Pood Follies III - USM Forum -- Message Board

Date: Nov 23, 2005

Pood Follies III

Date: Nov 23, 2005

Beware! Angeline usually posts based on rumor! As those rumors are disproved she suddenly drops out of the ensuing conversation! Beware!

Date: Nov 23, 2005

Beware Greeks wrote:

Beware! Angeline usually posts based on rumor! As those rumors are disproved she suddenly drops out of the ensuing conversation! Beware!

I usually don't reply because I get too busy, and I admit that the imperfect information that I receive sometimes turns out to be only partially true. For that reason I am choosing to be more circumspect in my postings from now on, though even the "rumors" that I posted before served a useful purpose in getting to the truth of particular issues - the very purpose of a board such as this I believe. Since you brought up rumors and your distrust of me I challenge you to disprove this new post, since it is common knowledge among all the chairs in CoAL. If you work for Sir Pood you know the truth and you are simply trying to cover for him. If you don't work for Pood, what is your purpose exactly? Or am I talking to Elliott hisself?

Date: Nov 23, 2005

I do not know Sir Pood that well -- nor do I know the facts of this matter. That is not the point. What I dislike is people posting hearsay as fact. Academics should be better than that. Though I do not know Pood that well or the facts of COAL -- it certainly seems that you have a vendetta against him (deserved or not is your decision) and jump at any chance to post the first new bad thing you have heard about him. Again not that he does not a deserve condemnation from time to time -- but is posting every rumor you hear a proper response? Or is it in some ways as bad as Sir Pood himself?

Date: Nov 23, 2005

This is a pretty serious issue of which everyone in COAL needs to be aware. It would be helpful if someone else from COAL would share their information.

At issue is the issue, not the poster's feelings about Dean Pood.

Date: Nov 23, 2005

Angeline is correct. For reasons known only to EP, all CoAL permissions to advertise have been sitting in his office for about four weeks. The result is that we will not be able to interview at our national convention over the xmas holidays. There will be no other venue to meet potential candidates this academic year. We will not be able to make the best hire because of this. We would now be better off running the searches next academic year.

Sheer ****ing incompetence. Where does this guy come from? Mars?

Date: Nov 23, 2005

i don't know how much of this is true, but tell me why in the job section of the chronicle of higher education, november 11, 2005, on page c32 there are 2 job descriptions for the english department--an assistant professor / director of composition and an assistant professor, writing specialist? and why, if you search the chronicle site, which you can for free, you find a job advertisement for a chair of Poltical Science, International Development & Affairs at USM?

Date: Nov 23, 2005

So two folks have said that Sir Pood has kept ALL of the ads on his desk -- and told me that his actions are the issue rather than posters going off half cocked. Then another poster lets us know that at least 3 ads for COAL are out there already. Thus which is which? I certainly do think that if Sir Pood kept all of the ads on his desk, in pocket veto fashion, that would be something that we really ought to question (hoping to find out that there was a rational reason for such action). However, my belief is that we should wait until we have the facts before lambasting someone.

Date: Nov 23, 2005

Looked at USM's HR website. Shows the two English positions posted 11/1/05, which are also listed in CHE. Don't see any other prof jobs in COAL unless overlooked sumpthin. Lessee, 11/1 was about three weeks ago.

Where are the ads for the rest of COAL from prior to 11/1?

And Beware, you did a good job of subtly twisting what LVN really said. You're good.

Date: Nov 24, 2005

The English Dept. jobs were listed by the department - they jumped the gun assuming that Pood would live up to his word that the approvals were in process. Those jobs have not been formally approved yet.

Date: Nov 24, 2005

English oops wrote:

The English Dept. jobs were listed by the department - they jumped the gun assuming that Pood would live up to his word that the approvals were in process. Those jobs have not been formally approved yet.

At times like these, I really miss Stephen Judd's calm commentary on what is happening in COAL, though no one would wish the job of chair--even temporary chair--on him or anyone else. Stephen would have called the dean's office before we all went on vacation and by now have posted some kind of thoughtful message here on this issue.

In his absence, let me just point out that the two English jobs in question resulted from SACS issues and have been in the pipeline for months. They have nothing to do with the additional faculty hires that we in the English department desperately need and which may well be sitting needlessly on some desk somewhere. I don't know the fate of the new permission to hire forms, but it isn't a happy thought that they might not be going forward. We finally got a few hires in the last few years--after virtually hemorrhaging faculty--but since more faculty have left, we're stretched beyond any reasonable limit.

