should I stay or should I go? - USM Forum -- Message Board

Date: May 9, 2005

RE: should I stay or should I go?

Date: May 9, 2005

While I don't have a dog in this hunt, or a cat in the window even, I do have an opinion.

Joe, I need to answer your question should I go or stay with questions that only you can answer. First, is your relationship worth your staying? You mentioned in your post that you don't know how much more of the craziness you and your partner can withstand. Your relationship has to come first, everything else is a distance second. No job is worth getting a divorce for. Second, I can sense that you like what you do, but is the added stress worth it? Money isn't everything, peace of mind and doing what you like/love is more important than the paycheck. Third, do you really think that the other faculty members who are leaving have sat down and wondered if they were abandoning their colleagues? Maybe, maybe not. I do know that your colleagues have abandoned what seems to be a sinking ship, trying desperately to save their careers and their lives and sanity. Finally, I truly hope that the IHL is finally tired of SFT's crap and has had enough. I believe that Mr. Crofts knows what is going on there, and all of it and will report the same to the board. Granted Klumb and klumber are fighting tooth and toenail to keep SFT in place, but I don't think that is going to happen. How many more embarassments will the IHL tolerate?

So, should you go, should you stay.....only you and your family can decide that. If I were in your shoes, I would leave.

Date: May 10, 2005

You have to ask yourself would you ever regret not taking this opportunity to escape from the insanity that is USM. I know that there are times when I wish I had taken the job offer instead of convincing myself that things would get better here. It has been said that God shuts a door but opens a window. Your window is wide open.

Date: May 11, 2005

Whether SFT stays another ten years or goes tomorrow, USM has already been mortally wounded.

Whether SFT stays or goes, the IHL, Mississippi politics, Mississippi's economic woes, and Mississippi's anti-intellectual public sentiment won't be going away anytime soon.

When I moved to Mississippi in 1999 I was determined to find that the unfortunate stereotypes about that state were exaggerations. When I left last year...need I say more?

I have traded a position as a tenured full professor in USM's School of Music for an interesting and rewarding combination of part-time professional activities in a region of the country where people value education and the arts. All indications are that leaving USM was one of the best professional decisions I've made in my entire life.

My advice? Go! And don't look back.

Date: May 11, 2005

quote:
Originally posted by: Michael Kimber
"
My advice? Go! And don't look back.

"

Note that Professor Kimber, like many of us who have left, finds it hard not to look back!

I tend to agree with him on one point--one of the reasons I felt I could not stay was the reaction of greater Hattiesburg to USM's crisis. I could have hung on, happily surrounded by many colleagues I deeply respected, but I felt like town was pro-SFT and anti-faculty. I simply couldn't continue to live in what I regarded as an extremely hostile environment.

Date: May 11, 2005

Like Professor Kimber, leaving was the best decision I've ever made. Like Foot Soldier observed, however, it is hard not to look back. But the looking back is not regret for leaving. It is regret for what is lost. And it is regret that the state of Mississippi probably will never be any different.

Date: May 12, 2005

kick