This guy was a columnist/editor of The Varsity Voice.  He wrote the goofy column that appeared in each of the few issues that were published.  He's a Cain boy.

Ingteresting -- I learned in the chair's meeting today that the Prinz gets NO ENG funding. If true, that makes the funding of the VV an even greater crime . . . and then to have it go under (wasted money that could have been used by a legitimate university press) disgusting -- all because the Prinz isn't an organ of the administration.

PS:

Does anyone remember how much money was forked over for the VV?  I remember being surprised at the size of the figure.

Robert Campbell should have fun with this one.  The IHL Board is now going to be the cause of USM's SACS probation problems.  Seems like we now have the finger pointing at the very source of all of the problems.

Are we not going to discuss this young man's letter and his concerns about balanced journalism?

Ok, Malouk. The young man says Thames' innovative ideas were never given a chance. I would ask -- what innovative ideas? Who was stopping him? The areas of achievement mentioned are construction, outsourcing and athletic success. When you consider that almost all the construction was planned before Thames became president, and that outsourcing is not an "achievement" but rather a business strategy, that leaves athletics. That's how you judge a president? Winning ball games? What I don't see in the letter is any mention of any academic progress or success.

As I understod it, when the guy who was the eexecutive editor of the VV left at the end of the fall semester, most of the staff quit and there were not enough people left to put an issue together. In addition, there was not enough money at the VV to pay the writers, I believe the people who were the staff writers and photographers did it more as a favor to the Exec Editor than anything else.

On the other hand, The Printz is totally self supported and paid it's writers and photographers for everything they wrote or shot (with a camera). Editors and get paid a little more. One staff member at the VV asked me in the fall how we were were able to do this and I told him upfront that we could afford to pay our staff because the paper's budget is based on the advertising that is sold in the paper. Advertising is how any newspaper, magazine or other media outlet supports itself. As I understand it, the VV never could get enough advertising to generate funds to keep the magazine running.

Remember that when you see an advertisement in your favorite newpapers or magazine, they are the people that allow you to read that publication.

As a side note, the guy who was the Exec. Editor of the VV in the fall returned to the Printz in the spring as the webmaster (the same position he held during the 2003-04 school year).

As for the latest SGA idea of starting a tv station at USM, they want it put under the authority of the School of Mass Comm and Journalism (like the Printz)

Resume' Pump wrote:

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Oh well, the VV may have folded but at least Walt Cain and Lisa Mader ended up with more resume' material ("created a student magazine, the Varsity Voice"). Pump those resumes!

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Bingo!

ram wrote:

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Malouk wrote: "Are we not going to discuss this young man's letter and his concerns about balanced journalism?" LVN answered: I would ask -- what innovative ideas? . . . The areas of achievement mentioned are construction, outsourcing and athletic success. When you consider that almost all the construction was planned before Thames became president, and that outsourcing is not an "achievement" but rather a business strategy, that leaves athletics. ... The sports statisticians can weigh in on this, but my subjective sense is that USM athletics under Thames aren't any better than they were before.  Anyway, sports development is similar to the construction that was mentioned: there is a lag (Shadow?) between the conception and the creation. We'll see how things play out. Beside that, I think the young man is just dead wrong.  All of those purportedly positive things he mentioned have been discussed in the media.  They did not get the amount of ink that the negative stories got -- and rightfully so.  Balanced journalism would not seem to be merely a matter of reporting the same number of items on each side of the ledger, but also addressing the importance of those items.  Placing alleged Increased Enrollment, New Construction, and Winning Sports Programs on one side of my scales would not nearly balance out SACS Probation, Tier Drop, Faculty Flight, Impoverished Nursing and the Ignomy of the Glamser/Stringer Debacle. But Malouk, how do you see it?    

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Im not saying that I would see it any different than you would.  Its interesting that someone that says "hey, lets get back to ____?" is immediately a supporter of something/one different.

