Precursor to SACS probation - USM Forum -- Message Board

Date: Dec 6, 2005

Precursor to SACS probation

Date: Dec 6, 2005

Wonder if Andy Griffin, the provost then, was the one.

Date: Dec 6, 2005

What about Anthony Harris?

Date: Dec 6, 2005

I believe the name you are looking for is Bradley G. Bond.

Date: Dec 6, 2005

CuriousFactChecker wrote:

Who was the gentleman that was responsible for SACS matters, who reported to President Thames early on in his administration that we were about to have some problems with SACS?...

I knew 15 years ago that Southern Miss was likely to face this problem one day. The climate was ripe even then.

Date: Dec 7, 2005

CuriousFactChecker wrote:

Who was the gentleman that was responsible for SACS matters, who reported to President Thames early on in his administration that we were about to have some problems with SACS?...I have heard that an administrative staff member pointed out these potential problems to Thames in the early summer of 02 not long after he became USM Prez....This person may have left USM not long after that...

Both Tim Hudson and Brad Bond warned SFT about SACS reporting and accreditation problems. Those who were tight with the administration at the time can verify. Shelboo was so infatuated with Angie Dvorak and the untold millions to be gained from her Economic Development Traveling Medicine Show that he shrugged off warnings from Hudson and Bond about the pedestrian SACS paperwork. Bond persisted and made some of his concerns public. Hudson decided to back off and let Shelboo wallow in his own excrement. And the rest is history.

Date: Dec 7, 2005

I had heard that Brad Bond notified President Thames in early summer 2002...Is that correct?

Date: Dec 7, 2005

timeline wrote:

I had heard that Brad Bond notified President Thames in early summer 2002...Is that correct?

This is encouraging since most who know him figured Bond could not find his @ss without outsiden assistance. In fact, Bond was working with Tim Hudson. The problem came about because when Thames became president he fired just about all the deans and the director of university research, and these are the people who had all the documentation and experience that would have satisfied all of our SACS requirements. In other words, he fired all the people who were attending to all this, and they simply let him hit the wall. Bran Bond was playing to headlines. Thames got what he deserved. Ignorant. Ignorant. Ignorant.

Date: Dec 7, 2005

timeline wrote:

I had heard that Brad Bond notified President Thames in early summer 2002...Is that correct?

The June 2002 memo from Brad Bond was only one month after the new administration took over. It was quoted in the Hattiesburg American and was referred to at the IHL when they publicly questioned the administration for its lack of vigilance. The memo from Bond included words close to (and I must paraphrase this because I don't have access to the the original hard copy version): "We are not currently in compliance with SACS guidelines." That seems pretty clear to me. No one got blind sided. Someone might find the story in the Hattiesburg American. The story would be in early 2005.

Date: Dec 7, 2005

Just the facts 'mam wrote:

timeline wrote: I had heard that Brad Bond notified President Thames in early summer 2002...Is that correct? The June 2002 memo from Brad Bond was only one month after the new administration took over. It was quoted in the Hattiesburg American and was referred to at the IHL when they publicly questioned the administration for its lack of vigilance. The memo from Bond included words close to (and I must paraphrase this because I don't have access to the the original hard copy version): "We are not currently in compliance with SACS guidelines." That seems pretty clear to me. No one got blind sided. Someone might find the story in the Hattiesburg American. The story would be in early 2005.

http://hnn.us/blogs/entries/9010.html

Date: Dec 7, 2005

Just the facts 'mam wrote:

The June 2002 memo from Brad Bond was only one month after the new administration took over. It was quoted in the Hattiesburg American and was referred to at the IHL when they publicly questioned the administration for its lack of vigilance. The memo from Bond included words close to (and I must paraphrase this because I don't have access to the the original hard copy version): "We are not currently in compliance with SACS guidelines." That seems pretty clear to me. No one got blind sided.

You've got it exactly right. If Thames had been a competent administrator rather than a greedy publicity seeking grant whore and listened to early warnings from Bond and Hudson the SACS debacle would never have occurred. It's curious that our IHL hasn't paid any attention to the genesis of the accreditation/probabation fiasco. One would think the first order of business early on would have been showing Thames the door and making sure it hit him in the a$$ on his way out.

Date: Dec 7, 2005

From Kevin Walters HA article: "But an e-mail was sent from former associate provost Bradley Bond to former provost Andy Griffin and Thames on June 24, 2002, telling them Southern Miss "is not now in compliance with SACS mandates."