One of my occasional daydreams is a teeshirt representing USM's English department. I don't know whether to put the word's "USM English Dept." mentally in the center of gunsight cross-hairs, or to depict it as a partially destroyed oak tree--big limbs gone, scorch marks from lighting--that nevertheless still vigorous enough to be green in the remaining limbs and sprouting luxurious new ones.

A deeply meaningful Thanksgiving to you all.

Jameela

Date: Nov 24, 2005

Even though the CoST didn't lose many faculty over the past 3 years compared to CoAL, they have been expanding. Apparently they continue to expand in the research funding areas with the positions listed below:

Assistant Professor - Chemistry and Biochemistry

Assistant Professor - Construction Engineering Tec (2 positions)

Assistant Professor - School of Computing

Assistant Professor - Developmental Biologist

Assistant Professor/Physics & Astronomy

Research Professor/Physics & Astronomy

Assistant Professor/School of Polymers & High Perf ( 2 positions)

Senior Coatings Formulator ( Thames-Rawlings Research Group)

Visiting Scientist (Polymer Science)

Biosensor Project Leader (Polymer Science/Wicks Research Group)

Assistant/Associate Professor – Mathematics (3 positions)

Assistant/Associate Professor-Fisheries Science

Date: Nov 24, 2005

Angeline may have not been correct with all of her posts, but given all the times the Pood has stepped on his Johnson I doubt that she is wrong. We now have deans who have demonstrated that they are incapable of performing the basic functions of an administrator. In addition to their Attila the Hun leadership skills, they are generally dysfunctional. For considerable time into the future, even if we get a "decent" president, we will be subject to waves of incompetence. I shudder to think how long it will take to recruit and hire compent administrators. The same problems exist in the staff functions.

Date: Nov 24, 2005

Forms have been sitting in the Dean's office for weeks. But my understanding is that they have now been sitting in the Provost's office for over a week. Meaningful hires are going to be difficult to make without being able to go to the big conferences over Christmas. But the real question is "Why are we surprised?" Every step forward is met with a big shove back.

Date: Nov 24, 2005

I said the permission to advertise forms were sitting on the dean's desk. Now three people have said the same thing but Elliott Pood, err, I mean the poster "Beware Greeks" says otherwise. I'm not surprised, just disgusted by the incompetence.

Date: Nov 24, 2005

I am not Sir Pood -- man don't you guys love to jump to conclusions and conspiracy theories! Starting late on the hiring would be a "very bad thing." No doubt there. If it was his fault -- or the provost's or whoever -- they ought to be held to book. I just want to make certain of who needs the blame before dishing it out. Again is that not what academics should be about -- good research and getting facts straight? There is nothing more to my post than that -- so please don't try to read between lines that do not exist.

Date: Nov 25, 2005

The way it worked in the CoST was the dean and provost would sit on request or lose the paper work if they didn't like the department's plan. The request, which they thought would result in a hire that would bring in more funding, was put through on the fast track. That way the departments with open positions that would bring in less money never seems to be able to get a hire while the "chosen" departments expanded. The best example is to compare Math and the dean's department, Physics. Maybe CoAL is doing the same.

.

Date: Dec 6, 2005

Update: the permissions to hire for CoAL positions are STILL sitting on Grimes's desk! What an incompetent bunch of s-o-b-s, but I repeat myself.

Date: Dec 8, 2005

I understand that Dr. Pood is meeting with Dr. Grimes for a second (or third) time to justify the Permissions to Advertise for a second (or third) time. How long the Permissions to Advertise sat in Dr. Pood's office is trivial.

The main concern should be how long will these forms sit in Dr. Grimes' office awaiting his signature?

Based on my experiece the first part of this year: if academic areas are fortunate enough to find a qualified candidate, the Permission to Hire form will sit in Dr. Grimes' office for several weeks. In some cases, the candidates accepted other positions because of the delay in paperwork.

Can a "business" afford to operate in this manner? I don't think so...

Date: Dec 8, 2005

Is this because they don't have any idea where the money is going to come from--that they can cut the budget by not hiring?

Date: Dec 8, 2005

Outsider wrote:

Is this because they don't have any idea where the money is going to come from--that they can cut the budget by not hiring?

This hypothesis certainly makes sense, that the university has been so mismanaged that even in COAL that the "permissions to advertise" requests that essentially were only those to replace people who left last year (except for English comp) no NEW positions. Maybe those lines have been sucked up for something else.

When you connect this with outsourcing physical plant, you can't help but think that we are in very bad shape financially. But at least those administrators (like Pood) got those big raises!

