From what I have observed Thames is either hated and feared in the community as well as USM, or he uses his influence moneywise. There is also the old thought that he was such a good business man because of what he has done with his paint and favors to friends (we already know what he does to his enemies) that he would be great for business. He has also pretended to know a lot about workforce. From all of this he has split the community wide open and damage the relationship between the community and USM so badly that it will be many years before the wounds heal. He has destroyed the acedemics (almost - there are some good professors left who are waiting to retire). This damages the students as well as the faculty. These are just two of the major points - there are many small issues such as ruining the campus with his building projects that have no real planning behind them. For instance all of the large meeting rooms in the hub without parking. Who does he think will use them? The parking issue has also damaged a number of things. Commuters can't get to any of these campus activities without a long walk. It will not be long before they stop coming to USM. Thames says he wants to build a campus image and yet with his open door policy there are so many students with very low entrance grades that I doubt he can attract the class of students he wants for his new plans. Well, thats enough. I could go on for hours. Perhaps someone else will contribute. Thanks for listening. It makes me sick to think of what he has done to the school and to the people in the community who loved their school.

LVN wrote:

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This is a real question, and I'd appreciate serious answers rather than the funny and saracastic ones we can all think of.

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And a very important question it is. I keep racking my brain for at least one answer but came up with nothing. I urge posters to comply with LVN's request that no funny or sarcastic responses be posted on this thread. Let's see what positive answers appear without contaminating the thread.

I seem to recall reading somewhere that Shelby has donated some money to USM.  Is this incorrect?

Trying to be positive wrote:

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He used his selling abilities to build the Polymer Science program . . It is the only "engineering" program on this campus

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I didn't know that Polymer Science is an engineering program. Are you sure about that? Is that the way it's carried on the books of the IHL?

All things to all people wrote:

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Trying to be positive wrote: He used his selling abilities to build the Polymer Science program . . It is the only "engineering" program on this campus I didn't know that Polymer Science is an engineering program.

Are you sure about that? Is that the way it's carried on the books of the IHL?

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I don't know how "the IHL carries it on their books", but what goes on in Polymer Science is about the same as what goes on in chemical engineering, except PS here may be more applied chemical engineering.   Of course they now have engineering in their title, but that was added recently.  From the web site:

"The School of Polymers and High Performance Materials at the University of Southern Mississippi offers accredited undergraduate and graduate programs leading to Bachelor of Science, Master of Science, and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in Polymer Science and Engineering."