History takes a hit - USM Forum -- Message Board

Date: Mar 30, 2005

History takes a hit

Date: Mar 30, 2005

Congratulations to Dean Pood:
Under your watch, sir, you have effectively destroyed the liberal arts, particularly the humanities at USM. WELL DONE!!! The two most important and prestigious Ph.D. granting units of your college have sent their prestige to Tier 1 and 2 schools, even to be chair. Think of what you had. Thank you so much for making sure all the fine scholars you could once brag about have left. Again, well done. I am sure in the coming months the few remaining known scholars will also be tending their resignations. Again, this wil be met with much thanks from the dentist's wife among others. Well done, sir.

Date: Mar 30, 2005

From the "Academics" page at UNC-Greensboro:

The University of North Carolina at Greensboro is first and foremost a community of scholars. For more than a century, UNCG has educated students to make lifelong contributions to their professions and perform honorable services to their communities.

Faculty Second to None

Date: Mar 30, 2005

Note that this was a well kept secret until the job was actually offered. That's the way it should be. I do hope posters will refrain from blowing the cover of those who wish to get out of this place. That's a terrible thing to do to someone who is on the job market. Let them announce it in their own way and at their own pace.

Date: Mar 30, 2005

A major university in the North Carolina system has now picked off two USM faculty members for major roles - heads of English and History respectively. Where will all of this stop? When will the IHL wise up? When will the USM Alumni Association wise up? When will the administration wise up? When will the community leaders wise up?

Date: Mar 30, 2005

Stupid idiots can't wise up. Wise cannot be a part of a stupid person's body mass. Mississippi is dead last in everything. Dumb and getting dumber. And we like it that way. Get those fat cat smarty pants people outta here! And believe me, out they are going!!!

Date: Mar 30, 2005

Recall those in high places who hid under their desks last year and didn't speak out publicly during the G&S fiasco. That marked the beginning of the end of liberal arts at USM as we knew it. This mass exodus could have been prevented. Sadly, the cat still has the tongue of the silent.

Date: Mar 30, 2005

quote:
Originally posted by: never
"Stupid idiots can't wise up. Wise cannot be a part of a stupid person's body mass."

Surely this comment deserves some kind of award!

This latest piece of news -- sad for USM but wonderful for the person leaving -- just proves once more that people from USM are highly competitive on the national market. I say it again: the only person at USM who could NEVER find a position comparable to the one he has now is Shelby Thames. By the time he is through, the only people left at USM will be Shelby, his relatives, and his cronies. (Maybe that's how he really wants it, in which case he obviously suffers from a very deep-rooted insecurity -- which is often the case with people who seem to have huge egos and present themselves as hugely ambitious.)

Date: Mar 30, 2005

My guess is that somebody is going to put a "big spin" on these departures...."USM faculty taking the good word about USM's virtures to the tarheel state"....." "USM attracts marketable faculty members....."

Date: Mar 30, 2005

Spinning Wheel...great song from the 60s by Blood Sweat and Tears!

Date: Mar 30, 2005

quote:
Originally posted by: Spinning Wheel
"My guess is that somebody is going to put a "big spin" on these departures...."USM faculty taking the good word about USM's virtures to the tarheel state"....." "USM attracts marketable faculty members....." "

I know you are being facetious, but somehow I don't think these faculty members (and the many others like them who have left or will be leaving) will be taking any good words about USM with them. Instead, I suspect that they will help make the Shelby Thames Fiasco even more widely known in national academic circles than it already is (and believe me, it IS widely known). In other words, Shelby has not only succeeding in wounding his own school, but he has also succeeded in wounding its national reputation in countless ways.

Date: Mar 30, 2005

quote:

Originally posted by: USM Sympathizer

"I know you are being facetious"

You bet I was being facetious. Along with the other USM spins I've seen here, this potential spin is a natural. If I'm not mistaken, it's already been used once with reference to another departure.

Date: Mar 30, 2005

quote:
Originally posted by: Blabbermouth
"Note that this was a well kept secret until the job was actually offered. That's the way it should be. I do hope posters will refrain from blowing the cover of those who wish to get out of this place. That's a terrible thing to do to someone who is on the job market. Let them announce it in their own way and at their own pace. "

But it was posted last year on either this board or the old FS board that Chuck had interviewed for a job in Montana, I believe. So, we knew he was on the market already.

