4th Tier Continues - USM Forum -- Message Board

Date: Aug 18, 2005

RE: 4th Tier Continues

Date: Aug 18, 2005

Thames casu wrote:

U.S. News doesn't even rank the 4th tier; it just throws the dregs into one steaming pile.

Your statement is absolutely correct........USNews throws all the 4th tier souls into one big flaming pit overseen by some guy named Beelezebubba. Although the overall score can't be ranked, the "peer evaluation" dimension can be rank ordered. Numbers are assigned to each school on that factor which is clearly the most important one of all. As I recall, last year there were something like 17 4th tier schools ranked below USM on the peer evaluation dimension. That factor tells how we're viewed by other university administrators such as presidents and deans across the country.

Date: Aug 18, 2005

The Walking Wounded wrote:

Thames casu wrote: U.S. News doesn't even rank the 4th tier; it just throws the dregs into one steaming pile. Your statement is absolutely correct........USNews throws all the 4th tier souls into one big flaming pit overseen by some guy named Beelezebubba.

Thanks for noticing! It isn't often that I get any recognition.

Date: Aug 18, 2005

The Walking Wounded wrote:

Thames casu wrote: U.S. News doesn't even rank the 4th tier; it just throws the dregs into one steaming pile. Your statement is absolutely correct........USNews throws all the 4th tier souls into one big flaming pit overseen by some guy named Beelezebubba. Although the overall score can't be ranked, the "peer evaluation" dimension can be rank ordered. Numbers are assigned to each school on that factor which is clearly the most important one of all. As I recall, last year there were something like 17 4th tier schools ranked below USM on the peer evaluation dimension. That factor tells how we're viewed by other university administrators such as presidents and deans across the country.

If you want advance notice of how we are viewed, go onto another campus or to a conference. We're the "talk of the town."

Date: Aug 18, 2005

Angeline wrote:

Its official: Colleagues,>>Just heard from Rueben Mees of the Hattiesburg American, who has an >advance copy of the US News & World Report rankings. USM remains in the >Tier 4 category. BP>-->William W. (Bill) Powell, Ph.D.>President, USM Faculty Senate>The University of Southern Mississippi

Any info on whether USM has slipped lower within the fourth tier?

Now that this news is apparently official, I will add this thread to the list of "read these first" threads.

Date: Aug 18, 2005

Mover and Shaker wrote:

If it weren't for Shelby Thames and his Polymer Science program no one outside of Miss would have ever heard of USM.If you think the school has ever been known for its liberal arts program,you are sadly mistaken. The titans of business and industry think very highly of Thames and his Polymer science program.

I quote "Dearly Bought, Deeply Treasured," written by Chester M. Morgan as a history of USM. Page 171, talking about the SACS review in the mid-80s...

"The work of a member of the music department premiered in April 1983, at the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. ... In 1982 Musical America named as it 'Young Artist of the Year' another USM professor of music who three years later presented a recital at Carnegie Hall."

"Several members of the English department won international literary prizes for fiction and poetry, and the director of USM's Center for Writers published several short stories in the New Yorker magazine and also received critical acclaim for his novels in such publications as Time, Newsweek, and the New York Times Book Review. An advisory board of distinguished literary scholars chose another English professor to edit the Variorum Edition of the works of poet John Donne. Another, who edited three definitive editions of William Faulkner's novels for Random House publishers, was one of a handful of American scholars invited to deliver one of the plenary lectures at a 1983 Moscow Conference on the famous Mississippi novelist."

"The chairman of sociology served as Mississippi's delegate to a White House Conference on Aging in 1981."

"The U.S. Department of Defense chose a USM professor as an official historian for the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Allied invasion of Normandy (D-Day)."

Those are only a few snippets from the book, which I strongly recommend you read so you will stop looking at USM's history throught he revisionist view of Thames and his allies. The average Joe on the street couldn't tell you what Polymer Science is and they could care less about USM's position among Polymer Science programs.

Date: Aug 18, 2005

Curt Yeomans wrote:

I quote "Dearly Bought, Deeply Treasured," written by Chester M. Morgan as a history of USM . . An advisory board of distinguished literary scholars chose another English professor to edit the Variorum Edition of the works of poet John Donne. "The chairman of sociology served as Mississippi's delegate to a White House Conference on Aging in 1981."

The English professor to which you refer above was Gary Stringer

The Sociology chair to which you refer above was Frank Glamser

Date: Aug 18, 2005

Who was the historian?

Who were the musicians?

Date: Aug 18, 2005

This goes to show what can happen to two faculty members after years of faithful service to this place.

Date: Aug 18, 2005

foot soldier wrote:

Who was the historian? Who were the musicians?

The historian was Ray Skates

I don't know about the musicians. Invictus probably thinks one of them was Bob Dylan but I don't think that sounds quite right.

Date: Aug 18, 2005

Dana Ragsdale has played there, as did John De Chiaro.

Date: Aug 19, 2005

Link to 2006 4th tier schools

Date: Aug 19, 2005

From the Hattiesburg American:

Exline said the magazine ranking system uses a number of subjective criteria which she says does not reflect the actual educational quality of the university. "One thing they look at is what they call peer assessment which is based on surveys they send to our peers," she said.

So, can I take it that we don't give a d*** about what anyone else thinks about us? We are just happy as clams here in our little safe shell?

That's the kind of thinking you get when the university president is a person who has only been away from USM a couple of years since he was 18.

Yes, we do many things very well--things that aren't reflected in the rankings--not the least of which is educating many young people who otherwise wouldn't have gone to college. BUT, if we intend to play in the big time, peer assessment does matter. Ask someone who has applied for a grant and is not taken seriously. Ask the National Merit scholar's parents--the kid we are trying to recruit. etc. etc. etc.