Funny Story... - USM Forum -- Message Board

Date: Jun 12, 2005

Funny Story...

Date: Jun 13, 2005

Related to this incident: When I first arrived at USM I bought USM t-shirts, sweatshirts, etc. I have since thrown them all away and will not buy another until the Gnome is gone. In the meantime, I wear as much other university/college wear as possible when on campus. I am too ashamed of what USM has become under Shelby to do otherwise.

Date: Jun 13, 2005

Factoid wrote:

Over on Eagle Talk, a poster relays a story about going to a local restaurant and, when faced with a waitress wearing an LSU hat, requesting another waitress. He/she seemed outraged that Hattiesburg allows individuals to wear paraphanalia supporting other universities. Perhaps he/she should take a walk across USM's campus sometime.

Factoid,

Perhaps that Eagle Talk poster is unaware of the large number of Old Hattiesburg residents who send their children to other colleges.

Date: Jun 13, 2005

Actually, I see many more stuff from LSU, Ole Miss, and Mississippi State than I do USM stuff. In fact, I see more Jones County Junior College and Pearl River Community College stuff than I do USM stuff. It must make you feel weird to be in sixth place on your own campus.

Date: Jun 13, 2005

Factoid wrote:

Actually, I see many more stuff from LSU, Ole Miss, and Mississippi State than I do USM stuff. In fact, I see more Jones County Junior College and Pearl River Community College stuff than I do USM stuff. It must make you feel weird to be in sixth place on your own campus.

It's been that way for years. And it extends to faculty That's why so many faculty leave unhappy.

Date: Jun 13, 2005

Conform or else

Date: Jun 13, 2005

RE: Funny Story...

Date: Jun 13, 2005

After reading posts regarding "wearing the colors" at USM, I did a little informal survey last Thursday. I walked through the Payne Center and counted the number of USM and non-USM college shirts, hats, etc. (i.e., I didn't include commercial logos, etc., just instituitions of higher learning. Also, I didn't include the USM Payne Center shirts that all the employees wore.) It was an even split: eight USM, eight from other schools. To my surprise, nobody was wearing UM or MSU clothing; however, there was a Centenary College tee shirt that I'd have never expected to see.

I'm not sure what this means though. I used to have a Brigham Young tee shirt that my spouse brought back from a workshop in Utah. It didn't really make me a BYU supporter. Similarly, I brought back some gear from meetings at SMU and Birmingham Southern as souvenirs for my children with no apparent effect.

Date: Jun 13, 2005

Lurker wrote:

A recently-departed provost has been known to tell faculty that they'd "get along better" if they wore a USM lapel pin rather than one from their alam mater, for example. I can't believe that a provost has time to worry about such matters. But, it indicates to me the "conform or else" mentality. I contemplated wearing a USM lapel pin upside-down under my alma mater pin just to yank his chain.

For the moment at least, the USM lapel service pin has been replaced by a No Quarter pin.

Date: Jun 13, 2005

Button Lady wrote:

Lurker wrote: A recently-departed provost has been known to tell faculty that they'd "get along better" if they wore a USM lapel pin rather than one from their alam mater, for example. I can't believe that a provost has time to worry about such matters. But, it indicates to me the "conform or else" mentality. I contemplated wearing a USM lapel pin upside-down under my alma mater pin just to yank his chain. For the moment at least, the USM lapel service pin has been replaced by a No Quarter pin.

You go, girl, button lady!

Date: Jun 13, 2005

OK, now we're really getting down to the kernel of my question: Why is there such a "conform or else" mentality in Hattiesburg and/or among USM boosters?

It seems to me that people would want to support USM IF (and only IF) USM had something to offer that enticed them to do so. I have heard so many USM people complain about other schools' paraphanalia and the fact that more USM students attend Ole Miss and State football games than USM football games. Isn't it the case that people would support USM football if it were the best product? True, USM may have had a few better teams in the past, but there is no comparison between the "total package" of an Ole Miss football game (just for instance -- tailgating at The Grove, football team, band, cheerleaders, quality of opponents, etc.) and the "total package" of a USM game. I'm not even an Ole Miss fan, this is just an example.

USM sells its team out by playing on any possible day or time that will earn the most television money rather than playing on days and times that would be most conducive to attendance and student support. Sure, I'd like to attend a USM game every now and then, but I find it very difficult to take off on a Thursday and Friday (for a Thursday night game) just to get to the game, watch the game, and then get back home.

The attitude I catch is centered around something like "If you build it, they will come," except that it's more like "If they would just blindly support USM, then USM will be a top program," which is nonsense. If you watch schools that use sports to build excitement about their institutions (say, Boise State or Utah in football), they put a quality product on the field and then the fans react. In other words, they get good before they expect anyone to think they're good. Not so at USM. USM is average in almost everything athletic but wants folks to think they're "world class."