Anyway, congrats to Chuck and his family. Yet another body blow to COAL. BTW, is Chuck currently chair of History at USM? If so, then that's 2 chairs gone (him and David Wheeler). Who is chair of Music now?

Date: Mar 30, 2005

quote:
Originally posted by: truth4usm/AH
" But it was posted last year on either this board or the old FS board that Chuck had interviewed for a job in Montana, I believe. So, we knew he was on the market already. Anyway, congrats to Chuck and his family. Yet another body blow to COAL. BTW, is Chuck currently chair of History at USM? If so, then that's 2 chairs gone (him and David Wheeler). Who is chair of Music now?"

Charlie Elliott.

Actually, the loss of chairs in CoAL in the last year would be history, english, and theatre. Are there any others?

Date: Mar 30, 2005

quote:
Originally posted by: truth4usm/AH
" But it was posted last year on either this board or the old FS board that Chuck had interviewed for a job in Montana."

I didn't see that post. But I believe that it would have been improper to post such a thing without Chuck's permission.

Date: Mar 30, 2005

quote:
Originally posted by: common sense
"I didn't see that post. But I believe that it would have been improper to post such a thing without Chuck's permission. "

I'm not saying whether it's right or wrong, only that the information got out. I don't know who is posting the information inappropriately, but I hope that whomever posts information gets permission to do so first from the person herself/himself.

Date: Mar 30, 2005

it's easier to answer which COAL departments are not looking for chairs--anthropology/sociology, music, philosophy, and speech communication.

Date: Mar 30, 2005

Last time I looked, Department of Mass Communication is currently without a head. I think there is an interim. I could be wrong on this.
They had a good chair of that department until that dimwit Thames decided to restructure everything. Don't seem too many of his precious Poly-Sci people leaving. Sometimes I hate the fact Poly-Sci ever came to Southern Miss.

Date: Mar 30, 2005

quote:
Originally posted by: stephen judd
"
Charlie Elliott.
Actually, the loss of chairs in CoAL in the last year would be history, english, and theatre. Are there any others?"

Add Political Science. Their chair search is a wonderful national scandal. Only 2 people from a national search even bothered to apply!
Add Foreign Languages. The dept tried twice to have someone from there be chair. But marvelous, wonderful Mr Pood twice refused to let the democracy work there.
Good old Pood can now claim to have metaphorical not just actual explosive capacities: kapow to English, to history, to foreign languages, to poly sci: what else can he explode one can only wait in eager anticipation to see which of the lucky remaining coals will be reduced to cinder and ash..there's not much more time or coals left. Any bets on which will be the next target?

Date: Mar 30, 2005

Is there any way that you could direct Dr. Pood to Polymer Science. Exploding their beautiful building would be a real challange.

Date: Mar 30, 2005

quote:
Originally posted by: Ender Wiggin
" They had a good chair of that department until that dimwit Thames decided to restructure everything. "

Now just a MINUTE, my good friend! As a Certified Professional Dimwit, I resent you besmirching the good name of dimwits everywhere by associating us with Shelby Thames. Even dimwits have some dignity, you know!

Date: Mar 30, 2005

quote:
Originally posted by: USM Sympathizer
"I don't think these faculty members (and the many others like them who have left or will be leaving) will be taking any good words about USM with them. Instead, I suspect that they will help make the Shelby Thames Fiasco even more widely known in national academic circles than it already is (and believe me, it IS widely known). In other words, Shelby has not only succeeding in wounding his own school, but he has also succeeded in wounding its national reputation in countless ways."

SFT could give a @#$% what other people think about USM. However, if I was Elliott Pood, I would be very worried (that is unless he wants to finish out his career in Hattiesburg).

Doty, at least, understands that an academic's only asset is his personal reputation; hence his opposition to SFT this semester. Maybe he's principled, maybe he's not--I don't know the guy. Nonetheless, it is in his career interest to distance himself from the USM administration.