Amy Young

Date: Dec 8, 2005

And you could also save by not filling the lines of folks who have left.

Date: Dec 8, 2005

Amy Young wrote:

Outsider wrote: Is this because they don't have any idea where the money is going to come from--that they can cut the budget by not hiring? This hypothesis certainly makes sense, that the university has been so mismanaged that even in COAL that the "permissions to advertise" requests that essentially were only those to replace people who left last year (except for English comp) no NEW positions. Maybe those lines have been sucked up for something else. When you connect this with outsourcing physical plant, you can't help but think that we are in very bad shape financially. But at least those administrators (like Pood) got those big raises! Amy Young

This may be true, Amy, but I hear that positions in the sciences are being processed without delay. If this is true, it may mean that only units that can bring in big grant money are getting the positions. Are these the positions from CoAL?

Date: Dec 8, 2005

I've been told that only a handful of permissions to advertise have been approved by the provost. None in COAL as far as I know.

So, if we are only replacing and adding in areas that bring in grants and contracts, that will leave USM very short=handed when it comes to just meeting basic classes. When you get grants and contracts, you spend less time (sometimes NO time) in classes. Deans and chairs may be able to argue for an adjunct to cover some classes for cheap, but of course there is a distinct possibility that the university will get what it pays for.

I guess it if is really bad, we'll be asked to teach 4 and 4. That, of course, means we do absolutely nothing else. No service, no research, no grant writing, no publishing, no SACS committees, no assessment in programs, nothing.

If we don't get approvals to hire in COAL, we, may be approaching this position.

Amy Young

Date: Dec 8, 2005

This is my fear for you guys.

Date: Dec 8, 2005

Way outside looking in wrote:

This is my fear for you guys.

This is my fear for the citizens of Mississippi who are increasingly burdened by rising costs for education. Not only do our students pay tuition, they must rely on student loans that will probably total around $20,000 when they graduate. These students, and the citizens of Mississippi deserve better.

Amy Young

Date: Dec 8, 2005

We really need to start utilizing Bennett for basic classes. Virtually all of the larger SEC schools such as Florida, Georgia, etc. are teaching sections of 600 to in some cases 1,900. USM should definitely join the ranks of these schools and bring this kind of high quality education to our students. As a benefit to the taxpayers, our cost per SCH would plummet. The only additional cost would be in hiring a few bar-bouncer types to maintain order.

Date: Dec 8, 2005

I went to Northwestern my first two years. I recall several huge auditorium classes, which also included labs or study groups headed by TA's. It was a way to get a "name" like Bergen Evans or Alfred Appel, but I never felt those people were actually teaching me. If the TA was good, the class was good. If the TA wasn't good, the class wasn't good, regardless of how famous and wonderful the prof was. I recall having another "regular" class with Hershel Parker (who wasnt' famous then, but became so) and felt I learned so much more.

Date: Dec 9, 2005

cj wrote:

We really need to start utilizing Bennett for basic classes. Virtually all of the larger SEC schools such as Florida, Georgia, etc. are teaching sections of 600 to in some cases 1,900. USM should definitely join the ranks of these schools and bring this kind of high quality education to our students. As a benefit to the taxpayers, our cost per SCH would plummet. The only additional cost would be in hiring a few bar-bouncer types to maintain order.

cj,

If you happen to be in a department with graduate student TAs who could help teach super-large sections, this might be possible. However, just because large SEC schools are doing this does not mean these classes are better or that students learn more. In fact, even those who teach large sections on a regular basis would probably acknowledge that small sections are better. Studies regarding student retention and new methods of groups "thematic" courses all support the hypothesis that what students need and appreciate is for their professors to know that they are there and care about their education.

Well-educated citizens benefit Mississippi far more than "processing" students through huge sections, especially given that so many students "educated" in the public school system just aren't as prepared as they need to be. Well-prepared students tend to do better in large sections.

Amy Young

Date: Dec 9, 2005

Amy Young wrote:

...Studies regarding student retention and new methods of groups "thematic" courses all support the hypothesis that what students need and appreciate is for their professors to know that they are there and care about their education. ... Well-prepared students tend to do better in large sections.

These statements, which have a strong ring of truth, make one wonder why the Honors College classes average a dozen or so students taught by some of the university's best profs and the general intro classes taught by TA's and adjuncts often have more than one hundred. This is NOT a dig at the Honors College nor at instructors of the general ed courses. Rather, it is a pedagogical dilemma raised by disparities in what we know about learning and what we implement. It is certainly not one unique to USM, or even to higher education.