New Associate Dean - USM Forum -- Message Board

Date: May 31, 2005

New Associate Dean

Date: May 31, 2005

It's not what you know... wrote:

Any thoughts about the new associate dean in COAL? He does not have a doctoral degree in any area of that college. Odd.

Odd? The chair of Economic Development,

, has a doctoral degree in Polymer Science. I'd say odd has become the norm around here.

Date: May 31, 2005

Who is the associate dean and what is his degree? I thought Denise VonHerrmann was the associate dean.

Date: May 31, 2005

It's Who You Know wrote:

It's not what you know... wrote: Any thoughts about the new associate dean in COAL? He does not have a doctoral degree in any area of that college. Odd. Odd? The chair of Economic Development, , has a doctoral degree in Polymer Science. I'd say odd has become the norm around here.

And, both have their doctorates from USM. I guess the Lucas taboo against hiring our own kin is history.

Date: May 31, 2005

Are there now three associate deans? Denise, whose an Alabama PhD, and two others?
Who are these folks

Date: May 31, 2005

Out of the loop wrote:

Who is the associate dean and what is his degree? I thought Denise VonHerrmann was the associate dean.

Steve Moser. Is faculty in the school of music here. Has a degree in Ed Leadership (not music). http://www.usm.edu/music/faculty/moser.php

Date: May 31, 2005

Isn't it an assistant prof who teaches in the Economic Development (whatever it's actually called these days) PhD program?

Date: May 31, 2005

Loop de Loop wrote:

Has a degree in Ed Leadership (not music). http://www.usm.edu/music/faculty/moser.php

Ed leadership isn't a real degree. Its something you get when you need to put PhD after your name, but don't have the time, ability, or inclination to undertake the training to become a scholar. I put it on par with Econ. Dev. or something one might earn from Nova Southeastern U. or U. of Phoenix. So a marching band director is going to handle a college where there are real scholars conducting real research who hold real degrees from real universities. Get real! It keeps getting worse and worse here.

Date: May 31, 2005

From the link provided up thread: "Dr. Steven Moser holds the rank of Professor in the School of Music. Currently Associate Dean for Administration, Graduate Studies, Research and Creative Activities in the College of Arts and Letters . . ."

OK...Moser oversees administration, graduate studies, research and creative activities in the COAL. What's left for Pood and von Herrmann to oversee? From what "reorganization" did the salary line for this position come? Vacant faculty line(s)?

Date: May 31, 2005

Has this fellow ever conducted any research himself? Grading some high school band's performance of "Lincolnshire Posey" doesn't count in my book. Denise VonHerrmann is a good scholar and the author of a well-regarded book on the politics and policy of the gaming industry. Why isn't she overseeing research and graduate training? On credentials this Moser fellow comes up short.

Date: May 31, 2005

Tired of Toadies wrote:

Has this fellow ever conducted any research himself? Grading some high school band's performance of "Lincolnshire Posey" doesn't count in my book. Denise VonHerrmann is a good scholar and the author of a well-regarded book on the politics and policy of the gaming industry. Why isn't she overseeing research and graduate training? On credentials this Moser fellow comes up short.
This shouldn't bother anybody. Scholarship is not usually among the criteria for holding such a position. At most universities it's not viewed as a catapult launch pad to a deanship. All that's necessary is that the person holding that position can effectively work with the dean and with the faculty. They usually retun to the faculty from which they came, not to a deanship.

Date: May 31, 2005

Frog on a log wrote:

This shouldn't bother anybody. Scholarship is not usually among the criteria for holding such a position. At most universities it's not viewed as a catapult launch pad to a deanship. All that's necessary is that the person holding that position can effectively work with the dean and with the faculty. They usually retun to the faculty from which they came, not to a deanship.

I agree that associate dean is not a launching pad for dean at one's own college. But associate deans very often step up the ladder at another institution. Every associate dean for research that I have ever encountered has a superb research and grant record (in addition to good people skills). I guess this is just not a quality sought after at USM.

Date: May 31, 2005

Tired of Toadies wrote:

Has this fellow ever conducted any research himself? Grading some high school band's performance of "Lincolnshire Posey" doesn't count in my book. Denise VonHerrmann is a good scholar and the author of a well-regarded book on the politics and policy of the gaming industry. Why isn't she overseeing research and graduate training? On credentials this Moser fellow comes up short.

I believe that Steve's job is primarily administrative and technical -- handling statistical data, etc. and not directly in the academic line of authority. My understanding is that this is something he seems to have an aptitude for and the Dean's Office (their argument, not mine) believes it has a need for.

