little things...big things - USM Forum -- Message Board

Date: Nov 15, 2005

little things...big things

Date: Nov 15, 2005

We will make it in Hattiesburg. I have my doubts about USM on the coast.

Date: Nov 15, 2005

coastliner wrote:

I certainly recognize that little things, suxh as the 128-124 issue is important. BUT, I think that if we put our efforts on the the BIG issues, we would be more productive.

I have great respect for the Academic Council, the Graduate Council, the Faculty Senate, the Staff Council, and the work they have done in the past. Keep up the good work.

We need to look at the BIG SCENE.

Let our organizations continue to handle the day to day things, important as they are, but, let's look at the BIG THINGS that will determine the future of this inst itution. I don't know all of them. I am biased. But, I do know that we need to direct our efforts to:

selecting a new president
deciding on a strategy for the Gulf Coast....and as you know I support a Universities Center concept for the coast...no more monopoly for USM
building the USM H campus into what it needs to be..

Katrina hit us hard. Let's strike back just as hard.

So, if someone has a plan...present it.

coastliner--- you failed to mention your idea of the coast campus at woolmarket exit!!

Date: Nov 15, 2005

hey bo peep

if you are not aware enough to know that a Universities Center at Woolmarket is an allternative.....you need to contact your local legislator.

Date: Nov 15, 2005

coastliner wrote:

hey bo peep

if you are not aware enough to know that a Universities Center at Woolmarket is an allternative.....you need to contact your local legislator.

would this Universities Center be similar to the Center on Ridgewood Rd in Jaxon?

we all know how much Jackson University Center has contributed to higher education in Mississippi...

My local legislator thinks Saucier would be a more suitable location for another University, I mean University Center.

My thoughts are more to closing some 4 year state supported schools rather than adding campuses

Just to jump ahead to population centers and higher education, what major state supported University is located in Dallas or San Antonio? What about Little Rock?
or Orlando?

I think every person in our state should be able to go to college and study, but like everything else in life somethings come at a cost, in this case the inconvinece of a drive to H'burg/Oxford/Starkville/Jackson/Cleveland/Lorman and I cant remember the others

Date: Nov 15, 2005

lettle bo peep...

i have presented a concept....a Universities Center...at Woolmarket....with all state and national univeristies offering prorams to meet the needs of the Gulf Coast....dol you have a better plan?

litttle bo peep....may have lost her or his

Date: Nov 15, 2005

Coastliner obviously does not understand what constitutes a "big thing" in USM's world. Bodies such as Academic Council and Graduate Council, and the shared governance they should enjoy, are VERY big things. It's pointless to talk about moving forward, new centers, or any of that, until the fundemental issues bedeviling USM are resolved. There's a famous parable about old wine in new skins . . .

Date: Nov 15, 2005

Coastliner is obviously a one trick pony.

Date: Nov 16, 2005

little bo peep wrote:

... what major state supported University is located in Dallas or San Antonio?

Huh? Are you kidding?

Dallas: UT-Dallas (about 15K students), UT Southwestern Health Science Center (a "top 10" institution)

Next Door in Arlington: UT-Arlington (about 20K students)

Up the road in Denton: Univ of North Texas (about 33K students)

San Antonio: UTSA (about 30K students), UT Health Science Center at San Antonio

Date: Nov 16, 2005

coastliner wrote:

I certainly recognize that little things, suxh as the 128-124 issue is important. BUT, I think that if we put our efforts on the the BIG issues, we would be more productive. I have great respect for the Academic Council, the Graduate Council, the Faculty Senate, the Staff Council, and the work they have done in the past. Keep up the good work. We need to look at the BIG SCENE. Let our organizations continue to handle the day to day things, important as they are, but, let's look at the BIG THINGS that will determine the future of this inst itution. I don't know all of them. I am biased. But, I do know that we need to direct our efforts to: selecting a new president deciding on a strategy for the Gulf Coast....and as you know I support a Universities Center concept for the coast...no more monopoly for USM building the USM H campus into what it needs to be.. Katrina hit us hard. Let's strike back just as hard. So, if someone has a plan...present it.

