meredith new commissioner - USM Forum -- Message Board

Date: Jul 21, 2005

meredith new commissioner

Date: Jul 21, 2005

I thought Meredith had been dismissed as Georgia's higher ed leader/

Date: Jul 21, 2005

"He holds a doctor of education degree in administration and supervision from the University of Mississippi."

I assume he came up through the ranks, working his way from Assistant- to Associate- to Full Professor somewhere. The article says nothing about his academic experience.

Date: Jul 21, 2005

i thought he was close to getting fired but here is the story:

ATLANTA -- (May 18) – Board of Regents Chair Joel O. Wooten announced today that the Board of Regents has voted to reappoint University System of Georgia Chancellor Thomas Meredith for the next fiscal year, beginning July 1, 2005.

"Chancellor Meredith has worked with the University System's presidents to keep access to our colleges and universities available to increasing numbers of Georgia students," Wooten stated. "He has protected the academic quality of USG institutions as enrollment dramatically increased during difficult economic times."

Commenting on his reappointment, Chancellor Meredith said: "I am pleased with the board's vote of confidence. As the economy continues to improve and state funding increases, the future of the University System is bright."

Date: Jul 21, 2005

Those who ran Fleming off should begin to worry about the university as a whole instead of worrying about the university's eleven game football season or this place will weaken on the athletic scene as C-USA weakens. The only want to help ensure that the football program endures is to ensure that USM's academic programs are strenghtened.

Date: Jul 21, 2005

This is good news and somewhat surprising. He has a sound background in higher education and a passion for students. Hope everyone gives him a fair shake.

Date: Jul 21, 2005

Not the secretary of state wrote:

This is good news and somewhat surprising. He has a sound background in higher education and a passion for students. Hope everyone gives him a fair shake.

You seem to know his background. What is his academic non- administrative background? His administration of higher education experience was mentioned in the article.

Date: Jul 21, 2005

Events appear to have unfolded quickly. This message appeared early this morning on the IHL site:

http://www.ihl.state.ms.us/newsstory.asp?ID=343

COMMISSIONER SEARCH COMMITTEE, FULL BOARD TO CONVENE

7/21/2005 (JACKSON ) -
The Commissioner Search Committee of the Board of Trustees of Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning will reconvene today at 8:30 a.m., followed immediately by an interim meeting of the full Board. Both meetings will take place in the 9th floor conference room of the IHL building at 3825 Ridgewood Road in Jackson.

An executive session may be held in accordance with the Open Meetings Act.

###

And then this shortly after:

http://www.ihl.state.ms.us/newsstory.asp?ID=344

BOARD NAMES MEREDITH TO COMMISSIONER POST

7/21/2005 (JACKSON ) -
The Board of Trustees of Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning today named Dr. Thomas C. Meredith as Mississippi’s new commissioner of higher education. Meredith, currently the chancellor of the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia, will take over the duties of commissioner later this year from current commissioner Richard Crofts.

“We are pleased and honored that Dr. Meredith has accepted the position of commissioner of higher education,” said Board president Virginia Shanteau Newton. “As part of the commitment to our new governance model, we vested this position with a great deal of authority and focused on identifying candidates with complex experience at both the campus and system levels. Dr. Meredith has a national reputation for his leadership in higher education in Georgia, Alabama, Kentucky, and Mississippi. His wealth of experience encompasses every level of education, from public school teacher to university president to the system level. We are fortunate that he is committed to bringing that experience to the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning.”

As Chancellor of the University System of Georgia, Dr. Meredith currently oversees 34 public institutions with 250,000 students and a $5 billion budget. He previously served as chancellor of the University of Alabama System and as president of Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green. He also has strong ties to Mississippi, having served in various administrative capacities at the University of Mississippi and the Board office for the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning.

“I am honored the Board of Trustees has invited us to come back home to this critical position,” said Meredith. “We are excited to be here.”

Dr. Meredith holds the bachelor of arts degree from Kentucky Wesleyan College, a master of arts from Western Kentucky University, and an Ed. D. from the University of Mississippi. He and his wife Susan have two sons, Mark and Matthew.

###

Date: Jul 21, 2005

HA coverage:

http://hattiesburgamerican.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050721/NEWS01/507210313/1002

Date: Jul 21, 2005

IHL was being very literal when they talked about going to the "Georgia model."

Date: Jul 21, 2005

Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Georgia's chancellor going to Mississippi

University system chancellor Tom Meredith, whose tumultuous three-year term has included clashes with the governor and members of the Board of Regents, has accepted a position as commissioner of higher education in Mississippi....

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/0705/21meredith.html

WLBT

Meredith Hired as Higher Education Boss

http://www.wlbt.com/Global/story.asp?S=3623428&nav=2CSfcPNr

Date: Jul 21, 2005

What I remember most from the Board of Regents under Meredith's tenure is that the Board supported UGA President Michael Adams when several athletic supporters and high dollar donors in the UGA Foundation tried to oust him after he pushed Vince Dooley into retirement. Basically the board and Adams said they would not bow down to the will of the athletic supporters (something that USM desperately needs)

Date: Jul 21, 2005

SH coverage

http://www.sunherald.com/mld/thesunherald/12187978.htm

Date: Jul 21, 2005

This is good news---yes?

