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Originally posted by: Robert Campbell
"I just sent the following letter to the Clarion-Ledger.  By now they should have gotten 3 or 4 criticizing their editorial--maybe more.  Let's hope one gets published. Robert Campbell ******************** Monday’s editorial on the IHL Board’s decision to end Shelby Thames’ term in office in May 2007 misses the significance of his failed presidency. When Thames fired 9 deans at the University of Southern Mississippi and replaced them with 5, he was not being "innovative and businesslike." He was conducting a purge. Nor was he "reducing administrative bureaucracy." His reorganization saved less than $800,000 per year in administrative spending, not the $1.8 million that he has claimed. And Thames spent the savings on new administrators, such as a Director of Risk Management and a Chief Operating Officer. Thames has not come up with new and better ways to finance higher education in Mississippi. In trying to make USM into an "economic development university," he has proven that there is no such thing. A university cannot be run on research contracts and pork-barrel appropriations for a couple of favored units, while the remaining academic programs are squeezed dry and their tuition income is diverted to the favored units or to the central administration. The programs that have been squeezed quickly lose their capacity to serve their students or to compete in the research arena. It is widely assumed that professors are unaccountable and university administrators are accountable. But Shelby Thames has yet to accept responsibility for a single false statement or harmful policy. Those who look to unaccountable administrators to make quality higher education affordable are bound to be disappointed."

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