From the past, yet sounds the same:

SH, Mar. 18, 2004

[sidebar] USM President Shelby Thames' daughter received a more than 15 percent pay raise in 2003. Thames says other administrators recommended the raise.

[title] Thames cut amount of raise recommended for daughter

The daughter of University of Southern Mississippi President Shelby Thames received a raise last year that was higher than the raises 67 professors received earlier this year.

Thames, who spoke to The Sun Herald last week, said his daughter received the raise after she took over the Department of Curriculum, Instruction and Special Education.

Dana Thames received a 15 percent raise in March 2003. Her salary is now $70,305.

When Dana Thames became chairwoman of that department more than two years ago, she was among the lowest paid department heads in the university even though her department is the largest in the College of Education, Shelby Thames said.

"When she took the job, she was promised a raise and didn't get it," Thames said.

It was not Thames but deans from the university's five colleges who picked their choices for raises, he said.

The raise recommended by her superiors was higher than what Dana Thames eventually received.

"The recommendation came to me... and I reduced it," Thames said, "because I knew we would (be in this situation)."

Thames' administration was criticized earlier this year over the method used to give pay raises to 67 faculty members.

The average salary raise was 8 percent.

donald wrote:

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From 70000 to over 90000 in about two and a half years ain't bad! 

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That measly $20K raise barely keeps her abreast of inflation.  Plus,  she only makes a little more than half of what Angie D is pulling down at the ADP.  If anything, Dana is underpaid. As ole Shebby says,  "Dana is USM's crown jewel."  She deserves the best.

How can the public stand for such a waste of their money on a person who is not highly regarded at all in her field? She's the butt of jokes even at MSERA and IRA meetings. Her lack of new research is certainly known by anyone who gives her a second thought. Okay, some people get rewarded for nothing; but, to have this much of a raise in salary for running off excellent faculty who challenged her intellectually and babysitting some pork barrel given to her by a political crony of her daddy's . . . surely she should have some merits in some academic area, but she truly doesn't. Evil is as evil does.

 

Whether it is "nepotism" or "favoritism", this issue about a raise for Dana Thames is very serious. Faculty Senate has asked and asked and asked for information from the Thames administration, but has not received it. If summer grants for the improvement of teaching and for research were denied because of economics, then why did ANYONE get a raise, much less Dr.D.Thames. If she did or did not get a raise, it is time for PRESIDENT S. Thames to make this information known. It is (and rightfully so) a matter of public record.

Make the information public. This is a public institution.

Amy Young