Interim Coast Provost Named - USM Forum -- Message Board

Date: Aug 17, 2005

RE: Interim Coast Provost Named

Date: Aug 17, 2005

manova wrote:

I foresee that she will be a local manager while the big decisions are made in the Burg.

Then why is the term "Provost" used as the title for the chief academic officer on the coast? A chief academic officer at most universities is more than a manager. That's usually where the big academic decisions are made.

Date: Aug 17, 2005

Again, those who defend this hire are conveniently ignoring the lack of credentials. By the argument that PJ is a good hire because she is a coast person, then I pose the question: Would you have been happy with Billy Hewes as the Associate Provost? He's a coast person! [I know that's quite a stretch, but if you're relying on one criterion, then he qualifies.].

Date: Aug 17, 2005

Someone wanted to know how old Pat is? Does that reallly make a difference? By the way I think she is 39.

Check the WLOX website.....it said this was a two year appointment....she will then be, I guess, 41.....or maybe still 39.

She has more credentials than just being from the Gulf Coast. I have listed some of her qualifications in previous posts and will not rehash them here.

39....that may be a JB 39.....if you know what I mean?

When the ship is in danger of sinking you need a new captain. This new captain can help get things back on track.

Date: Aug 17, 2005

Just an aside wrote:

Universities don't need an Ass VP of Economic Development.

I know you do not need such a thing. It is a fictitious position, the only administration position that I thought she could possible be qualified for.

Date: Aug 17, 2005

coastliner wrote:

Check the WLOX website.....it said this was a two year appointment

It sounds like you good people on the coast might be in a holding pattern for the next two years. Relax. Go deep sea fishing. Loosen up at the casinos. Dine at a nice seafood restaurant. Get barefooted and wade out into the Gulf a few feet. Ride a dunebuggy. Take a scenic drive along the beach. A little drive to New Orleans occasionally might be relaxing now that you've got two years on your hands while the IHL is deciding what to do with you.

Date: Aug 17, 2005

Traffic Control Tower wrote:

coastliner wrote:

It sounds like you good people on the coast might be in a holding pattern for the next two years. Relax. Go deep sea fishing. Loosen up at the casinos. Dine at a nice seafood restaurant. Get barefooted and wade out into the Gulf a few feet. Ride a dunebuggy. Take a scenic drive along the beach. A little drive to New Orleans occasionally might be relaxing now that you've got two years on your hands while the IHL is deciding what to do with you.

Coastians, You could do as coastliner suggests. But do those as rewards. Buck up, head to the library, lab (or wherever your research is conducted), work and think hard so you can get that major article or book FINISHED. And get another G-D job.

Date: Aug 17, 2005

Don't Eat the Lotus Leaves wrote:

Traffic Control Tower wrote:
coastliner wrote:

It sounds like you good people on the coast might be in a holding pattern for the next two years. Relax. Go deep sea fishing. Loosen up at the casinos. Dine at a nice seafood restaurant. Get barefooted and wade out into the Gulf a few feet. Ride a dunebuggy. Take a scenic drive along the beach. A little drive to New Orleans occasionally might be relaxing now that you've got two years on your hands while the IHL is deciding what to do with you.

Coastians, You could do as coastliner suggests. But do those as rewards. Buck up, head to the library, lab (or wherever your research is conducted), work and think hard so you can get that major article or book FINISHED. And get another G-D job.

There's no library at USMGC, just a future home of the ExMBA program.

Date: Aug 17, 2005

Disk Q wrote:

By the argument that PJ is a good hire because she is a coast person, then I pose the question: Would you have been happy with Billy Hewes as the Associate Provost? He's a coast person!

Ole Roy is also a coast person. If being a "coast person" is the criterion, at least we have a back up.

Date: Aug 17, 2005

Coast Guard wrote:

A question, if anyone knows or can offer reasonable conjecture - was this hire in the works in early July when Jay Grimes indicated there would be an announcement "the following week" or has Dr. Joachim just recently entered the picture?

There have been both positive and negative comments about the Coast Provost appointment, but the "neutral" comments are the ones that concern me the most . . .

* "She is politically connected on the coast and in the state."

* "An Old Biloxi family."

* "...the daughter of Donald 'Pat' L. Connor (191-1982), who was mayor of Ocean Springs."

* "You have to judge for yourself if she's 'old Biloxi' or "old Ocean Springs.'"

* "A name to be recokened with on the coast."

* "This seems to be a case of 'let's pump up a buddy's retirement.' "

Given the nature of these types of comments, I can't help but ask if this appointment was based on personal/political considerations or on standard qualifications normally expected for a major appointment as chief academic officer at a major graduate level university. The truth will come out, of course, but I thought some knowledgable person from the coast might be able clue us in on this.

