2 Out Of 3 Ain't Bad wrote:

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Just an opinion: The jury is looking to you to present an alabis, some evidence of your innocence to contradict the charges and evidence leveled at you by many of the posters who have provided proof of slacker behavior, constant whining, inability to work with authority figures, and an unstated motive to force USM to be something that the citizens of Hattiesburg do not want it to be. If Denise vH says that the average salary of a CoAL prof is $45,000 and that turns out to be true, then fine. My next question would be Are we paying any premium at all for profs based on their research? Unless it's curing cancer, coming up with a gasoline alternative, or helping my business become more profitable, then I don't care about it, and neither do the majority of the people I interact with at various civic and University functions. We should stop paying for something we don't need. Having a teacher who does research is like having a landscaper with a PH.D. --- it's unnecessary. Let the Harvards, Yales, and Dukes do research. USM was founded with a mission that should never have been allowed to be altered. Teaching. The website (creativeclass) was entertaining. I got some good laughs thinking about all the egghead hours spent coming up with those books. I wonder just how many of those people ever really worked? I wonder how many were required to work on someone else's day to day schedule and deliver regardless of circumstances. All the talk of a creative class of peopel who make the world go seems a bit like the Renaissance. As you know, though, the Renaissance did have its backlash. Yes, even a dumb hick like me remembers the Bonfire of the Vanities. Academics cannot stand up against what the community wants. The community is looking at you, and all you do is stare back without explaining yourselves. You don't publicize your "great" works, and I've seen posts where profs claim that it's not their job to defend themselves. Well, it's not my job to be proactive either, but it sure does help save my business from time to time. Maybe it's time you started being proactive and consulting your customers as if your jobs depend on it, because they just might.

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2 Out Of 3 Ain't Bad wrote:

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Just an opinion: The jury is looking to you to present an alabis, some evidence of your innocence to contradict the charges and evidence leveled at you by many of the posters who have provided proof of slacker behavior, constant whining, inability to work with authority figures, and an unstated motive to force USM to be something that the citizens of Hattiesburg do not want it to be. If Denise vH says that the average salary of a CoAL prof is $45,000 and that turns out to be true, then fine. My next question would be Are we paying any premium at all for profs based on their research? Unless it's curing cancer, coming up with a gasoline alternative, or helping my business become more profitable, then I don't care about it, and neither do the majority of the people I interact with at various civic and University functions. We should stop paying for something we don't need. Having a teacher who does research is like having a landscaper with a PH.D. --- it's unnecessary. Let the Harvards, Yales, and Dukes do research. USM was founded with a mission that should never have been allowed to be altered. Teaching. The website (creativeclass) was entertaining. I got some good laughs thinking about all the egghead hours spent coming up with those books. I wonder just how many of those people ever really worked? I wonder how many were required to work on someone else's day to day schedule and deliver regardless of circumstances. All the talk of a creative class of peopel who make the world go seems a bit like the Renaissance. As you know, though, the Renaissance did have its backlash. Yes, even a dumb hick like me remembers the Bonfire of the Vanities. Academics cannot stand up against what the community wants. The community is looking at you, and all you do is stare back without explaining yourselves. You don't publicize your "great" works, and I've seen posts where profs claim that it's not their job to defend themselves. Well, it's not my job to be proactive either, but it sure does help save my business from time to time. Maybe it's time you started being proactive and consulting your customers as if your jobs depend on it, because they just might.

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Well, it's hard to know where to begin in answering this latest post of yours.

You obviously spent very little time at the recommended website, just as you obviously know very little about how real universities contribute enormously -- in economic welfare but also in other ways -- to the communities in which they are situated.  Many of the best universities are also often the biggest employers in their communities, and they add immensely to the quality of life in those places.  It sounds as if you simply want a trade school that can educate plumbers and auto mechanics (not that there is anything wrong with plumbers or auto mechanics -- it's simply that true universities have much broader missions).

I have no idea what you mean when you mention the Renaissance and the Bonfire of the Vanities; your references are so vague that I can't begin to interpret what you have in mind.  Can you be a little more precise?