I know many here do not care about athletics, but it seems strange to me that such an obvious contradiction and poor method of operation slips by the hard-core USM "supporter" who usually only cares about sports. It seems to me that they should look at other schools and see what is working and what isn't, but they don't.

Date: Jun 13, 2005

Factoid wrote:
The attitude I catch is centered around something like "If you build it, they will come,"

Say never suggested "they would come" if "it" were built of cards!

Date: Jun 13, 2005

Returning to the original theme of this thread, an observation & some questions...

As I've mentioned here before, the Invictus family offspring unit will be attending the University of Mississippi next fall. Last week, we attended freshman (dis)orientation, which I might note was extremely well organized. After concluding the last session, aforementioned offspring unit headed straight to the bookstore & then to the "Rebel Shop" to add to her collection of Ole Miss clothing & impedimenta. (She's been accumulating "logo merchandise" for over a year now.)

And when we finally returned home, getting that Ole Miss parking decal on the window of her car was a major event. Like, it had to happen right now!

So... Do kids head to the USM bookstore & buy a lot of Eagle clothes after orientation? Do folks buy them USM paraphernalia for high school graduation presents? Are freshmen excited about getting their freakin' parking decals? If not, why not?

Have I just circumnavigated something of sociological import?

Date: Jun 13, 2005

When my youngest needed some new tee shirts this spring, I went to the Dartmouth, Chicago, and Northwestern bookstores for some "novelty" tee shirts. They like things other kids don't have (for nonparents here). An unintended consequence has been questions like what's Dartmouth? or I haven't heard about Chicago's football team.

BTW, check out the tee shirt ordering system at Rice. Not that is world class!

Date: Jun 13, 2005

My all-time favorite shirt was "Harvard - The Vanderbilt of the North"...

Date: Jun 13, 2005

Invictus wrote:

Have I just circumnavigated something of sociological import?

We may never know. USM ran away the faculty member most equipped to answer your question.

Date: Jun 13, 2005

Toga wrote:

Fleming kept USM caps in his desk, and when he saw a student on campus with another school's cap he asked the student to come by his (Fleming's) office and do a trade. It was popular on campus even to the extent that students got a kick out of baiting him on the deal. It was in fun but it carried a message.

So that's how Horace built that big collection of university baseball caps!

Date: Jun 13, 2005

Invictus,

That's exactly what I'm talking about. Your family offspring unit's reaction is understandable -- there are many things about which one could be proud with respect to Ole Miss. Your question is hitting at the heart of my interest -- as I work orientation (or whatever it's called at USM), I don't see excitement. I don't see a lot of new enrolees carrying USM stuff. I see the free bags, the free student calendars, and the useless schedules of classes (which never match SOAR).

Date: Jun 13, 2005

Ralph wrote:

We may never know. USM ran away the faculty member most equipped to answer your question.

Oh, I know. In fact, he & I have discussed this very topic over lunch. I think he was on the cusp of a major breakthrough in the grand unified theory of car window decals.

Date: Jun 13, 2005

Congrats to your daughter. In answer to your question, my children have attended, are attending, or will attend Southern Miss and they have the same feeling and have done the same thing as your daughter. So yes, they buy USM stuff in the bookstore, receive USM gifts for graduation, and wear tons of USM clothes. I can't say they are excited about their parking decal though.

Invictus wrote:

Returning to the original theme of this thread, an observation & some questions... As I've mentioned here before, the Invictus family offspring unit will be attending the University of Mississippi next fall. Last week, we attended freshman (dis)orientation, which I might note was extremely well organized. After concluding the last session, aforementioned offspring unit headed straight to the bookstore & then to the "Rebel Shop" to add to her collection of Ole Miss clothing & impedimenta. (She's been accumulating "logo merchandise" for over a year now.) And when we finally returned home, getting that Ole Miss parking decal on the window of her car was a major event. Like, it had to happen right now! So... Do kids head to the USM bookstore & buy a lot of Eagle clothes after orientation? Do folks buy them USM paraphernalia for high school graduation presents? Are freshmen excited about getting their freakin' parking decals? If not, why not? Have I just circumnavigated something of sociological import?

Date: Jun 13, 2005

Answer wrote:

Congrats to your daughter. In answer to your question, my children have attended, are attending, or will attend Southern Miss and they have the same feeling and have done the same thing as your daughter. So yes, they buy USM stuff in the bookstore, receive USM gifts for graduation, and wear tons of USM clothes. I can't say they are excited about their parking decal though.

Good! Kids ought to be excited about the college they attend, regardless of which one it is. I believe the student services folks when they say that "research shows" that students who identify with the institution are more likely to stay in school.

It bothers me a little to hear reports about un-excited orientation participants. My observation at Ole Miss was that the kids were pretty excited ... and some were pretty scared

As an unrelated note, I observed that "The Facebook" -- a website where students post profiles under their universities -- was a major things for these kids. My daughter probably knew a third of the 200-odd kids in her orientation session. I kinda wish there had been something like that when I was a student, back in the days of steam-powered computers...