Date: Dec 7, 2005

Another part of this story: early in the fall of 2002, an administrator in another part of the university was summoned to the inner sanctum and asked to take a newly created associate provost position. Her responsibility was to be SACS accreditation. I believe that Bond was the one who suggested her--maybe Bond and Hudson. She left her other responsibilities to take the job. As I understand it, she was promised lots of staff--all the help she would need. I think she attended at leaast one and maybe more conferences to help bring her up to speed. Finally, though, she never got the help and support she was promised. I don't have this from the horse's mouth but I have been told by knowledgable folks that the infrastructure that she expected went to Siltanen. And she continued to have trouble with Moore. She left the job after about a year believing that under the current circumstances it was undoable.

Date: Dec 7, 2005

Mouth of the Horse wrote:

From Kevin Walters HA article: "But an e-mail was sent from former associate provost Bradley Bond to former provost Andy Griffin and Thames on June 24, 2002, telling them Southern Miss "is not now in compliance with SACS mandates."

Kevin should be an investigative reporter. His departure was a big loss for the Hattiesburg American.

Date: Dec 8, 2005

The Answer Man wrote:

It's curious that our IHL hasn't paid any attention to the genesis of the accreditation/probabation fiasco. One would think the first order of business early on would have been showing Thames the door and making sure it hit him in the a$$ on his way out.

Answer Man, The IHL has not reacted to lots of administrative actions. Things like inflated enrollment data and the manner with which it was handled, a reorganization of the university without appropriate faculty input that removed some very good deans, the SACS probation which came after explicit warnings, the drop in U.S. News rankings, the inappropriate waste of over $400,000.00 in state funds to go after two respected faculty members in a botched attempt to terminate them, the monitoring of faculty email, a Faculty Senate 40-0 no confidence vote, and the loss of 40% of the faculty in three years would normally catch the attention of a capable university oversight board. Not only did they not react, they rewarded such performance with a one year contract extention.

Date: Dec 8, 2005

Secondary Source,

Thanks for the link to Liberty & Power. One of the most unfortunate aspects of Robert Campbell's departure from the board is that we no longer have this constantly-updated archive of sound reporting (and sound commentary). RC performed a huge service and is greatly missed.

By the way, congrats to all the faculty and staff at USM who got USM off of SACS probation. As anyone in academe knows, it can take only one administrator to really mess things up, and it then takes the whole rest of the university community pulling together to repair the damage. USM faculty and staff stepped up to the plate and got the job done. This is just one more reason for many of us elsewhere to admire you.

Date: Dec 12, 2005

Was the reason(s) we were put on probation due to USM simply not following SACS procedures or because we were reluctant and slow to respond to things they found fault with?...Was there an awareness that we were about to have SACS problems when Fleming was on board or did the problems come to light after he left?...and was there a period of time when we had an interim president between Fleming and Thames? Did SACS start falling through the cracks then?...I never have understood the chronology of the whole affair

Date: Dec 12, 2005

WhatHappened? wrote:

Was there an awareness that we were about to have SACS problems when Fleming was on board or did the problems come to light after he left?...and was there a period of time when we had an interim president between Fleming and Thames?

I suspected long before either of those two administrations were in place that USM was heading toward SACS probabtion. Or worse. The straw finally broke the camel's back.

Date: Dec 12, 2005

When all this came out we learned that Fleming was part of the task force that rewrote the SACS guidelines in 2001 before he left Southern. I doubt we had any problem then or we would have known about it. Of course, Thames tried to pin it on Fleming and when that failed because they knew Fleming's involvement with drawing up the guidelines they reached for anybody else in sight that they could blame.

Date: Dec 12, 2005

While there may have been SACS issues prior to Thames taking over as president, there was a WARNING and if Thames had not chosen to ignore the warning, we would not have ended up on probation. It's pretty simple. Had he HEEDED the WARNING when it came in, we (faculty) could have been working on SACS for many many months.

Amy Young

Date: Dec 12, 2005

Toga wrote:

Of course, Thames tried to pin it on Fleming and when that failed because they knew Fleming's involvement with drawing up the guidelines they reached for anybody else in sight that they could blame.

So Thames attempted to blame the SACS fiasco on Fleming before he attempted to blame it on Hudson? That's interesting, never heard that reported, but I'm not surprised. Always blame the guy who just left, taken right out of Shelboo's playbook.

Date: Dec 12, 2005

What may be most interesting hereis that the WARNING came out about the same timethat AAUP discovered the enrollment scandal by the administration and the "vita pumping" of Angie Dvorak. Interestingly, I think the administration was much more focused on getting AAUP than accrediatation.

Just my opinion. I love history, don't you?

Amy Young

Date: Dec 12, 2005

I believe what some expect from Thames is character. You need to quit expecting him to have something he probably never will acquire.