When Did The Faculty Go Bad? - USM Forum -- Message Board

Date: Mar 14, 2005

When Did The Faculty Go Bad?

Date: Mar 14, 2005

This is an excellent post and raises a really wonderful question. I hope SFT's fans will be honest enough to try to answer it.

Date: Mar 14, 2005

USM Sympathizer,

Your compliment is appreciated. It may help me restrain my violent tendencies. I may even become a pacifist. However, I hear their sports teams do not do well against the competition.

Date: Mar 14, 2005

quote:
Originally posted by: Cossack
"It may help me restrain my violent tendencies."

I didn't know you even played the violin!

Date: Mar 14, 2005

USM Sympathizer

Not any more, I kept eating the strings in moments of rage. I hate it when people dredge up the past.

Date: Mar 14, 2005

The obvious start is Fleming! SFT can point at his "No confidence vote by the board ( one year extension) and say he is fixing what Fleming broke! I don't see how you can rationalize the admiration of the faculty for Fleming and the argument that if he "was so great then why the 1 year extension"? I realize your answer will be that the "athletic supporters" did him in, but when I was playing sports, "I told my mom I needed a "jock strap", and it puzzled me when she took me shopping for an athletic supporter". My $0.02.

Date: Mar 14, 2005

Faculty generally go bad if you leave them out long enough.

Date: Mar 14, 2005

history,

Let me see if I can figure this out. The faculty became bad when Fleming received a one year extension and then Lucas did ??? and then SFT came and the faculty was now bad and SFT needed to restore USM to what was just before Fleming came or Lucas built the fire after Fleming started the fire and ; I am now so lost I will not get back before morning. Can some one help me?

Date: Mar 14, 2005

and then Lucas did ???

Timeline as follows:

Fleming

??? = placeholder

"New president"

Answer: How do you fix in (9-10) months what someone took 4 years to screw up and then SFT. (savior)!

This is what can be deduced from reading the posts and I believe what some people glean from the data presented.

You might think otherwise, but I do not like this mans ethics!

Date: Mar 14, 2005

history

I am sorry to be so dense, but how does the faculty figure into this? If Fleming and the temporary Lucas were bad leaders, how are faculty to blame? If old Lucas was OK and the faculty were OK under old Lucas, why not return to the policies and procedures of the old Lucas?

Date: Mar 14, 2005

I am not arguing if the faculty is good or bad, only that this is a plausible excuse that SFT can use in his defense.

Date: Mar 14, 2005

From the latest Fortune

"Surround yourself with people of integrity, and get out of their way."

Hector Ruiz, Chairman AMD

For a long time at USM, that's what AKL, many Deans, and most Dept. Chairman did. It isn't rocket science, but an organization that does this usually gets better. The current administration has little in the integrity category. Not accidentally, they hire people that don't have that box checked either. I first started really worrying about the situation when it seemed that having any integrity was becoming a good way to lose your job as an administrator at USM.

The faculty hasn't gone bad but the past few Governors have destroyed the IHL. Board members are political appointees and politicians aren't choirpersons. However, they need enough sense to understand what NOT TO DO. The most ardent supporters of both parties are usually on the left or right fringes. These people are useful but you don't put take them out in public. The Democrats had been in power in this state long enough to understand that you didn't put the most far left members of the party in places like the IHL. These kind of appointments have got to go to moderates. The Republicans in the state are new to the game and have put people from the far right of their party in a very public position. I don't think 6 middle of the road Democrats combined with 6 middle of the road Republicans on the Board would have produced the train wreck we are now witnessing. You don't have to micromanage people with the right stuff.

Date: Mar 14, 2005

There's so much on the board it's hard to keep up. But didn't somebody mention that Mr. Mixon was good buddies with Ronnie Musgrove? And earlier somebody said SFT wanted Mixon for IHL (correct me if I'm wrong.) I've been second-guessing my vote for HB, but if these two facts are correct, we could be in much worse shape than we are today.

Date: Mar 14, 2005

quote:
Originally posted by: Cossack
" ....I began to wonder when the faculty went bad..... "

Within the same tier, college faculties are pretty much alike. What varies from school to school are the resources and the leadership.

Analogously, the inmate population of various state penitentiaries is about the same. What varies from penitentiary to penitentiary are the resources and the Warden.

Date: Mar 14, 2005

LVN,

Many problems with the Board. Sandwich someone who couldn't carry Bill Clinton's j*&*%$#*p as a politician between 2 rookie Republicans and throw in some local connections and you can get some doozy appointments. My post wasn't intended to explain all the problems with the Board, just some of them. I should have added that there are some similar, though not as extreme, problems in other Southern states with newly minted Republican governors.

I hadn't thought that we could be WORSE off, but I must ruefully agree with you.

Date: Mar 15, 2005

Bill Clinton doesn't wear a jock strap...it gets in the way in the Oval Office.

Date: Mar 15, 2005

quote:
Originally posted by: Outside Observer
"Bill Clinton doesn't wear a jock strap...it gets in the way in the Oval Office."

Hate to respond to this, but please keep this thread clean in terms of political opinions. We all have them, but we need to focus on that which unites us rather than what divides us (and don't make me resort to pulling out my GWB jokes!).

Truth

Date: Mar 15, 2005

quote:
Originally posted by: Invictus
"Faculty generally go bad if you leave them out long enough."

I had a great laugh at this one. But then I realized I should be crying. But I must admit I never thought of faculty as being like potato salad!

Amy Young

Date: Mar 15, 2005

He started it.

Date: Mar 15, 2005

quote:
Originally posted by: Outside Observer
"He started it."

Okay, well, you FINISH it, OO! You know what I told you about "silence is golden" and all that! Leave politics outta this and get back to figuring out how to rid the Dome of the Gnome!

Mama

Date: Mar 15, 2005

OO's Mama,

Please indulge me for a moment. I agree that inserting political parties into this discussion is little to no value. However, I think that we can draw an analogy between my question about USM's presidents and faculty and the political scene.

Mississippi has followed in that path of other Southern states over the past 4 decades. Traditionally strong supporters of the Democratic party, the states slowly moved their alliances toward the Republican party. Virginia was early to the game followed closely by Florida. Other southern states are following with a lag.

But as with the situation at USM, states did not lose all of their previous citizens and get new ones. The citizens did not change very much as people. Moreover, if this were an overall change in state we would see it manifested in the other universities, particularly Ole Miss and Mississippi State. The current USM problem is not systematic; rather it is unsystematic and somewhat unique to USM and the city of Hattiesburg.

Date: Mar 15, 2005

Ok, Mama...I'll try