Date: Aug 17, 2005

And how could these descriptions be netural?

Look at her total record.

We, on the coast, are pretty pleased....after the last CEO...malone...that we had...

i' only staff...

Date: Aug 17, 2005

beach bum wrote:

We, on the coast, are pretty pleased....

It's all in the eye of the beholder, beach bum. Evidently some faculty members are content just chewing their cud like Elsie the cow in the old Borden milk and ice cream advertisements. I'll awaken you when its feeding time.

Date: Aug 17, 2005

As I said....I'm only staff....and there are a lot of us staff person out here in the USM family.....hope y'all know that..

Date: Aug 17, 2005

beach bum wrote:

As I said....I'm only staff....and there are a lot of us staff person out here in the USM family.....hope y'all know that..

If I had known you were staff I wouldn't have been so direct. Staff usually have lots of common sense and are often more savy than faculty when it comes to certain interpersonal characteristics of job applicants. The interpersonal aspects are very important, but there are also certain academic requirements to which most universities subscribe in their search for a chief academic officer. It is the latter to which my comments pertain.

Date: Aug 17, 2005

It does not matte whether we are staff or facullty... we are all in this together....

Date: Aug 17, 2005

butter milk wrote:

It does not matte whether we are staff or facullty... we are all in this together....

How true. Staff and faculty are in this together. All should be given the opportunity to provide appropriate input before such appointments are made, although the type of input may be different. Both staff and faculty have their own unique contributions to make in the selection process. Was your input solicited at that time?

Date: Aug 18, 2005

Some coast people have pointed out that the new associate provost is a nice, capable person who knows the coast. I don't doubt that for a minute. If those are essential ingredients for a high level academic appointment, I suggest that when the next search is conducted in two years the pool of applicants be expanded to include some of the nice local pharmacists, attorneys, car dealers, and high school principals who also know the coast. I am impressed with the manager of the service department at a local auto dealership I've patronized. Not only is he a very nice person, he seems to be very well organized, a good supervisor with demonstrated leadership skills, and seems to know the coast from Pascagoula to Bay St. Louis like the palm of his hand. Are there other requirements? Unfortunately, I don't think he's ever worked for one of the coast's public school jurisdictions but I believe he did hold a leadership role in a parent-teacher organization. I doubt that he reads the Chronicle on a regular basis, so it might be a good idea to distibute a position flyer to all of the major coast businesses when time comes for the next search.

Date: Aug 18, 2005

hey job bank
do you really think usm will hold on to the coast operations that long? there may not be another usm search.
TM and the ihl may have other plans for the Gulf Coast.

tell your mechanic guy not to quit his day job.

Date: Aug 18, 2005

Job Bank wrote:

Some coast people have pointed out that the new associate provost is a nice, capable person who knows the coast. I don't doubt that for a minute. If those are essential ingredients for a high level academic appointment, I suggest that when the next search is conducted in two years the pool of applicants be expanded to include some of the nice local pharmacists, attorneys, car dealers, and high school principals who also know the coast . . .

OK. I'll stick up for the disgruntled minority on the Coast. Most of the junior people--the vast majority of faculty-- down here have yet to recover from the chill cast over any and all dissent on the campus by the disgusting, unethical treatment of Stevenson, Smith and Watson by Ken Malone, Elliot Pood and Jay Grimes last academic year. They're keeping their heads low for a very good reason: there aren't enough of them to take shelter in anonymity and the administration doesn't give a rats tail about what they think anyhow. It's widely thought, for instance, that Diane Stevenson was failed on her third year review for being a troublemaker. Whether that's true or not, nobody's taking any chances on being the next to be branded a troublemaker by an H'burg chair and senior faculty who are too busy to worry, or care, or even learn about, the Coast.

About Pat Joachim, it doesn't matter whether the new interim provost is a "nice person," or comes from "a good family," or "knows the Coast" or any of the other trivia that are being touted in her favor. Although, strictly speaking, her credentials are, well, laughable, the only important matter will be how she handles the two most pressing issues facing the Coast operation now:

1. First, how can the Coast's pressing problems of scheduling, budget control and personnel managment be assuaged? If H'burg deans and chairs continue to run the coast show they will run the organization into the sea, USM-Dunkirk. Dana Thames has almost destroyed CISE by often failing to even provide faculty for scheduled classes and by hassling the few resident faculty and staff she has left almost to distraction. The insensitivity, disinterest and sometimes competence of the dean of CoAL and certain CoAL chairs has led to full scale faculty flight, and the slots left by fleeing CoaL faculty have been taken by a combination of reactionary political scientists, USM PhD's and ABD's, and new people in International Development, a mysterious discipline that is neither fish nor fowl as far as anyone can determine, but which nonetheless now has as many resident faculty as either History or English.

