Following was e-mailed to Gulf Coast faculty last night about 5PM. It announces campus planning meetings that will begin this Friday. Any suggestions? Comments? The consultant mentioned, Victor Evans, was the honcho of the so-called "Master Planning Group" that crafted the administration's secret plan to turn part of the Gulf Park library into a conference center, among other things. 

TO:                 SOUTHERN MISS FACULTY

                        Long Beach and Jackson County

FROM:           Pat Joachim, Ph.D., Associate Provost – Gulf Coast

SUBJECT:     Campus Planning Initiative

DATE:            March 20, 2006

COPIED:        Dr. Shelby F. Thames, President

                        Dr. Jay Grimes, Provost

Dr. Thames has retained the services of a consultant, Victor Evans, Architect/Facilities Planner, to assist the University in planning adequate facilities for the Gulf Coast Campus.  A decision has not been made by the Institutions of Higher Learning (IHL) about redevelopment of the Gulf Park campus or development of an alternate Southern Miss Gulf Coast campus.  Both options will be addressed in this pre-design effort to define facilities needs. It is important that your thinking also encompass (1) redevelopment of the existing Gulf Park Campus and (2) development at a new campus.  This proactive programming and pre-design planning process will begin at the end of this week and conclude by the end of April, as per the schedule below:

                        Friday, March 24th and Saturday, March 25th

                        Friday, April 7th

                        Friday, April 21st and Saturday, April 22nd

The Friday sessions will begin with coffee and donuts at 8:30 AM, Room 138M.  Lunch will be served each Friday.  Friday sessions will begin with a large group faculty meeting.  The afternoon and Saturday morning will be devoted to meeting with each of the Colleges and Library.  The small group schedule for March 24th and 25th is:

                        Friday             12:30 PM –  1:30 PM                        CoEP

                                                  1:30 PM –  2:30 PM                        CoAL

                                                  2:30 PM –  3:30 PM                        CoH

                                                  3:30 PM –  4:30 PM                        CoST

                        Saturday           9:00 AM – 10:00 AM                      CoB

                                                10:00 AM -  11:00 AM                      Library

Following the April 7th session, additional time is planned to address one-on-one meetings with individual faculty request.  There will be no meeting scheduled for

April 8th.

This is short notice, but this planning process to begin defining future facilities needs has been under taken in a response to faculty suggestions presented during the February 16th Faculty meeting with Dr. Thames and Dr. Grimes.  For event planning purposes, i.e. space, food, and supplies, please RSVP to Barbara Griffith Barbara.Griffith@usm.edu  ASAP.  Future sessions of the same nature will be held for the GCRL and MEC faculty. 

Thank you in advance for participating in this important activity, as well as responding quickly.