While I consider the coast situation an important thing I also think it is a potentially divisive thing (given that not everyone who opposes this administration agrees with you about a University Center).

I think it is fine to discuss the Gulf Coast situation -- there are many egregious examples of ways in which this present administration has badly handled the GCC campus and faculty and staff.

But please be very careful not to link the issue of what possible solutions there are to the GCC situation with opposition to the administration. Selecting a new President is a big issue -- but ithere is no link at all between the selection of a new President and advocacy for a university center.

Date: Nov 16, 2005

TO: Faculty and Staff

FROM: Margaret Firth, Administrative Assistant

DATE: November 16, 2005

RE: Office phones

As most of you know the School of Music is in the midst of a major budget crisis. The cost of the School of Music to maintain telephone services is approximately $1400 per month. At present the budget is not sufficient to maintain telephones for one month. It is likely that we will begin shutting down School of Music phones (including the SOM administrative offices) as early as next week.

We regret having to make this decision, but we have been informed that the School of Music will not be able to run a deficit this year.

Again, we ask for your understanding and patience in this trying time.

Date: Nov 16, 2005

TO: Faculty and Staff

FROM: Margaret Firth, Administrative Assistant

DATE: November 16, 2005

RE: Copy Machines

Effective immediately the copy machines in both PAC and FAB will be disconnected.

As of today, the School of Music has not received a budgetary transfer necessary to operate essentials, and as a result, can no longer afford to operate the copiers or purchase paper. I understand that this will cause an enormous inconvenience for everyone. I am asking that we all do our part in helping keep expenses to a minimum.

It is our hope that the budget situation will improve soon; until then, I ask for your patience.

Please feel free to give me a call or come by if you have any questions.

Date: Nov 16, 2005

This is a rough time not to have photocoping capability if you are trying to do exams! Maybe Dean Pood or someone else who got one of those big administrative raises will donate enough money to cover paper and copy costs.

Isn't this a sad place.
Amy Young

Date: Nov 16, 2005

Amy Young wrote:

This is a rough time not to have photocoping capability if you are trying to do exams! Maybe Dean Pood or someone else who got one of those big administrative raises will donate enough money to cover paper and copy costs. Isn't this a sad place. Amy Young

Amy:

I am so hoping that these memos are a gag. If true, they would reflect a breathtaking degree of mismanagement and poor planning somewhere along the administrative food chain (yeh, I know what you are thinking). What's the scoop? Are these legit?

Mitch

Date: Nov 16, 2005

Mitch wrote:

Amy:
I am so hoping that these memos are a gag. If true, they would reflect a breathtaking degree of mismanagement and poor planning somewhere along the administrative food chain (yeh, I know what you are thinking). What's the scoop? Are these legit?
Mitch

I'm not Amy-- but, no, these aren't a gag. Everybody in the School of Music received these memos. It probably seems less shocking to me because I already have to buy chalk to use in class. I had to buy the desk chair I sit in to use the computer I bought and put on my desk, which is next to the bookcase I paid for.....

Date: Nov 16, 2005

I know the solution to the financial woes of the school of music -- lets give administrators raises!

Date: Nov 16, 2005

What amazes me most of all is that the memo came from an administrative assistant rather than Dean Poobah himself. Isn't this the kind of message that should come from the leadership of the college rather than a staff person?

This really is a ship of fools.

Date: Nov 17, 2005

One would think that the chair, at least, would send such a memo. I can't imagine asking a staffer to do so.
This should be brought to the HA's attention.
Any administrator who took a raise in this environment should be ashamed.

Date: Nov 17, 2005

Little Thing wrote:

We regret having to make this decision, but we have been informed that the School of Music will not be able to run a deficit this year. Again, we ask for your understanding and patience in this trying time.

Welcome to the real world. Who does the School of Music think it is -- a Republican controlled Congress led by President Bush. It should never have engaged in deficit spending!

