into the night prof wrote:

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I just finished packing up my office tonight.  Next week, I move off to my new job.  I have told no one at USM of my decision to leave (at least no one who will speak of it).  My chair and my dean will find out only when school begins in August.  My absence until then will go unnoticed, as I am ofen away during July and (the first part of) August. To those of you who remain behind, good luck and Godspeed.

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What will happen to the students who have enrolled in your courses?

Of course, this could be somebody's idea of a sick joke. Make a bunch of chairs run around and check for empty offices. Cause an uproar on the board. We do have people who like to play games like this.
Now that you've posted, of course, it wouldn't be an August surprize, now would it? No, if you wanted an August surprize, you wouldn't have said anything.

into the night prof wrote:

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I just finished packing up my office tonight.  Next week, I move off to my new job.  I have told no one at USM of my decision to leave (at least no one who will speak of it).  My chair and my dean will find out only when school begins in August.  My absence until then will go unnoticed, as I am ofen away during July and (the first part of) August. To those of you who remain behind, good luck and Godspeed.

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How unprofessional!  Like other posters noted below, your attempt to inflict a blow is misdirected.  If this is real (always a big IF given so many attempts to spread disinformation and inflame the public against the faculty by interlopers on this board), it is an action that would be disavowed by any and all of the legitimate faculty governance bodies.  Heck, it probably violates AAUP principles!  More importantly, for you, is that academia is a relatively small and closed community.  Word of this will follow you and come back to bite you in the behind later in your career. 

I learned this week of others who have made a decision last week to leave summer.  They were considering it for some time, but hadn't made a decision.  Next week the new fiscal year begins and they were faced with a decision, which they made a day ago.  Their chair was informed a couple of days ago.  I was surprised to lean that some don't even have other jobs in hand at the time of departure.  Their mental and physical health and their creativity were suffering under the conditions at USM for the past 3 years.

I believe some these are the people that Faculty Senate President Beckett was referring to when he informed the president's cabinet that the figures they were publishing on 2005 departures were not correct.  He told them he knew of faculty leaving that they didn't know about.

 

Assuming that the initial post is legit (a big IF), this professor's departure will be "spun" by Shelby and Co. in a way that will reflect negatively on all the poster's colleagues at USM.  The line will be this: "Look at how those irresponsible faculty behave.  They care nothing about their students, only about themselves."  Among the people most ready to buy this line will be this professor's students and their families and friends.  Who could blame them for interpreting his conduct in this way?

I hadn't thought about how such an act will follow the professor later in his career, but that point seems quite legitimate.

It isn't too late for the poster to inform the appropriate people that he will not be back so that they can make the appropriate arrangements.  He might also want to write a letter to the HA informing the good citizens of Hattiesburg why he is leaving.  Doing both of these things would be the responsible things to do.

Just curious wrote:

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The line will be this: "Look at how those irresponsible faculty behave.  They care nothing about their students, only about themselves."  Among the people most ready to buy this line will be this professor's students and their families and friends.  Who could blame them for interpreting his conduct in this way?

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Wait a minute here!  What is done in the business world?  Isn't it a two-week notice?  If the IHL had a logical policy all of this could be avoided.  They require tenured faculty to sign a contract before each year.  What happens is a prof doesn't like the salary in the new contract and refuses to sign?  Until the prof signs the contract they haven’t agreed to work the following year unless they give their word to the chair in some way.  The way the IHL runs things, tenure only means the IHL must offer the prof a contract.

Can you imagine a business owner saying, "Alice, you are irresponsible to give me your two-week notice.  You care nothing for our customers." ?

Remember Noel Polk didn't resign until something like September last year, but I believe the chair was give notice earlier.  The IHL Board made this stupid system and must suffer the consequences for how it operates.

 

 

into the night prof wrote:

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I just finished packing up my office tonight.  Next week, I move off to my new job.  I have told no one at USM of my decision to leave (at least no one who will speak of it).  My chair and my dean will find out only when school begins in August.  My absence until then will go unnoticed, as I am ofen away during July and (the first part of) August. To those of you who remain behind, good luck and Godspeed.

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May the Force be with you.

Personally, I have a colleague that is doing the same thing.  This person is torn over their decision.  On the one hand, this behavior is unprofessional.  However, the administrators we work for are such jerks that this person fears retribution.  This person will turn in their letter after the second summer session is so well along that they cannot be removed from the class.  In a "normal" university this person would have resigned in May.  However, they need the summer money for transition costs and their teaching this summer is not costing any of the rest of us summer employment.  This persons position will probably be permanently "lost" or replaced by an adjunct.  The students will at least get quality instruction this summer.  They will lose in the long run but in this case when this person resigns won't affect that much.

Some are resigning late purely out of anger.  I disagree with this sort of behavior for the reasons posted above.  However, others are resigning late out of financial need coupled with fear of behavior that goes beyond unprofessional. 

God help us all for having to work in a place where outgoing workers have to wrestle with these choices. 

into the night prof wrote:

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I just finished packing up my office tonight.  Next week, I move off to my new job.  I have told no one at USM of my decision to leave (at least no one who will speak of it).  My chair and my dean will find out only when school begins in August.  My absence until then will go unnoticed, as I am ofen away during July and (the first part of) August. To those of you who remain behind, good luck and Godspeed.

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I say go for it, dude!  Don't let these pansies get you down.

I agree with you, 100%. Just because you disagree with the administration doesn't mean you should punish your fellow faculty and students. Very unprofessional. Give notice and be on your way. Good luck!

Just curious wrote:

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Assuming that the initial post is legit (a big IF), this professor's departure will be "spun" by Shelby and Co. in a way that will reflect negatively on all the poster's colleagues at USM.  The line will be this: "Look at how those irresponsible faculty behave.  They care nothing about their students, only about themselves."  Among the people most ready to buy this line will be this professor's students and their families and friends.  Who could blame them for interpreting his conduct in this way?
I hadn't thought about how such an act will follow the professor later in his career, but that point seems quite legitimate.
It isn't too late for the poster to inform the appropriate people that he will not be back so that they can make the appropriate arrangements.  He might also want to write a letter to the HA informing the good citizens of Hattiesburg why he is leaving.  Doing both of these things would be the responsible things to do.

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Agreed that some people are in vulnerable positions and can't tell that they're leaving. However, the original poster said they already had a new job.
This is just so sickeningly sad.

Point-Counterpoint wrote:

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What if the original poster doesn't have a job yet? Should he/she alert the administration to the fact that he/she is leaving so that it can ruin his/her chances of getting a job? Should he/she give notice early so that the administration can cut his/her benefits that he/she has paid for already? So that he/she can be locked out or have his/her computer seized? Supporters of SFT want faculty to be employees. I have heard mention of the "two week" rule in business. Well, here's the fact: in business if you give a two-week notice, your boss is most likely going to say "Just pack it up and go on right now." Who wants a lame duck employee (besides the IHL)?

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Imagine the people who were on tenure track, and with no warning from the administration or their deans or the dept chairs, came back in August to discover that SFT had not extended a contract, yet he assumed that they would begin teaching without a contract. Keep in mind that everyone else in the depts. had contracts.  I know of one (who is suing) who tried to contact SFT for four weeks after that. He sent this person a certified letter on Aug. 30 telling this person that he was terminating this person as of May. When the end of Sept. came around this person lost insurance, retirement benefits, and a job.  Am I making this up? No, it's the truth, and if I can convince this one person to hand over the case numbers - you can look them up and read them yourself.

Original poster, I suspect your story is like what these last 2 posters speak about.  Good luck to you, and don't let the other wimps here get you down.  What you're doing is right.