Do you folks think tomorrow will "tell the tale"? Is VSN president yet, or is this RK's last meeting?

quote:

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Originally posted by: Invictus
" Do you really truly think it makes a difference? I disagree slightly with RC. I see SFT with four "solid" votes already out in the public: Klumb, Ross, Colbert & Davidson. There are probably enough "weak sisters" on the board now who would view the concept of replacing Thames as "rocking the boat" to ease SFT past this "review." (And I put "review" in quotes intentionally.) That gives the pro-SFT faction (or anti-USM, if you prefer, because part of the board will go "pro-SFT" because they're "anti-USM") a whole year to solidify the case for a contract extension. "

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Don't forget, Robin Robinson =  pro SFT.  And big time (just not "outed" so much yet).

Invictus,

Invictus,

You're right that the IHL Board's track record militates against expecting too much from it.

Still...

By now, even the densest members of the Board must know that keeping SFT in power could mean loss of accreditation for a university in the Mississippi state system.

More importantly, they must know that keeping SFT in power means more executive sessions (haven't they been averaging one every 2 months?) just to hash over the latest boneheaded things he's done and the rotten publicity they've stirred up.

Maybe they reallycare no more about the health of the state university system than Governor Bilbo did. Maybe they really are as impervious to bad publicity as Thames seems to be.

We'll have a better sense of it all in another two weeks.

Robert Campbell

Is Robin Robinson pro-Thames?

I don't necessarily think so. I think she is likely to be pro-USM, but with a business person's take on the academy.

I think she is smart, yet has had almost no experience with university matters. I think she has become painfully aware that universities are not like businesses.

I think she and many others realize that higher education cannot rely on state funds from the legislature but need to get creative with funding. I think many board members believed that Thames could deliver a new way. I suppose that Robinson felt that way.

It is possible that she and other board members remain convinced that Thames has the answer. But what I hope is that they can see that he has had three years and has not delivered what he promised. Furthermore, he has created a public relations nightmare at USM. On the one hand Thames tries to convince the public and the IHL that faculty are a bunch of lazy liberals who don't follow the rules, who dont meet their classes, who change final exam times, with some who should do "jail time" but has failed to realize that he cannot recruit quality students to a university that he describes like this.

But the USM "experiment in creative funding" has failed. We have spent too many of the taxpayers dollars on unnecesary legal suits and perhaps on unwise building projects. We have not spent the tax dollars on things taxpayers want to pay for, like library books and smart (technologically) classrooms, and on other things that spell quality education.

Once again, look at where the big increase in research money occurred. The big jump was publicized in June - precisely one month after Thames took office. While he tries to take credit for that, an intelligent individual like Crofts will be able to point out to the board of trustees that Thames has not really increased funding for the university from creative sources AT ALL. It's a flat line since he took over.

What really scares me is the possibility that if his contract is extended that more students will bail, more faculty will bail, and those faculty remaining behind will be so absolutely demoralized that they will be unable emotionally, physically, or psychologically to continue to serve the university in the many ways that make it work; on Academic Council, Graduate Council, SACS committees, etc. That would spell disaster, but I also have trouble blaming faculty for adopting the "save myself" position. Remember, the reward system is NOT geared toward these service chores, but at grants and publicatons. I would be hard pressed not to just knuckle down and spend every minute on research and teaching and almost nothing on service so I can "update my vita" to get on the job market. If faculty do this in droves, then the university will surely fail, and we will ultimately lose all accreditation.

I hope the IHL board of trustees takes all of this into account when they make their decision.

Amy Young

The story is that she does the bidding of her boss, an MSU bully pup (not USM).

quote:

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Originally posted by: going,going,gone
"within next 6 months shelby will get a 4 year contract extension....4-6 months after contract extention, sft will resign due to health or spend more time with family or back to research,etc

shelby will never let it be said he was beat....whatever it takes even stepping down, but in his mind he MUST win

"

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Shelby Thames could be a real winner if he just went back to polymer science where his real talents lay.

Amy Young