Date: Nov 17, 2005

Mitch wrote:

Amy Young wrote:
This is a rough time not to have photocoping capability if you are trying to do exams! Maybe Dean Pood or someone else who got one of those big administrative raises will donate enough money to cover paper and copy costs. Isn't this a sad place. Amy Young

Amy:
I am so hoping that these memos are a gag. If true, they would reflect a breathtaking degree of mismanagement and poor planning somewhere along the administrative food chain (yeh, I know what you are thinking). What's the scoop? Are these legit?
Mitch

Mitch,

I don't think this is a gag. I have a contact number to check this out,

I also think this is a serious academic matter. Imagine finding that you suddenly have no phone in your office and your syllabus states that students should call for appointments with the professor! Then there is the issue of photocopying exams, quizzes, and other important class materials. Every day it becomes more and more obvious that this administration puts students and their education at the bottom of the list. Our new slogan for branding should be "Southern Miss where sports reign and education comes last."

Amy Young

Date: Nov 17, 2005

Another BIG ThING for faculty and staff. (Don't say we don't give you anything.) This is more important than phones and copiers.

From USMmail:

"As a token of our appreciation, the Athletic Department would
like to offer you two free tickets to our football game against
archrival Tulane on Saturday, Nov. 26, at 2 p.m.

Please bring your Southern Miss ID to pick up your tickets this
Monday, Nov. 21, or Tuesday, Nov. 22, from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m.
in McLemore Hall, Room 309. Tickets will be distributed on a
first-come, first-served basis, depending on ticket availability.
Additional tickets may be purchased for a discounted price
of $10.

Please come support your Golden Eagles at their last home game
of the season. Thank you for all you do for Southern Miss.

Southern Miss to the top!"

Date: Nov 17, 2005

The director of the School of Music is on sabbatical leave this semester. The interim director is a fine teacher and performer who should not have been left with this mess. When the budget cuts came 10 years ago, Peter Ciurczak (then director) refused to take cuts to the operating budget, instead asking folks near retirement age to step down. Yes, it was hard to lose faculty, but the department was able to manage. And its operating budget was kept in place--better for morale to have some travel budget and support services. At that time only senior people had phones in their offices. Several years later, Dean Peter Alexander negotiated with Fleming to put phones in all College of the Arts faculty offices for the first time in many years, but there was no additional money placed in the budgets of the departments to pay for the phones after the initial installation. When the second round of budget cuts came, Alexander asked each department to cuts its operating budget a certain percentage. Elliott (director of S of M) agreed--unlike Ciurczak--so the operating budgets were severely cut. I'm not on the inside, but I believe they were cut by 30% all across the former COTA.
Budgeting is always a struggle in the arts. Every department is expensive, but music especially so.

Date: Nov 17, 2005

Wasn't there a big bruhaha last summer about one of the departments in CoAL seriously overspending its budget? Someone defended the cyclical nature of the performing arts departments as being unique cases that required special understanding of a peculiar budgeting cycle. Is this part of the same problem or is this a true budget deficit where the administration may be forcing a department to live with the spending decisions it has made? The above memo sounds inflammatory but I can't help but question what led up to it.

Date: Nov 17, 2005

Let's get real here folks. It is pretty difficult to run ANY kind of department without phones and copiers. All those administrators got raises, and USM can't find money so that faculty can TEACH? They can't photocopy tests and handouts? The bottom line is USM adminstration does not care about teaching. It does not care enough to give faculty the basics they need to do their jobs.

NO QUARTER.

Date: Nov 17, 2005

Little old lady wrote:

One would think that the chair, at least, would send such a memo. I can't imagine asking a staffer to do so.
This should be brought to the HA's attention.
Any administrator who took a raise in this environment should be ashamed.

I would have guessed the new PR manager/director would have made this announcement....certainly this sort of budget problem could have been presented as a positive

Date: Nov 17, 2005

More to it? wrote:

Wasn't there a big bruhaha last summer about one of the departments in CoAL seriously overspending its budget? Someone defended the cyclical nature of the performing arts departments as being unique cases that required special understanding of a peculiar budgeting cycle. Is this part of the same problem or is this a true budget deficit where the administration may be forcing a department to live with the spending decisions it has made? The above memo sounds inflammatory but I can't help but question what led up to it.

