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Originally posted by: A Visitor
" Thanks C. n V.  I found this and accented the interesting parts. From SACS 3.7.5 The institution publishes policies on the responsibility and authority of faculty in academic and governance matters.   From Faculty Handbook   9.3.2  Discretionary University Advice.  In all other personnel recommendations pertaining to the academic staff, except termination, the University President is not required by either state law or Board policy to establish institutional advisory bodies, and the President may or may not seek advice within the institution.  Nevertheless, the President elects to be advised by subordinate institutional officers and by faculty bodies and has approved procedures governing their deliberations.  In such cases, the procedures regulating the processes by which advice is tendered are established and maintained at the discretion of the University President.   So it appears the president had the right to hire anyone he wished to the upper administration.  However, the faculty were correct in expecting to be consulted since that was the way it was usually done and it would have been wise for the president to maintain good relations with faculty because of the circumstances under which he was appointed."

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AV-

You are correct in this interpretation. But in good academic practice, and good management practice in corporations, upper level highers are usually vetted by ad hoc search committees or boards involving various constituencies that know the job requirements. All previous presidents at USM have made some upper administration hires without formal faculty input, but, in the case of the current administration, virtually every hire was done in this way. Using search committees that involve faculty, staff, students, and community reps to hire at the dean level or above is smart, not just for maintaining good relations for the Prez, but it gives the propsective hire a chance to speak with the people he or she may work with down the road (and vvs). Dr. Thames made THE major HR blunder from day one--hire your buddies and people you know rather than doing a search and getting the best out there to work for you. Having a legitmate search committees may not have eliminated these error in judgment, but it sure may have made them less likely.

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Originally posted by: Green Hornet
"If half of all these posts in this thread are correct, all the conspiracy theorists are ROFL because it confirms what we’ve been preaching all along.  You would think this'd make a great plot-line for a John G. novel except it's happening at Southern Miss."

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GH-

You're shocked? Shocked that gambling is taking place in this establishment?

Your posts are usually sharp as a tack, so I'm surprised that you are surprised at all the intrigue that goes on in Mississippi politics, and Dr. Thames ascension to the throne is Mississippi politics at it's finest! It's a great story, but we need a lynching, random gun play, a beautiful but neglected wife, and a Delta blues soundtrack. Stephen--you design the set and I'll write the stage play. Maybe Bob Mixon will produce. Any chance? 

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Originally posted by: Freud
"
GH-
You're shocked? Shocked that gambling is taking place in this establishment?
Your posts are usually sharp as a tack, so I'm surprised that you are surprised at all the intrigue that goes on in Mississippi politics, and Dr. Thames ascension to the throne is Mississippi politics at it's finest! It's a great story, but we need a lynching, random gun play, a beautiful but neglected wife, and a Delta blues soundtrack. Stephen--you design the set and I'll write the stage play. Maybe Bob Mixon will produce. Any chance? "

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You're not that far away from the total package. Dr. Malone has already offered to provide the lynching, someone at the March 10 meeting has the gun under his seat, there are probably all sorts of neglected wives (and husbands) of faculty who are working themselves silly over this stuff, and if you'll wait a minute I'll rummage through the CD's for the music. Or that may be more up Invictus' alley. Stephen, get busy with that set!

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Originally posted by: stephen judd
" Hmmmm . . . . Shades of Birth of a Nation, eh? Great story -- sign me up for providing the the spectacle -- I'm thinking this would be a hell of a musical . . . . "

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 Lights UP

. . . . the sun rising through a window behind a shadowy, heavy set figure seated in a room overlooking the greensward of a southern university . . .  a green lawn dotted with tall, stately oaks wrapped in darkness but just beginning to glint in the light on the rising sun . . .

The shadowy figure is motionless, silent . . . . his hand etched in a ray of random sunlight as it wraps itself around the neck of a screeching chicken . . .

SNAP!

Lights Out.

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Originally posted by: Freud
" GH- You're shocked? Shocked that gambling is taking place in this establishment? Your posts are usually sharp as a tack, so I'm surprised that you are surprised at all the intrigue that goes on in Mississippi politics, and Dr. Thames ascension to the throne is Mississippi politics at it's finest! It's a great story, but we need a lynching, random gun play, a beautiful but neglected wife, and a Delta blues soundtrack. Stephen--you design the set and I'll write the stage play. Maybe Bob Mixon will produce. Any chance? "

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Shocked?  H E double hockey sticks NO!  I've been preaching that THIS was a conspiracy from the start.

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Originally posted by: stephen judd
" Hmmmm . . . . Shades of Birth of a Nation, eh? Great story -- sign me up for providing the the spectacle -- I'm thinking this would be a hell of a musical . . . . "

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Opening scene. A 1927 beige convertible Packard roadster emerges from the fog on a dusty Mississippi road in the Piney Woods. A slow pan to the sun rising over the gulf of Mexico, seagulls are lazily circling a pile of clothes on the beach. A slow and mournful Dobro is playing in the background, accompanied by the rumblings of an old Whiskey-voiced blues singer. The camera slowly walks toward the pile, and it becomes clear that this is a man's body. Close up to a wallet with a drivers license half out on the sand. The name is covered, but the letters HORAC..... are visible. The gulls shrill and cry. The music stops, and a quick cut to a dark room in a domed building. A self-satisfied voice with a heavy southern drawl says, "It's all mine I tell you, finally, it's all mine." 