I feel as though I have to speak up for a fellow artist -- few of us in the applied arts have Ph.Ds and I think one could make the case that there is often a good deal of resentment from the art side that we are adminstered by people with Ph.Ds but little or no understanding of what we do on the in the arts. I'm not exactly happy to have lost our college status but now that we have become a College of Arts and Letters some of you might have to live with the fact that some sub-administrators are not going to have doctorates vut may have terminal degrees in other fields. Sorry about that. In the previous College of the Arts Monica Hayes occupied the position of associate Dean and she has an MFA.

I think the "Lincolnshire Posey" slam is a pretty low and uncalled for slam. I'm designing a murder mystery right now now -- not exactly high art. Hate to tell you but in the performng arts we have to play a balancing act because universities no longer see themselves as preservers of "high" culture. So for every Macbeth or Medea we do over here in theatre, we also do a "Design for Murder" or the equivilent.

I don't know whether this position is needed or not -- I can tell you as a director of a program that the amount of information that I am asked to handle and pass on up the line is huge. I have a hard time imagiing at the College level how they are managing to process it all. I don;t really think this is a college problem -- it is a university-wide one. But that is just a personal opinion.

Date: May 31, 2005

stephen judd wrote:

I believe that Steve's job is primarily administrative and technical -- handling statistical data, etc. and not directly in the academic line of authority. My understanding is that this is something he seems to have an aptitude for and the Dean's Office (their argument, not mine) believes it has a need for. I feel as though I have to speak up for a fellow artist -- few of us in the applied arts have Ph.Ds and I think one could make the case that there is often a good deal of resentment from the art side that we are adminstered by people with Ph.Ds but little or no understanding of what we do on the in the arts. I'm not exactly happy to have lost our college status but now that we have become a College of Arts and Letters some of you might have to live with the fact that some sub-administrators are not going to have doctorates vut may have terminal degrees in other fields. Sorry about that. In the previous College of the Arts Monica Hayes occupied the position of associate Dean and she has an MFA. I think the "Lincolnshire Posey" slam is a pretty low and uncalled for slam. I'm designing a murder mystery right now now -- not exactly high art. Hate to tell you but in the performng arts we have to play a balancing act because universities no longer see themselves as preservers of "high" culture. So for every Macbeth or Medea we do over here in theatre, we also do a "Design for Murder" or the equivilent. I don't know whether this position is needed or not -- I can tell you as a director of a program that the amount of information that I am asked to handle and pass on up the line is huge. I have a hard time imagiing at the College level how they are managing to process it all. I don;t really think this is a college problem -- it is a university-wide one. But that is just a personal opinion.

I'll have to google Lincolnshire Posey. Sounds like an insider's evil curse.

The job you describe sounds more like an Assistant TO the Dean, rather than an Associate Dean. Can you describe the search process? I agree that Deans at USM process a lot of information, and therefore need adequate staffing. I'm just curious about how this person came to the position. You sound fond of this person, so I won't put you in the position of asking you to judge his credentials.

Date: May 31, 2005

INWYK wrote:
guess the Lucas taboo against hiring our own kin is history.

Hmmm... Does that mean I can be the next provost?

I would do such a great job, especially on payday.

Date: May 31, 2005

Invictus wrote:

Hmmm... Does that mean I can be the next provost? I would do such a great job, especially on payday.

We might have a place for you. Meet me at the club.

Date: May 31, 2005

stephen judd wrote:

Tired of Toadies wrote: Has this fellow ever conducted any research himself? Grading some high school band's performance of "Lincolnshire Posey" doesn't count in my book. Denise VonHerrmann is a good scholar and the author of a well-regarded book on the politics and policy of the gaming industry. Why isn't she overseeing research and graduate training? On credentials this Moser fellow comes up short. I believe that Steve's job is primarily administrative and technical -- handling statistical data, etc. and not directly in the academic line of authority. My understanding is that this is something he seems to have an aptitude for and the Dean's Office (their argument, not mine) believes it has a need for. I feel as though I have to speak up for a fellow artist -- few of us in the applied arts have Ph.Ds and I think one could make the case that there is often a good deal of resentment from the art side that we are adminstered by people with Ph.Ds but little or no understanding of what we do on the in the arts. I'm not exactly happy to have lost our college status but now that we have become a College of Arts and Letters some of you might have to live with the fact that some sub-administrators are not going to have doctorates vut may have terminal degrees in other fields. Sorry about that. In the previous College of the Arts Monica Hayes occupied the position of associate Dean and she has an MFA. I think the "Lincolnshire Posey" slam is a pretty low and uncalled for slam. I'm designing a murder mystery right now now -- not exactly high art. Hate to tell you but in the performng arts we have to play a balancing act because universities no longer see themselves as preservers of "high" culture. So for every Macbeth or Medea we do over here in theatre, we also do a "Design for Murder" or the equivilent. I don't know whether this position is needed or not -- I can tell you as a director of a program that the amount of information that I am asked to handle and pass on up the line is huge. I have a hard time imagiing at the College level how they are managing to process it all. I don;t really think this is a college problem -- it is a university-wide one. But that is just a personal opinion.

