by the faculty that just happened to occur concurrently with the appointment of SFT.

Aubrey Lucas and Horace Fleming had their detractors, and both made mistakes. Yet faculty continued to maintain or improve the quality of programs and USM continued to improve, albeit slowly at times. If both Lucas and Fleming were taking us in the exact opposite direction from where the IHL Board wanted USM to go, why did we not hear about it from the Board at the time? Why did we not hear of a long-term plan to make the changes that SFT has tried to implement?

The answer is obvious. The Board had no plan. The Board did not receive such a long-term plan from SFT. All that the Board heard was the BS that they wanted to hear. Faculty suck. They are overpaid, under performing, pieces of crap that are sucking up the tax paper's money and not making local businesses more profitable. Since most of the Board members hold that opinion, SFT was a gift. The Board was aware that to try to change Ole Miss or State would upset many more people than starting with USM. If SFT was successful, they could move on to Ole Miss and State. If it did not work, at least the Board would have reduced the competition of USM to Ole Miss and State. From their point of view, it was Pareto optimal. The Board would get a twofer, a chance to exercise their hatred of, and disdain for, university faculty, and they would get to set USM back so that their own Alma Maters would have less competition. The only USM representation on the Board would be one or two members. The Board had even more good luck when the recently appointed person from USM was an embarrassing sell out. Embarrassing because the cost of the sell out was so cheap. She folded faster than France.

If we are fortunate, SACS will restore some semblance of order, albeit only after USM sinks lower than its present state. The moral of the story is the The University of Southern Mississippi has few friends. At one time I thought that USM had the support of Hattiesburg and much of the Coast. That thought ranks as one of the dumbest thoughts I have had since my teenage years. I will always have warm thoughts of my years at the university because of fellow faculty and the accomplishments of my college and of the university. But as far as the city of Hattiesburg goes, the Mac Davis tune goes through my mind constantly; "Happiness is Hattiesburg through my rear view mirror. Indeed, I would tell Mac that Lubbock looks great in comparison.