The Cast of Players

Gun Moll Seductress Ms. Cynthia Moore

Mob Boss  Mr. Shelby Thames

Ex-Plantation Owner Mr. Timothy Hudson

New Orleans Working Girl Ms. Dana Thames

Brooklyn Mob Boss Ms. A Dvorak

Mob Lawyer Mr. J Hanbury

Hit Man Mr. M Dvorak

Please add to casting or plot.

 

 

Mrs Mixon (the source of Bob's wealth) is from a "dealership" family.  Her immediate family owns several auto dealerships in the south.  Her extended family owns even more dealers (Ryan Chevrolet owned by her cousins).

Even though he is not a "local concerned businessman" dont forget about Howell in McComb and his part in the Fleming downfall(even stronger than Mixon's influence?).

I forgot about Bob working at a bank. I remember Mr Mixon most, as a salesman at Sears, driving his Mustang around town.

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Originally posted by: Cossack
"The shame of it all, USM brought to the verge of destruction by a bevy of used car salesmen. They seem so harmless on TV. Most are over weight and their apparel makes me look well dressed, but until now, I did not consider them dangerous. I can assure you all that I will never drive down Pine Street again. I know I speak for all of us, my greatest nightmare is that my daughter brings one home and tells me she wants to keep him."

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Daddy - Ah promise to feed 'im and luv 'im and make 'im happy! And we get us a new cah every yeuh!

Luv, Honey Child

Professor Judd,

If they were our friends, or are our friends, how and when will we know? People that I call friends usually give me some hint that I might be their friend. It is obvious that I am not as sensitive as you, but have you heard anything but silence from our hypothetical friends. I am serious as a heart attack in asking this question. Over the years that I have been at USM, I assumed that many people were friends of the faculty including one orthopedic surgeon who has made it clear he is not our friend. I am much older than the average faculty member and I do not have as many years to wait as most to find out who are friends of the faculty. I would like to find out before they bury me literally and figuratively.

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Originally posted by: Cossack
"my greatest nightmare is that my daughter brings one home and tells me she wants to keep him."

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Bring what home? A Ford or the owner of an auto dealership?

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Originally posted by: Cossack
"Professor Judd, If they were our friends, or are our friends, how and when will we know? People that I call friends usually give me some hint that I might be their friend. It is obvious that I am not as sensitive as you, but have you heard anything but silence from our hypothetical friends. I am serious as a heart attack in asking this question. Over the years that I have been at USM, I assumed that many people were friends of the faculty including one orthopedic surgeon who has made it clear he is not our friend. I am much older than the average faculty member and I do not have as many years to wait as most to find out who are friends of the faculty. I would like to find out before they bury me literally and figuratively."

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Cossack-- I respect your posts but I think you are a little prone to reductivism. Someone who does not speak up is not necessarily my enemy -- and there are many reasons why he/she might not speak up of which I am unaware. I'd rather not convert someone who might be sympathetic but silent to an enemy by ridiculing him/her. It is simply an unneeccary provocation.

Besides, while I am all for stereotyping as an essential tool of stand-up comedy (especially when such comedy almost always has the effect of dismantling the stereotypes it cites) I am generally uncomfortable with stereotyping people who are unable to answer dfor themselves. One of the weapons being used against us is the way our opponants have appealed to stereotypes of faculty, intellectuals, and pointy heads in general. That appeal to stereotype replaces meaningly discussion. My feeling is that when I  post on the board a stereotype of a used car dealer and laugh at it, I have made an enemy of used car dealers.

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Originally posted by: Revised Edition
" Visitor. You cite the Faculty Handbook. Is that Handbook the one which was in effect at the time Thames became President, or was it one rewritten by the Risk Manager hired after Thames took office?    "

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Revised Edition, my source supplied me with the Handbook with an effective date of July, 5 2001.

The parts I posted are identical to this older handbook except for the following:

Handbook: Effective September 2, 2004

9.3.3        Advisory Officers and Entities. The President is advised on personnel recommendations by the administrative heads of the University's academic units, the Provosts, the University Advisory Committee, the college deans, the College Advisory Committees, the Vice President for Research and Economic Development, University Counsel, and by the other vice presidents in matters that are within their administrative jurisdiction.  The advice rendered by University officers or committees does not limit the legal authority or responsibility of the President for all personnel nominations and recommendations made to the Board of Trustees.

 

 

 

Handbook: Effective July 5, 2001

 

XI-2/ Faculty Personnel Actions

 

3.2 The President is advised on personnel recommendations by the administrative heads of the University's academic units (department chair; directors of centers, divisions, schools, and research entities; college deans; the Vice President for USM Gulf Coast; and the University Librarian), by the Provost, by the Vice President for Research and, in matters within their administrative purview, by other Vice presidents.

 

Institutional officers advising the University President on personnel recommendations are in turn advised by a number of faculty bodies within the University.  These bodies are of different type, each being defined by the nature of the personnel recommendation or recommendation assigned to its purview and the source of the authority regulating its deliberations.

 

The advice so rendered in no way compromises the exclusive legal responsibility of the Office of the President for all personnel nominations and recommendations advanced by USM to the Board of Trustees. 

 

 

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Originally posted by: stephen judd
"Visitor:   The "Hanbury Handbook"  is, I assume, the one that was, after many revisions and some excellent battles waged on our behalf chiefly by Myron Henry, has been approved by the Senate. There is now a handbook committee of faculty and administrators that is much more in balance than the committee on which Myron did such yeoman work, keeping Senate informed at nearly every step of the way.  "

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Stephen, I'm told that the Hanburg/Henry handbook has an effective date of January 2004 and the one now on-line is  September 2, 2004.  The one I last quoted was from 2001and must have been the handbook if effect when SFT was became president.