If some autonomy in scheduling, hiring and budget control isn't restored to the Coast campus, the place is gonna go to wrack and ruin well before the Dome Gnome says bye bye in 2007. Given what's gone on down here on the distant sites for three years, it's no coincidence that SACS slammed USM for distance learning. A good coastvost will do something to counter the destruction done to the Coast by the malign combination of Thames' obsessive micromanagment and the incompetence and disinterest of his kin and underlings.

2. Second, what can the new provost do to help procure complete funding for the new science building? It is almost certain that Bud Ginn and perhaps other USM higher ups actually lobbied against this building, and the only reason it was partially funded was through the political clout and smarts of Diane Perenich, who managed to get monies for it written into the $30 million giveaway to Northrup Grumman granted by the special legislative session.

Without the new labs and classrooms provided by this building, the explosive growth projected for the Coast will be detrimental, not just to the Coast, but to the accreditation and legitimacy of the system as a whole. Related to to the problem of funding the Science Building is the inflammatory question of the proposed Library conversion, which was outed by Smith, Watson and the Faculty Senate last year. If the administration tries to solve the classroom space problem by converting the Library to classrooms--which is STILL a very real possibility--they will not only undercut their credibility with the Coast community that supported the original Library, but they will also have taken a step towards convincing the legislature that facilities expansion at Gulf Park is NOT, in fact, a legitimate concern, thus forcing future Coast growth to be accomodated long term not only in the misappopriated, compromised Library facility but also in whatever off campus space local high schools, hospitals and casinos deign fit for our use.

Oh yeah, and forget about developing a Library collection too. Books and journal subscriptions have never been high on the administration's wish list, and cutting the Gulf Park stack space by two thirds will give them the perfect excuse to cut the acquistions and serials budget by a like amount.

If the new Coast provost can take steps to deal with these things, the Coast faculty wouldn't care if she had the charm of a rabid nutria and came from a family of inbred, dope smuggling child pornographers. Personally, my fear is that SFT and his posse have hired themselves somebody who's so "nice" and so "well bred" that she'll do whatever she's told. Which could be as big a disaster as not having a coast provost.

However, the proof of the provost, one might say, will be in the pudding. It would be nice to be pleasantly surprised, for once.

Date: Aug 18, 2005

off the plantation wrote:

Oh yeah, and forget about developing a Library collection too. Books and journal subscriptions have never been high on the administration's wish list, and cutting the Gulf Park stack space by two thirds will give them the perfect excuse to cut the acquistions and serials budget by a like amount.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, in caps this time:

YOU CANNOT HAVE HIGHER EDUCATION WITHOUT A LIBRARY.

Date: Aug 18, 2005

I'll second that and raise you one. For semilarge and large publics, USN&WR should just use the ranking of university libraries. The correlation is probably high enough with their existing rankings they could dispense with the bother. If you want to find out if a public school is a degree mill, just check out the library.

If the books have already been colored in, its Tier IV. If not and the supply of books and crayons is good, Tier III.

Date: Aug 19, 2005

COAST "INTERIM" ASSOCIATE PROVOST

Coast faculty and staff who are accepting the choice of Pat Joachim do not appear to be endorsing the process by which the SFT group made the choice. They are rather like the dazed victims of a hurricane emerging from their huts just as the eye of the storm with its momentary calm passes over them. This lady (a person coming out of retirement at an age greater than 39) looks good in comparison to the combination of malevalence, inexperience, and detached incompetence which just tore up the Coast.

That a pleasant person has been selected must be a relief. It was so much more than what these folks expected given the recent storm. That she is obviously deficient in any ability to lead the troops to higher ground (academically) is beside the point. That was never a part of the SFT team performance on the Coast or in Hattiesburg.

The eye of the storm is calm. For that Coast folk are rightly greatful. Seasoned hurricane watchers will know that the eye is only a temporary storm phenomenon. I would advise Coast folk to hunker down soon. The wind will return full force from a new direction. Perhaps you will have a Civil Defense director in Joachim--looking out for your long range good and perhaps not.

The sense of your Hattiesburg colleagues is that while Ken Malone was a diseaster for you, the lady who replaces him may not have weathered enough academic storms to know where true north lies WHEN THE EYEWALL WINDS OF HURRICANE SHELBY inevitably return to NEXT HIT YOU.

The hope you have is in Tom Meridith and the possiblity that the IHL will finally end this reign of embarassment. IN which case a pleasant person to preside while we all search for a new Pres and Provost and Ass Provost might not be a bad thing.....Certainly it is not the best thing, but best is relative to recent experience and expectations. Joachim is, afterall, temporary.