Anyway, I do believe that outside of the academy persons "scales" would be calibrated differently.  Now, dont you agree that the average MS Joe would see the media coverage as skewed?

 

Malouk wrote:

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"Im not saying that I would see it any different than you would.  Its interesting that someone that says "hey, lets get back to ____?" is immediately a supporter of something/one different. "

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ram replies:

I didn't say that you are "immediately a supporter of something/one different."  Apparently, you are not.  If you do see it differently, you are choosing to keep your perceptions to yourself. (I do admit to associating you with the poster of the same name who recently claimed to be "King of the Trolls.")  

Malouk wrote:

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"Anyway, I do believe that outside of the academy persons "scales" would be calibrated differently.  Now, dont you agree that the average MS Joe would see the media coverage as skewed? " 

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ram replies:

Since I am not part of "the academy" I don't really feel qualified to give a direct answer, except to say that the metaphor of "scales" is indeed subjective.  I said "my scales" in an attempt to express that assumption.  I would not even project "my scales" upon other USM educated business people (like myself) living in the greater Hattiesburg area.

Similarly, I have absolutely no idea who the "average MS Joe" is, much less what he and his sisters think about the objectivity of media coverage.  To tell you the truth,  I'm just real tickled to hear you say that they are thinking about it at all.  It's a start, anyway.  Honestly, I doubt if the majority has much interest in USM at all, much less the media coverage over the past few years.  My guess is that matters at USM rank way below celebrity and sports news.

One PS to my earlier post:  that young man is wrong about construction, too.  Not being on campus, I am not sure of specific dates and such, but it occurs to me that the Liberal Arts Building, the Theater Building, and McCarty Hall are all recent construction projects that were either completed shortly before or after the ascendency of SFT.  Also, the not-so-attractive parking lot and drive modifications between Kelley Hall and Hurst Hall.

Athletic success has nothing to do with who is running the university. There are a number of factors that play into the success of an athletic program: Facilities, budget, coaches and recruiting to name a few. Many of the facility upgrades, including the expansion of the football stadium, have been on the drawing board since 2000 at the latest (when Horace Fleming was president). I'm a bit surprised that the writer of that column said no construction projects were going on when he arrived in 2001 b/c the new fieldhouse was being built at that time.

One of the problems that USM faces is the limited athletic budget. Southern Miss operates on a $13 million budget, far below what soon-to-be-former conference foes Louisville and Cincinnati have.

Often times, the success of the conference a school is in impacts the quality of players that come into an athletic program. Southern Miss is acknowledged as having set the bar for Conference USA football in the 1990s, causing the other schools to step it up in order to compete. This is what happened with Louisville, Memphis and UAB.

Likewise in basketball, Louisville and Cincinnati set a very high bar for the rest of the conference and UAB and Memphis will help keep that bar high in the new version of CUSA. USM's basketball programs were already pretty bad when James Green and Rick Reeves left last year. As far as the exodus of players from the teams, that's to be expected when there is a coaching change. I still maintain what I said in one of my columns, the women's team will rebound faster than the men's team will because of one reason: Coach McNelis already had a lot of contacts in Mississippi from when she was at Memphis. She has already recruited some of the top women's basketball talent in the state to play for the Lady Eagles next year.

The whole point is that there are a lot of reasons for why an athletic program can be successfull, but really the only impact that comes from the university president is that he signs off on whomever the AD hires and he signs all the paychecks (like he does for the rest of us who recieved checks form the university).

If anyone can be thanked for the improvements in the athletic programs at southern Miss, it's Richard Giannini (a Horace Fleming hire)

as a side note: from what I understand through the grapevine, Jeff Bower has never been a fan of SFT and vice versa and Coach Bower alledgedly had to be forced to attend the pro-Thames rally in 2003. Also from what I understand, if all of this is true, then the reason that Bower is still here is because he is so widely respected among the college coaching ranks.