The news that Kay Wall is going to Clemson is both good news, and possibly bad news.  The good news is that Kay is escaping the turmoil, as she has been one of the consistent voices opposing the Thames notion that "we don't need a library, because we have Amazon.com and Goodle." 

The bad news may be for the university, because this departure may mean that the beginning of the escape of the "PERS Hostages" (i.e., faculty who were perceived as being "trapped in Hattiesburg" because they were in the PERS retirement system).  I came to USM the same year as Kay; when I left, I was "vested" in PERS, but lacked the eligibility for retirement, either "age 60 and 4 years' service, or 25 years' university service."  When I left, I had 2-3 years of accrued sick leave, which wasn't enough to bring me to 25 years.

This timing makes me wonder if the "senior faculty" in PERS are now coming to the break point, when their accrued sick leave will allow them to "formally" retire, rather than leaving the "vested retirement funds" until they reach age 60.  If this is so, you may begin to see another wave of departures.