EP, on the other hand, did nothing while G&S were summarily humiliated and fired. EP actively moved to fire Noel Polk, and thus brought upon himself a humiliating write-up in the Chronicle. The CoAL diaspora is spreading a group of senior and mid-level faculty--precisely the one's who staff admistrative search committees--who will bear witness to EP's actions whenever his resume pops up in a job search. I don't think he'll be applying for any jobs at UNC-G.

And the Chronicle story is going to follow him around like a cheap suit for the rest of his career. I guess EP's neither bright enough, nor principled enough to know, that with the SFT administration, sh*t rolls downhill. He'll get nothing for his water-carrying toadyism from the administration. I hope he likes the weather in Mississippi.

Date: Mar 30, 2005

And when USM is resurrected with a new Prez who understands principled academia - Pood might wish to quickly implode because his days will be numbered without Shelby Freehanded Thames around.

Date: Mar 30, 2005

quote:
Originally posted by: Former USM prof.
" SFT could give a @#$% what other people think about USM. However, if I was Elliott Pood, I would be very worried (that is unless he wants to finish out his career in Hattiesburg). Doty, at least, understands that an academic's only asset is his personal reputation; hence his opposition to SFT this semester. Maybe he's principled, maybe he's not--I don't know the guy. Nonetheless, it is in his career interest to distance himself from the USM administration. EP, on the other hand, did nothing while G&S were summarily humiliated and fired. EP actively moved to fire Noel Polk, and thus brought upon himself a humiliating write-up in the Chronicle. The CoAL diaspora is spreading a group of senior and mid-level faculty--precisely the one's who staff admistrative search committees--who will bear witness to EP's actions whenever his resume pops up in a job search. I don't think he'll be applying for any jobs at UNC-G. And the Chronicle story is going to follow him around like a cheap suit for the rest of his career. I guess EP's neither bright enough, nor principled enough to know, that with the SFT administration, sh*t rolls downhill. He'll get nothing for his water-carrying toadyism from the administration. I hope he likes the weather in Mississippi."

Excellent post!

Date: Mar 30, 2005

an interesting side note--Pood already worked at UNC-G. early in his career.

Date: Mar 30, 2005

Yes, Stephen.

At least one other chair left recently. David Goff, Director of the School of Mass Communication and Journalism retired June 30, 2004 and is currently a very happy Chair of the Department of Mass Communication and Theatre Arts at the University of West Georgia. I ran into him at Lowes last weekend. he told me that West Georgia is rising a level in the Georgia system and will grow in size, as well. It is the only campus in the system which has available land for additional buildings. BTW, the president at the University of West Georgia believes in and practices shared governance. The faculty actually enjoy going to work and one can feel the energy on the campus. How different from USM, eh?

Yes, it is true that Pood was an undergrad at West Georgia. Not that that really means much now.

Date: Mar 30, 2005

Someone told me that Jerold Waltman of Political Science can be added to the COAL list - to Baylor University.

Date: Mar 30, 2005

quote:
Originally posted by: truth4usm/AH
" BTW, is Chuck currently chair of History at USM?

I didn't see where anyone answered, but yes he is/was.

And remember not only is the history dept. losing a great historian, a professor, and a dept. head but also the head of the Oral History dept. This department is "wurld class" and has the best civil rights oral histories in the nation. That means there is no one left in theO.H. department--first Professor Austin and now Professor Bolton.

Date: Mar 30, 2005

quote:
Originally posted by: Chug! Chug! Chug!
" I didn't see where anyone answered, but yes he is/was. And remember not only is the history dept. losing a great historian, a professor, and a dept. head but also the head of the Oral History dept. This department is "wurld class" and has the best civil rights oral histories in the nation. That means there is no one left in theO.H. department--first Professor Austin and now Professor Bolton."

So, I suppose Oral History will now go the way of Rhet/Comp in English...just a memory. That's too bad after all the good work that Oral History has done.

This is simply a shame...just a shame. SFT should be ashamed of himself, but, of course, that would require leadership qualities that he doesn't possess.

Date: Mar 31, 2005

quote:
Originally posted by: stephen judd
" Charlie Elliott. Actually, the loss of chairs in CoAL in the last year would be history, english, and theatre. Are there any others?"

And Elliott won't be going any place because he is one chair who won't stand up to Pood.