Date: Jul 21, 2005

"He's level-headed, politically savvy, pragmatic and smart," said Andy Mullins, assistant to the chancellor at the University of Mississippi.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm . . . sounds like The Anti-Shelby.

Date: Jul 21, 2005

Meredith to earn $325,000-plus as state's higher ed chief

By Shelia Byrd
The Associated Press

http://clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050721/NEWS01/50721012

Date: Jul 21, 2005

I worked with this guy, he takes no stuff off anyone and dislikes incompetence intensely. Look out Shelby!

Date: Jul 21, 2005

astonished wrote:

I worked with this guy, he takes no stuff off anyone and dislikes incompetence intensely.

USM has needed some a good housecleaning for years. I especially like the part about disliking incompetence.

Date: Jul 21, 2005

Meredith indeed might be getting paid some big bucks to do major housecleaning system wide. Watch out, this might include as others have hinted elevating UM and MSU to more national prominence while being realistic about the mission and scope of the other schools. Since we can't really hope for more state legislature money, resource optimization and effective cost cutting are the way to make the system flourish overall. We all know MS has way too many universities. This means most of them are fairly mediocre in many ways compared to other schools elsewhere. Just be careful what you wish for.

Date: Jul 21, 2005

Hopeful but Cautious wrote:

We all know MS has way too many universities. This means most of them are fairly mediocre in many ways compared to other schools elsewhere. Just be careful what you wish for.

Mississippi doesn't have too many universities, it has too many universities that have succumbed to the idea that big is good. The word quality does not seem to be in the IHL's vocabulary.

Date: Jul 22, 2005

Meredith gets nod

Education leader fought over funding in Georgia

By Andy Kanengiser
akanengiser@clarionledger.com
http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050722/NEWS01/507220368/1002

Date: Jul 22, 2005

But just think -- Shelby will have a real boss, and one who knows how a university president is supposed to act. (Of course Crofts does too, but he's interim.) I wonder how the next two years will be for ole Shelboo? Maybe this will hasten his departure?

Date: Jul 22, 2005

As this transition to a new Commissioner unfolds, I can't help but feel gratitude to Richard Crofts. He stepped into a hornet's nest, infused academic administrative guidance, upheld quality standards, and pushed through the system-wide governance changes that will ultimately bode well for higher education in the state. Many of us, after reading the minutes from the Meredith presentation to the IHL board early last spring, hoped and believed that he would be the next commissioner. Decisions, even when unpopular, if made for the right academic reasons with the input of the relevant academic constituencies, are good decisions. I am enthusiastic about our new Commissioner and I wish for Richard Crofts the "after-IHL life" that he has so richly deserves for a job well done.

Date: Jul 22, 2005

Editorial

July 22, 2005

College Board

Meredith faces tough challenges

http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050722/OPINION01/507220324/1008/OPINION

Date: Jul 22, 2005

Crofts Fan wrote:

As this transition to a new Commissioner unfolds, I can't help but feel gratitude to Richard Crofts. He stepped into a hornet's nest, infused academic administrative guidance, upheld quality standards, and pushed through the system-wide governance changes that will ultimately bode well for higher education in the state. Many of us, after reading the minutes from the Meredith presentation to the IHL board early last spring, hoped and believed that he would be the next commissioner. Decisions, even when unpopular, if made for the right academic reasons with the input of the relevant academic constituencies, are good decisions. I am enthusiastic about our new Commissioner and I wish for Richard Crofts the "after-IHL life" that he has so richly deserves for a job well done.

Excellent post; I agree completely.

Date: Jul 22, 2005

Crofts Fan wrote:

As this transition to a new Commissioner unfolds, I can't help but feel gratitude to Richard Crofts. He stepped into a hornet's nest, infused academic administrative guidance, upheld quality standards, and pushed through the system-wide governance changes that will ultimately bode well for higher education in the state. Many of us, after reading the minutes from the Meredith presentation to the IHL board early last spring, hoped and believed that he would be the next commissioner. Decisions, even when unpopular, if made for the right academic reasons with the input of the relevant academic constituencies, are good decisions. I am enthusiastic about our new Commissioner and I wish for Richard Crofts the "after-IHL life" that he has so richly deserves for a job well done.

I cannot abide this bulls**t lovefest for Crofts. He's been on the job for what, a year? Did he get SFT out RIGHT NOW? No. Did he change the funding formula so that USM gets its fair share? No. Did he force SFT to publicly rapair the town/gown rift? No. Does USM have a real provost? No. Does USM have a real plan for SACS? No. Does USM continue to spend money on garbage projects like new light poles, the Powerhouse, and paving every square foot of green space in sight? Yes.

Crofts did a somewhat capable job, but he's not worthy of canonization or even lionization. Some of you are so used to USM that you don't remember what it's like other places. Crofts would have been an average IHL commissioner in another state. Let's not lower our standards just because our IHL and population don't understand the way that university systems are supposed to work.

