Item #3 (Update on Retirements and Departures) on the thread entitled "Myron's PUC Report" states: "In the past three years, USM has averaged 95 departures."

An average of 95 departures per year over three years would mean that USM has lost 285 faculty members during a brief three-year period in its history. This must be some sort of state or national record. It almost certainly reflects more departures than occurred when Mississippi Industrial College in Holly Springs closed its doors and no faculty whatsoever were left behind; or when Yadkin College (North Carolina) closed its doors in 1895 and all of its remaining faculty departed.

A big difference is that in the case of those two defunct schools (Mississippi Industrial College and Yadkn College) no students were left behind. USM does have students left behind. The students who are left behind at USM are left without the very large number of senior or marketable faculty members who have departed. The USM students who are left behind are at a university whose current reputation will make comparable faculty replacements next to impossible in the short haul and extremely difficult in the long haul.