Why would intelligent people want to come and live and work in a community dominated by the kind of mind-set you glorify (and seem to embody)?  Why would a scientist on the trail of a cure for cancer or a substitute for gasoline want to have you as a neighbor, when such a person could live elsewhere and be surrounded by people who appreciate the life of the mind?  If you want USM to be a glorified trade school, go for it, but don't expect such a school to attract the kind of people who are going to make Hattiesburg any better 20 years from now than it is today.  The appeal of Hattiesbrug, to intelligent people, has sunk mightily in the last four years, and it is likely to sink even further thanks to attitudes like yours.

By the way, most of us have worked at least as hard as you have (in both academic and non-academic positions), and most of us come from backgrounds in which work was valued and encouraged.  I'd be willing to bet that I put in at least as many hours as you do.  Why you want to tear down the one thing about Hattiesburg that once made it a potentially appealing place to the rest of the world is beyond my comprehension.

2 Out Of 3 Ain't Bad wrote:

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  And there's the problem. Profs don't own the shop. You work at the shop. I own the shop, and you've been giving my shop manager problems. This is the reason tenure is going away. Professors are fungible.

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Any talented faculty member who was even considering coming to USM for employment should read the comments of "2 out of 3" and think twice.  If this person really does represent anything close to common opinion in the Hattiesburg community, USM is headed down the drain.

2 Out Of 3 Ain't Bad wrote:

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And there's the problem. Profs don't own the shop. You work at the shop. I own the shop, and you've been giving my shop manager problems. This is the reason tenure is going away. Professors are fungible.

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Wanna bet? I can take my whole lab and go down the road to another institution in a heartbeat, just as many of my colleagues have done. You fail to understand the market value of intellectual property, or the fact that I essentially "rent" my lab space from the university by bringing in money from the feds. You may know how to roll back an odometer on a 98 Caddy, but not much about higher education administration or economics. 

Shop manager=overseer. Workers=slaves. Shut up and pick some cotton, right?  

Massa 2 out of 3 wrote:

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You may know how to roll back an odometer on a 98 Caddy, but not much about higher education administration or economics.    

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Dana,

Daddy told you to stay off of this website!!! My my my. Start picking out your dress for the party in my honor.

neutral third party wrote:

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This post is patently untrue based on human nature alone. You're saying you have never gone to the doctor with a self-diagnosis? "Hey, doc, I need a Z-pack. Amoxicillin just won't work for me." 

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2 Out Of 3 Ain't Bad wrote:

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I'll ignore your sarcasm and remind you that medicine saves lives while education claims to enrich those lives. Medical care is a basic need. There are plenty of old folks who have survived without education but who can't survive without medical care. Your analogy is poor.

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Where did many of the docs in town got their pre-med education? Oh, that's right. USM. Unless your burger joint also provides that training too, oh wise business person.  

Nosirree Bob wrote:

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2 Out Of 3 Ain't Bad wrote:
  I'm amazed just how quickly you turned this into a racial thing. Are you typing in blackface? Some of these responses are out of line. If you can't stand the heat, play the race card.

Well, since this is Mississippi, your attitudes toward profs instantly reminded me of the attitude of a slave-owner to his slaves.  However, I could just as easily have likened it to the attitude of a king toward his peasants, a czar toward his serfs, a robber-baron toward his factory-hands, etc., etc., etc.  The main point is that in your opinion, you be Da Boss Man.
 

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All the above wrote:

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As a staff member of the university, community member (of course), and local business owner I find the attitude of our faculty on this thread and many others to constantly degrade those without PhDs.  Honestly, do you believe the only intelligent people in this community are academics?

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Of course not wrote:

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All the above wrote: As a staff member of the university, community member (of course), and local business owner I find the attitude of our faculty on this thread and many others to constantly degrade those without PhDs.  Honestly, do you believe the only intelligent people in this community are academics?

Nope, we have a bunch of very bright staff also. And lot's of bright people in the community (heck, we trained a lot of 'em). But we are getting tired of being told how to do our jobs (irrespective of the Ph.D). I don't tell staff in HR, I-TECH, Admissions, or Financial Affairs how to do their jobs, because I have no idea how to do that work and it would be very rude behave in that manner. I'll ask questions, and try to understand what I need to understand to interact with those folks, but they get my respect and gratitude for the yeoman's work they do. Faculty at USM get the treatment from the likes of Bossman 2 out of 3. I am currently interviewing for other jobs--and at all those sites faculty are viewed as valuable human and intellectual capital-not chattel.  

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