In addition to being a very effective chair, Alvin Williams is a fine individual. I have never heard him speak ill of others. He treats both faculty and students with respect. He has high academic standards and supports faculty in their endeavors to hold students accountable. His leadership will be sorely missed. Fortunately, he will remain as a faculty member and colleague. His resignation is a loss for our college and the university. I do not know all of the reasons for his stepping down. Alvin is a private person and does not advertise his problems or concerns. However, I have to think that events of the past two years, especially the two recent thwarted hirings, have made him weary of continuing as chair.

If there is a finer instructor of individual at Southern Miss than Dr. Williams I've not found them.

I often speak with Dr. Williams, and to be honest I am not suprised with his decision to step down from the Chair. He is as good of a classroom instructor as you will find, and he enjoys that aspect of the job very much.

As, always, he is a gentleman and a scholar, I wish him well.

A bearded man was spotted leaving the Doty residence this evening

quote:

---

Originally posted by: story out
" Alvin got screwed twice in two job searches recently.  First, he tried to hire a Pharmaceutical Sales Chaired Professor.  He offered the job to a well-qualified candidate, but Jay Grimes pulled the plug on the deal.  It nearly cost CoB that $1 mill donation from Draughn. Second, Grimes and Malone and Hutchinson didn't want the lady from VaTech to chair the hosp mgt department.  They axed the deal.  HD later wrote that they blatantly committed gender discrimination.  They fell back and made the hire, scared of lawyers. The central admin consistently f's with the CoB hiring process.  Alvin has had enough.  The word's getting out."

---

This is referring to two searches inside the college.  At the university level, he was active on the committee to identify and hire a new provost.  Thames and Exline met with the committee an hour before meeting with the deans last week to say the search was being discontinued and that Jay Grimes would be the provost.  This, of course, was a day after the news had already been leaked to this website by a student who had heard it confirmed from Joe Paul.

That Jay Grimes would be made the Provost after not being one of the committee's candidates and that the same Jay Grimes directly interfered with CoB searches that Alvin chaired must certainly have played into Alvin's decision to step down.  Add to that, the Grimes memo that directly threatened AACSB accreditation for his college, the president's disregard for the gift from an important donor to his department.  I don't doubt that what many other posters shared was true, that he was tired of being an administrator and had earned a break from the insanity.  My guess, however, is that it was Thames' cancellation of the provost search and the appointment of Grimes that was the final straw.  A slap in the face on at least three counts.

Like Dr. Lucas in many ways, Alvin Williams is a peacemaker, an ambassador for the university, and a spokesman.  Maybe he should take a well-deserved breather until he is asked to step up as interim president???