Those recent budget cuts took so much out of the dance budget that it didn't have the funds to pay its reaccreditation fees. Fortunately, the community arts support group stepeed in and helped. What a travesty.
Jay Dean always operates in the red--or at least he did before the arts fee. He generally is able to make it up after his ticket sales and corporate underwriting is in.
Folks that knew about Jay's budgetary practices had to ask whether it was worth it to have the kind of programming he was/is able to bring to USM. Now he is trying to build an opera program--and opera is the most expensive thing music departments offer. Interestingly, the enormous budget in music is that of the band, managed by Tom Fraschillo of dean search fame. The band budget is supplemented (as it should be for the marching and pep bands) by athletic ticket sales. But this money does not go for phones and supplies for the rest of the faculty.
But let's face it folks. We're sitting in one of the 2 or 3 poorest states in the union--one that is essentially rural--and trying to run first class arts programs. Music has to recruit out of state and theater certainly does for technical people, so scholarship $'s are essential When you look at it, it's absolutely amazing what theater, dance, and art have done on a very thin shoe string. (And music has not been rolling in dough.)
Lots of folks have worked very hard to bring distinction to the arts at USM. It is very sad to see music in this situation.

Date: Nov 17, 2005

Are phones and copy machines pre-paid contracted services?

Date: Nov 17, 2005

And let's go blow $1 million on digital technology for the MBA that won't ever pay for itself!

Date: Nov 17, 2005

Another historian wrote:

More to it? wrote: Wasn't there a big bruhaha last summer about one of the departments in CoAL seriously overspending its budget? Someone defended the cyclical nature of the performing arts departments as being unique cases that required special understanding of a peculiar budgeting cycle. Is this part of the same problem or is this a true budget deficit where the administration may be forcing a department to live with the spending decisions it has made? The above memo sounds inflammatory but I can't help but question what led up to it. Those recent budget cuts took so much out of the dance budget that it didn't have the funds to pay its reaccreditation fees. Fortunately, the community arts support group stepeed in and helped. What a travesty. Jay Dean always operates in the red--or at least he did before the arts fee. He generally is able to make it up after his ticket sales and corporate underwriting is in. Folks that knew about Jay's budgetary practices had to ask whether it was worth it to have the kind of programming he was/is able to bring to USM. Now he is trying to build an opera program--and opera is the most expensive thing music departments offer. Interestingly, the enormous budget in music is that of the band, managed by Tom Fraschillo of dean search fame. The band budget is supplemented (as it should be for the marching and pep bands) by athletic ticket sales. But this money does not go for phones and supplies for the rest of the faculty. But let's face it folks. We're sitting in one of the 2 or 3 poorest states in the union--one that is essentially rural--and trying to run first class arts programs. Music has to recruit out of state and theater certainly does for technical people, so scholarship $'s are essential When you look at it, it's absolutely amazing what theater, dance, and art have done on a very thin shoe string. (And music has not been rolling in dough.) Lots of folks have worked very hard to bring distinction to the arts at USM. It is very sad to see music in this situation.

I heard that Professor Fraschillo, Director of Bands, was going to SFT for funds. Now it appears SFT was giving him funds from the department budget. Can anyone confirm this?

Date: Nov 17, 2005

Three years ago USM was home to the only College of the Arts in Mississippi and was one of only a few universities in the country with all four arts programs accredited. Today its School of Music is without working phones or copy machines. Southern Miss to the top.

This is one of the consequences of abolishing the college devoted solely to the arts, and it was forseeable.

Like it or not, arts programs are unique, and if a university wants good programs, it must face up to that fact. For a start, arts programs must be funded at a higher level than most of the rest of the university departments, and there are few opportunities for outside funding except from donors. On the other hand, the love that many have for the arts leads donors to give liberally to university arts programs that they respect.

So back to the consequences of abolishing the college: the arts at USM not only lost their unique standing in the state but they also lost a dean who was devoted solely to them--one who could not only pay close attention to their budgetary needs but who could fully understand and defend them. They also lost someone who could speak for them not only to the university but to the community--to those arts lovers and potential donors who come close to the athletic donors in number. I can only imagine what they must think about this.

One by one, the consequences of reorganization without input come home to roost.