Date: Jul 22, 2005

I have always been a bit confused about how it is possible that universities could be getting more students, which would seem to confirm that they are being successful enterprises, and the cuts enacted by the legislature.

I mean, I'm not really -- of course the legislature is inviting the IHL to raise tutition so that our politicians can claim, on one hand, to be acting with fiscal reponsibility and can also, on the other hand, criticize the IHL and universities for raising tuition. So they get the best of both worlds.

What a sweet deal if you are a politican.

The result, of course, is public clamor (promoted by the intimation from such a system) that universities aren't being efficient -- that if they just controlled their money better they not only would not need more money (despite increasing numbers of students) but would not have to raise tuition either. In the scramble to lay blame (called "accountability" in bureaucratese) -- politos pass blame on to university administrations who pass it on to staff and faculty and lower level administrators. It is easy to see how and why all of us feel so pressured -- if you are at the bottom of the hill the S__T rolls down.

Of course it would help if our upper level administrators were better at representing the CONTENT of whata university does and why it is difficult, given the nature of a university, to both show a profit or to have 100% "efficiency" -- whatever that might mean.

It obviously would be a real sign of efficienciecy if each year we accepted 3000 students and each year the same 3000 students graduated. But that is to view students as objects on an assembly line, and faculty members and staff as workers assembling machines. How do you gage success for a student who comes in, has a terrible first year, takes a leave and then comes back and recovers but graduates in five years. Is that a success? How do you gauge efficiency when the "material" that comes into the assembly line isn't consistent in educational background, clarity of focus, or ability?

I recognize that the faculty is not perfect and must always accept some share of accountability in trying to improve our work individually and collectively. This is true of any profession, particularly service professions.
But university Presdients need to do a better job of making it clear to the politicans and business folks that much of what happens on the output end simply isn't measureable by conventional and quantifiable standards. The university is an inmvestment in a community -- success and efficiency has to be measured at the macro as well as the micro level of achievement. In in other words, not simply in the perceived "success" -- whatever that means and however it is measured) of individual students but also on the impact of the university in city, state, national and international arenas.

Date: Jul 22, 2005

Meredith: Adequate funding top priority

By Reuben Mees

http://www.hattiesburgamerican.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050722/NEWS01/507220302/1002

Date: Jul 22, 2005

Puke wrote:

Some of you are so used to USM that you don't remember what it's like other places. Crofts would have been an average IHL commissioner in another state.

Some us remember all too well what it's like other places. But look at it this way, Puke: Even if Crofts was only "average" (and I'm not qualified to judge that), USM was lucky to have something "average" for a change. Assuming a normal distribution, that mean we'd be at the median. Being in the top half of anything good wouldn't be so bad. Most schools don't scramble to be "average," but that seems to be par for the course here.

Date: Jul 22, 2005

Puke wrote:

Crofts Fan wrote: As this transition to a new Commissioner unfolds, I can't help but feel gratitude to Richard Crofts. He stepped into a hornet's nest, infused academic administrative guidance, upheld quality standards, and pushed through the system-wide governance changes that will ultimately bode well for higher education in the state. Many of us, after reading the minutes from the Meredith presentation to the IHL board early last spring, hoped and believed that he would be the next commissioner. Decisions, even when unpopular, if made for the right academic reasons with the input of the relevant academic constituencies, are good decisions. I am enthusiastic about our new Commissioner and I wish for Richard Crofts the "after-IHL life" that he has so richly deserves for a job well done. I cannot abide this bulls**t lovefest for Crofts. He's been on the job for what, a year? Did he get SFT out RIGHT NOW? No. Did he change the funding formula so that USM gets its fair share? No. Did he force SFT to publicly rapair the town/gown rift? No. Does USM have a real provost? No. Does USM have a real plan for SACS? No. Does USM continue to spend money on garbage projects like new light poles, the Powerhouse, and paving every square foot of green space in sight? Yes. Crofts did a somewhat capable job, but he's not worthy of canonization or even lionization. Some of you are so used to USM that you don't remember what it's like other places. Crofts would have been an average IHL commissioner in another state. Let's not lower our standards just because our IHL and population don't understand the way that university systems are supposed to work.

I don't think you can measure the success of an interim commissioner in the same terms you would a permanent commissioner. This is especially true in this state, whether there are a huge number of minefields for anyone to negotiate, let alone an "outsider."

On the specific issues you mention, Crofts record is not that he made any of these things happen, but that he clearly had a cbgreat deal to do with setting the stage for the next commissioner t act, and to act with authority. Rather than take the short view, or try to do too much too soon, I think he wisely took the longer view and worked to establish a new system with a better definition of the Board's scope of action, its relationship to the commissioner and through the commissioner, to the Presidents. The new emphasis on "professionlism" on the part of the Board, and the acknolwegement that the Presdient's needed be be insulated from micormanagement by the Board while at the same time putting them firmly under the watchful eye of an academic authority, is a good model and Crofts, his staff, and obviously some powerful members of the Board were able to bring this realignment off successfully. I do not think that can be underestimated. It may not work as well as we hope, and institutions are always hostage to the personalities that participate in them, but that such a reoganization of power was done virtually under the nose of Roy Klum and friends was a fait accompli.