Stephen,

Your argument is a good one, but it doesn't seem to apply to this case. I see no degrees in fine arts here. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it appears the fellow has a master's and doctorate in education. The latter looks like it could be one of those education degrees that USM gives
away like candy every graduation. If my analysis is correct, I can see why some folks might be upset.

On the other hand, we are going back to the McCain era at warp speed, so
get used to it. Hardy High is making a come back.

Date: May 31, 2005

Local business person told me just tonight that he heard that Doty was stepping down as Dean, some time this Summer. And the beat goes on.

Date: May 31, 2005

All in color, just a dime wrote:

Stephen, Your argument is a good one, but it doesn't seem to apply to this case. I see no degrees in fine arts here. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it appears the fellow has a master's and doctorate in education. The latter looks like it could be one of those education degrees that USM gives away like candy every graduation. If my analysis is correct, I can see why some folks might be upset. On the other hand, we are going back to the McCain era at warp speed, so get used to it. Hardy High is making a come back.

Moser's master's degree is in music education, which is more performance and less education. One of Moser's biggest jobs was teaching future band directors which requires a certain bit of knowledge of education theory. Face it, there are just not that many pure conductors in the world, especially when compared to the number of jr high and high school band directors. He also had a long and successful career at USM before enrolling in the ed leadership program. Perhaps he though he needed Dr in front of his name to get promotions, or perhaps he wanted to expand himself.

One final thought to Tired of Toddies, his title includes "Research and Creative Activities." Should the creative faculty be upset if they named a pure researcher to that position? There are many definitions of scholarship; I suggest that you expand yours.

Date: May 31, 2005

How did it happen? wrote:

stephen judd wrote: I believe that Steve's job is primarily administrative and technical -- handling statistical data, etc. and not directly in the academic line of authority. My understanding is that this is something he seems to have an aptitude for and the Dean's Office (their argument, not mine) believes it has a need for. I feel as though I have to speak up for a fellow artist -- few of us in the applied arts have Ph.Ds and I think one could make the case that there is often a good deal of resentment from the art side that we are adminstered by people with Ph.Ds but little or no understanding of what we do on the in the arts. I'm not exactly happy to have lost our college status but now that we have become a College of Arts and Letters some of you might have to live with the fact that some sub-administrators are not going to have doctorates vut may have terminal degrees in other fields. Sorry about that. In the previous College of the Arts Monica Hayes occupied the position of associate Dean and she has an MFA. I think the "Lincolnshire Posey" slam is a pretty low and uncalled for slam. I'm designing a murder mystery right now now -- not exactly high art. Hate to tell you but in the performng arts we have to play a balancing act because universities no longer see themselves as preservers of "high" culture. So for every Macbeth or Medea we do over here in theatre, we also do a "Design for Murder" or the equivilent. I don't know whether this position is needed or not -- I can tell you as a director of a program that the amount of information that I am asked to handle and pass on up the line is huge. I have a hard time imagiing at the College level how they are managing to process it all. I don;t really think this is a college problem -- it is a university-wide one. But that is just a personal opinion. I'll have to google Lincolnshire Posey. Sounds like an insider's evil curse. The job you describe sounds more like an Assistant TO the Dean, rather than an Associate Dean. Can you describe the search process? I agree that Deans at USM process a lot of information, and therefore need adequate staffing. I'm just curious about how this person came to the position. You sound fond of this person, so I won't put you in the position of asking you to judge his credentials.

Nope -- not particularly fond of him. Don't know him that well. Just don't like the idea of seeing someone's qualifications diminished with snidery . . . I know he works hard . . . the band seems to be pretty good, he has a reputation for being very organized and practical. Beyond that . . . I know nothing.

But I know thet holding the degree he has should not necessarily disqualify him from what seems to me to be a pretty technical administrative position and I have no idea how it is that judging high school bands (one of the things all of us in the arts do is these kind of things AMONG other things we do) is cited as his highest professional achievement. THAT seems unfair to me --

Date: May 31, 2005

Stephen Judd's defense of people with fine arts degrees is well taken. However, the critique of Moser is very well founded. He is no scholar. Every memo I ever read by him was full of typos (though not the level of Seeker, perhaps). He is a BIG supporter of online courses and managed to create one very big controversy in the School of Music over them through his insensitivity and general mismanagement. Perhaps he can numbercrunch, but he has absolutely no sense of humor. None. The question should be why isn't Moser's doctorate in music, his true area of specialization? Too lazy to take the time to go elsewhere and get one? He got a quick and dirty local degree. He does not deserve the respect Prof. Judd has so generously offered.

