Coast Guard wrote:

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Is the word "Interim" conspicuously absent from Jay Grimes' memo?

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Sure enough. Oh that Jay-G! You never know what that boy's gonna do next. Must be an oversight, right?

has high ethical character

I really, really wish this is true.  I don't expect administrators to be saints.  Just the usual bumbling, half truths, evasions, didn't ask the right question, etc.  That's all now normal in academia in general.  We've been on the wrong side of normal for quite a while.  A really honest person in this administration just might get my hopes up.  At least slightly.

But shouldn't a PROVOST have some publications??????

and an teaching record, and service record...and an excellent leadership record?

sft, very, very occasionily, will listen to someone regarding the right choice...

..if this appointment is for real.

searcher wrote:

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If this is permanent, there should have been a search.  That is what Grimes promised us.

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That was also my initial response, but after thinking about it I'm not so sure. If it were a provost's job - yes. But associate provost? There is usually no search committee for an assistant or associate dean or an assistant or associate chair. Those appointments are usually within the scope of the dean or chair who may solicit opinions but not necessarily establish a formal search committee.

 

I agree with searcher on this one: Grimes told a gathering of about 100 people at Gulf Park that there would be a nationwide search. I can't believe that he'd back out of that without some explanation. 

Related: Low on the Hierarchy's wrong when arguing that a national search isn't usual in such cases. When the Coast hired a dedicated academic officer before--the hire that brought in Joe Hill as Coast academic dean--there was a national search. Although Hill was an old associate of then-VP Jim Williams, he was from outside the USM system, and one of the other two candidates was too, from Maryland, where he had run a marine research facility. The other candidate was Pat Smith, the Coast History prof. So, pax LotH, there is, in fact, recent precedent for a national search for an associate provost for the Coast.

Related: does USM award its Doctors of Educational Leadership a Ph.D. or an Ed.D.? I somehow thought it was the latter

 

Coast Watcher wrote:

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 Low on the Hierarchy's wrong when arguing that a national search isn't usual in such cases. When the Coast hired a dedicated academic officer before--the hire that brought in Joe Hill as Coast academic dean--there was a national search.

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Dean appointments do require national searches. You said that Joe Hill was a dean. I don't recall a national search on the Hattiesburg campus for assistant or associate deans. I thought that most of those appointments are made internally. But now you've upped my curiosity. I don't have a copy of the Chronicle immediately availalble or I'd look to see if there are national search advertisements for assistant or associate positions.

There are search committees and searches underway for director of public relations and associate dean of education right now.

Disk Q wrote:

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A doctorate of education is typically an Ed.D., since the doctorate of education is an American degree/distinction. At many of the schools with which I am familiar, Ed.D. candidates must write a dissertation. However, at USM, the education degrees carry a Ph.D. distinction. I am not sure why we have chosen to be different, but it seems rather silly. An Ed.D. is the accepted doctorate in educational fields...why alter it to Ph.D.?

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As a(n) historical note, USM offered the Ed.D. in education for many years. The Ph.D. only education degree is relatively recent. The main difference in USM Ph.D. & Ed.D. requirements about 20-25 years ago (when I was stumbling around that department) was the foreign language requirement. The Ed.D. required a dissertation.

I believe if anyone checks they will find that Don Cotten -- who has been often mentioned favorably on this board -- holds an Ed.D. from West Virginia.

Disk Q wrote:

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USMGC now has an Associate Provost who has a ton of experience...running high schools. What does this tell you about how USMGC is viewed? When is the last time USM had a real national search to fill an administrative post above dean? Hudson? Grimes? Dvorak I and II? Lassen? Thames? She may be the best thing since sliced bread, but she seems like a glorified high school principal to me. Research? Besides her Ed.D. dissertation? This seems like another case of "let's pump up a buddy's retirement." Heard there's some of that going on in Hattiesburg...state employees who are retirement age and are getting a gig at USM to boost their "last 4."

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I agree here -- and how many times in the current administration has someone gotten a mid-level administrative position and then moved over or up (think Ken Malone). An assistant provost, in theory, is quite different from an assistant dean -- after all an assistant provost has to run the academic side in a provost's absence (such as illness or an occasion when the provost leaves the position). Since the Provost is the chief academic officer, one would expect the assisistant provost to, on paper at least, have the sniority and university experience to be qualified to be a dean.

 

Stephen brings up a critical point: in the administrative heirarchy a provost trumps a dean. An associate provost who comes in with credentials and experience that are not equivalent to those of the deans, whom she will outrank and oversee, is going to suffer from impaired credibility, and perhaps a lack of clout, with those deans.

Having been on the coast for over a decade, I can tell you with near 100 percent certainty that USM-Gulf Coast vitally needs a chief academic officer who is able to convince the Hattiesburg deans and chairs to adopt scheduling, delivery and hiring practices that will be beneficial to USM-GC programs and students. Poorly conceived and badly executed practices of these types are the primary impediment to academic legitimacy and community credibility at USM-GC. For the administration to provide the coast's students, community and faculty with anything other than an effective associate provost merely reprises the history of indifference, neglect and hostility that has, with a few brief exceptions, been the rule in USM's treatment of its Gulf Coast operation.

 

Ph.D. recipient wrote:

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USM's education docs degrees should be Ed.Ds!  Someone should scrutinize those degree offerings.

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I'm sure the Ed.D. degree does what it was originally intended to do. But it is not a research degree. Like it or not, the Ph.D. is the highest degree offered by American colleges and universities. From a hierarchial perspective, it is higher than an M.D.

I think a better distincton might be referring again to the purpose of the degrees. As noted the Ph.D is a research degree. The MD, MFA, the MBA, etc. all place a premium on practice - they are applied degrees.

I think it is fruitless to argue which of these is more "rigorous." There are chump PH.D degrees and very rigorous MBAs. But they tend to produce a difference species of person -- with different purposes. Although I have an MFA, it doesn't actually both me much that Ph.D's are placed in line ahead of my students at graduation nor that they have all of those fancy robes. Most Ph.D programs are pretty arduous, particulalrly those associated with serious dissertation processes. Many folks earning their Ph.Ds do so after years of work -- particualrly as the dissertation phase can be very drawn out. Most of the applied degrees simply tend to be be more concentrated and the timing of the outcome more predictable. Although my MFA students work very hard for the three years of their program, at the end of that time they are fairly assured they will get the degree based upon a heavy emphasis on class and practice, and some lesser extent on theory (the writing on an MFA tends to be much less imposing than for the Ph.D -- which makes a great deal of sense). In our case, the research supports the practice instead of the research being the object itself.

I think Patricia Joachim is Ethelyn Patricia Connor Joachim.

Her dissertation (Ph.D., not Ed.D. according to the title page) is in the library.

Personal Author
Joachim, Ethelyn Patricia Connor.
Title
Academic achievement of students participating in a program titled Helping one student to succeed (HOSTS) / by Ethelyn Patricia Connor Joachim.
Publication info
1998.
Physical descrip
2, vii, 98 leaves ; 28 cm.
General Note
Copy on microfilm.
General Note
Typescript.
General Note
Includes abstract.
Held by
COOK
Subject term
Academic achievement.
Subject term
Prediction of scholastic success.
Subject term
Education, Primary--experimental methods.


COOK
Copy
Material
Location
LB1515.H6 J63 1998

*******************************

She's the daughter of Donald "Pat" L. Connor (1912-1982), who was mayor of Ocean Springs. You have to judge for yourself if she's "old Biloxi" or "old Ocean Springs."

http://www.oceanspringsarchives.com/doctorsmayorsmarshals.htm