The evil is not Ms Joachim. She may know really very little about what ills have infected us at the highest levels.. The test is how she responds to a moral crisis -- it is the moral crisis of USM that must be resolved before the academic concerns can be addressed in any healthy way. THe Moral crisis is at the root of both Coast and Hattiesburg woes.

Date: Aug 19, 2005

some good points...old curiosity shop....not all of them but one in particualr....

how long will TM and the ihl board let the usm coast situation fester?

a new prez for usm....eventually
a new provost for usm...eventually

a new usm associate provost for the coast.....no certainty at all.....if the ihl board and TM do therr jobs and look at the best way to deliver to the coast...it will not have a golden eagle flying high....

.it will be a bulldog, wearing a reble uniform, with some small eagle wings, some tiger stripes visible, and a potpouri of offerings from a much more diversified menu....

say hey....all of this could be in the new coast universities center...could it not?

Date: Aug 19, 2005

coastliner wrote:

some good points...old curiosity shop....not all of them but one in particualr.... how long will TM and the ihl board let the usm coast situation fester? a new prez for usm....eventually a new provost for usm...eventually a new usm associate provost for the coast.....no certainty at all.....if the ihl board and TM do therr jobs and look at the best way to deliver to the coast...it will not have a golden eagle flying high.... .it will be a bulldog, wearing a reble uniform, with some small eagle wings, some tiger stripes visible, and a potpouri of offerings from a much more diversified menu.... say hey....all of this could be in the new coast universities center...could it not?

so what you are saying, Gulf Park will be modeled after the place on Ridgewood Rd in Jackson? The same place IHL meets(when a/c is working)? what is that placed called? and if you receive a degree from the Ridgewood campus, who signs the diploma?

Date: Aug 19, 2005

coastliner wrote:

Someone wanted to know how old Pat is? Does that reallly make a difference? By the way I think she is 39.

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

"Pat and Ethelyn Connor had three children born in the Crescent City: Ethelyn Patricia Joachim (b. 1942), Ethel Bertheaud Connor (1944-1944), and Donald L. Connor, Jr. (b. 1945)."

Date: Aug 19, 2005

get real..... Center Line.

No Ridgewood Road Operation on the Gulf Coast. Not even close. You are throwing a red herring.....and it smells.

It.s a diifferent time and different model, with cost efficient delivery, by those that really want to be there to meet the needs. An "out of the box" mentality.....thinking of new ways to give a deserving population center educational opportunities they deserve. .....it will work.

Name: Unicoast Educenter (future location I-10 and Exit ** in Harrison County
Mission: Delivering Higher Education Opportunities From Quality Institutions

Working with the IHl Commissioner and Board:
Advisory Board Members to Include Olen Ray, Diane Perenich, George Watson, Warren Hood, Amy Tuck, Bob Stith, Shirley Bowles, George Dale, Micky Hudson, Pat Smith, Connie Rocko, Gene Taylor, Rachel Carpenter, George Schologel, B. Warr, 5 members from Coast 21, all Chamber of Commerce presidnts in South Mississippi, and ex-officio members (the members of the legislature from Harrison, Hancock, Jackson, George, Stone, and Pearl River Counties.

Time Line by Falll 2007

Date: Aug 19, 2005

info... shame on you.....you did not give me a full quote on PJ's age.....i think i said she was a jb 39....research that rochester!

and age really does not make any difference. look at your president....look at Reagan...look at the Pope.....look at BB King.....look at susan quarles and fred yielding

Date: Aug 19, 2005

Info....guyi

Associate Provost Joachim's age makes no difference. Do you have a problem with age.....live long enough and you will have some of it....plus some courtesy.

Date: Aug 19, 2005

get real..... Center Line.

No Ridgewood Road Operation on the Gulf Coast. Not even close. You are throwing a red herring.....and it smells.

It.s a diifferent time and different model, with cost efficient delivery, by those that really want to be there to meet the needs. An "out of the box" mentality.....thinking of new ways to give a deserving population center educational opportunities they deserve. .....it will work.

i understood you to want all public universities to offer instruction at Gulf Park.....just as Ridgewood Rd.........as I understand Ridgewood concept, you take certain offerings, but the degree is granted by each university absent the Ridgewood designition

are you suggesting a MSU Gulf Coast degree?(JSU, etc)

Gulf Coast residents deserve a medical school and a law school, etc, should Gulf Coast have medical and legal offerings?

look at other states, Little Rock does not have a major public university, Dallas, etc(Birmingham..UAB? not sure how it works)

Date: Aug 19, 2005

do some research....center line

look at UAB.....look at UT-Dallas......not the same concept....

and make another trip to the fish market....you need some more red herring