Date: May 31, 2005

Any faculty member who has attained academic tenure and the rank of full professor must have demonstrated scholarly credentials satisfactory to the departmental, college, and university personel committees, and to the respective university administrators to which those committees make their recommendations (dean, provost/VPAA, president). If something is lacking, the blame should be placed squarely on those conducting the reviews at those levels, and not on the faculty member.

Date: May 31, 2005

Nuff Said wrote:

Any faculty member who has attained academic tenure and the rank of full professor must have demonstrated scholarly credentials satisfactory to the departmental, college, and university personel committees, and to the respective university administrators to which those committees make their recommendations (dean, provost/VPAA, president). If something is lacking, the blame should be placed squarely on those conducting the reviews at those levels, and not on the faculty member.

Oh, don't get me started on how so-called "reviews" are conducted in the School of Music.
I don't want this thread to start sounding liking those from the COB!

There are fine people in the School of Music. But administratively, it is a joke.

Date: May 31, 2005

First hand knowledge wrote:

Nuff Said wrote: Any faculty member who has attained academic tenure and the rank of full professor must have demonstrated scholarly credentials satisfactory to the departmental, college, and university personel committees, and to the respective university administrators to which those committees make their recommendations (dean, provost/VPAA, president). If something is lacking, the blame should be placed squarely on those conducting the reviews at those levels, and not on the faculty member. Oh, don't get me started on how so-called "reviews" are conducted in the School of Music. I don't want this thread to start sounding liking those from the COB! There are fine people in the School of Music. But administratively, it is a joke.

First hand knowledge, I don't know how things are in Music, but I'd be the last person to disagree with you about the "uneveness" of personnel reviews at USM in general. I've seen sound departmental-level recommendations reversed both ways. There is even uneveness in the obtaining of outside letters of support. And yet we wonder why our peers rate us a fourth tier institution.

Date: May 31, 2005

I am more disturbed by the ever-creeping size of Administration in CoAL and elsewhere when departments are down so many tenure-track positions. Moreover, we all know that the only way to get a significant raise at USM is to assume some sort of Administrative role and that makes such NEW POSITIONS highly competitive. But here we see there was NO SEARCH, just a decision by the dean. Is he really sure that this fellow is the best qualified in his college to assume this role when he doesn't even know the research credentials of a significant percentage of his faculty (which I unfortunately know from first-hand experience)? True, a dean can make these decisions as he/she sees fit - but does that mean we should support him/her when principles of academic governance are ignored within a setting of tight budgets? I do not fault Moser - I fault a dean who runs his college this way. The sooner he is gone the better.

Date: May 31, 2005

The School of Music has been an administrative mess since the retirement of Peter Ciurczak 6 or 7 years ago. It is a very large department and because of the nature of the beast, it is a complicated department. The current director is very clumsy at handling personnel matters and those procedures (evaluations, etc.) have been conducted in a slipshod manner for years. He also let the day to day tasks--scheduling, etc--get out of hand. Steve Moser came in as assistant directed and straightened out the logistical stuff. He's very good at that. But it is true that he is commited to online education and he, along with the director, attempted to create an online track for the Master of Music Ed degree without consulting the faculty as a whole. It caused a huge stink, especially among the faculty who would be teaching music history and music theory.

Moser will be very good at keeping the paper work going. He will not be particularly good with the faculty. He is ambitious and has wanted to be in administration for a long time. He doesn't have much of a sense of humor, and he has a history of holding grudges. As someone posted earlier, he learned the last trait from the master of grudges, Tom Fraschillo.

By the way, Steve is a good musician.

Date: Jun 1, 2005

how many associate deans does the COAL have? Every other college I know about has just 1.

Date: Jun 1, 2005

the issue of Pood doing a search for this position was discussed a while back. He asked chairs whether he should do one, given he had someone in mind for the job. The chairs said no (not surprisingly, people said). As I noted the old CLA did not have a strong "tradition" of conducting searches for such positions. The former dean was forced to conduct one by former VPAA David Huffman--the dean did, although he had a "favorite" for the position. It was a "sham" search. While the other candidate was interviewing, the "favorite" was moving into the associate dean's office.

Date: Jun 1, 2005

sad astra wrote:

how many associate deans does the COAL have? Every other college I know about has just 1.

I have always felt that the merger of these two colleges ranked near the top of the Stupid Things list. After creating upheaval, exodus, and loss of stature across the board, they now try to reassemble the old structure, but under a new roof? As always, if they had bothered to ask old hands, we coulda told 'em it would turn out this way. Surely we can now demonstrate conclusively that this particular merger has saved not a dime and cost USM dearly in reputation--not to speak of morale. If it ain't broke--don't hand it to Shelby.

Date: Jun 1, 2005

sad astra wrote:

how many associate deans does..."

Sounds like the start of a great new joke thread