Add Gary and Mary Ann to the list of departing faculty. SMTTT.

Let's wait until we get some sort of official verification of this.  I wouldn't be surprised one bit, though.  Good luck, Gary, wherever you decide to go.  It will be USM's great loss, most definitely.

If this is true, again The Guru tipped us all off the other day.  Kudos to The Guru.

 

quote:

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Originally posted by: Music Patron
"Yes.  What about Mrs. Dr. Stringer?  She has been a valued member of the music faculty."

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Yes, Mary Ann Stringer (former Dean of the former College of the Arts) is a formidable woman. She's an exceptional pianist, a remarkably literate scholar, and everyone’s favorite colleague. When I consider all of the future music students who have been denied the benefit of knowing her, I realize that I can never forgive Shelby Thames.

Congratulations to Gary! TAMU is fortunate indeed, and Gary, with his international consortium of Donne scholars, can now "put **** behind him" and "move forward."

Those of us who know Gary and his wife Mary Ann as colleagues and friends will miss them both very much. Mary Ann is a gifted pianist with whom I had the pleasure -- not often enough -- of performing in recitals during my five years as USM's viola professor. She is also a person of integrity, the only dean I have felt I could trust.

The Stringers have certainly endured far too much of the abuses of USM's current president. It is not at all surprising to see them joining the list of over a hundred others (myself included) who are leaving USM. I am very happy for them, and very sad for USM.

This makes me absolutely ill.  Ill.  Heartsick.  I knew some school with sense would scoop GS up.  Let's take one of the finest English departments in this region, let's take one of its most prestigious projects, and let's just trash and smash all that.  Somehow hearing of the Stringers' departure made this whole thing terribly real for me, in a way it hasn't been before.  There is not just disdain for the liberal arts out there, or in the Dome, there is real, active hatred. 

Good luck and God bless the Drs. Stringer.

Need we point out to the IHL board that while no university in country would consider employing Angie Dvorak at this point, Gary is moving on to a stronger institution than USM? Does this send any sort of message to them about Shelby's immensely poor judgment? Is it possible they're THAT stupid?

quote:

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Originally posted by: this little pig
"Need we point out to the IHL board that while no university in country would consider employing Angie Dvorak at this point, Gary is moving on to a stronger institution than USM? Does this send any sort of message to them about Shelby's immensely poor judgment? Is it possible they're THAT stupid?"

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And, might I add, no university would've hired her even before this point, as she had never gained "real" tenure anywhere.  She's a joke, in the academic sense...SFT can keep her 26 pages of academic publications while TAMU gets Gary Stringer's $1 million, internationally-respected Donne Variorium (much more than 26 pages, I assure you).  Even trade?  I THINK NOT!

The saddest part of all this is the loss to USM's students (both current and future).  Frank Glamser regularly taught over 400 students per year.  He was a driving force in the Sociology dept.  English students have now lost the opportunity to work with a scholar like Gary Stringer.  Music students will not have the opportunity to work with Mary Ann Stringer (and her years of administrative experience are also lost).  Not to mention the countless faculty members who are leaving (or who are making plans to leave soon) and those who refuse to come to USM because SFT has waged a war on USM's faculty. 

As I've said before, the effects of these horrible events will be felt at USM for years to come.  SFT should be utterly ashamed at the destruction that he has created at USM.

quote:

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Originally posted by: In the know
"Gary Stringer has accepted a job at Texas A & M University. This is the absolute truth. Congratulations, Distinguished Professor!!! Godspeed! We will miss you!"

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Professor Stringer's recently announced departure forTexas A&M, and the other departures cited on Babb's list, reminds me of the Underground Railroad (circa 1830-1865) when the disenfranchised, working hard in the field for 'the man' in big plantation house, and making him rich, heard the whispers of freedom and opportunity, and fled. Congratulations to Professor Stringer, and also to those who are taking the geographically shorter 'spur line' to a fine institution on the other side of Hattiesburg.

I had heard a rumor to this effect but didn't want to say anything about it until the move was made public by Gary Stringer himself.  Needless to say, I am delighted for Gary and his family and for TAMU, but I am also very sad for USM.  This development, though, is precisely what I would have anticipated in light of the outcome of the hearings.  I predict that SFT will go down in history as the man who gave TAMU one of its greatest scholars and one of its best scholarly assets in the Donne Variorum project.  The reputation of the TAMU English Department -- already high -- has just jumped a further notch or two, while the reputation of USM (it pains me to say this) is now even further on the skids. 

Shelby Thames should be absolutely ashamed of himself, and I hope his supporters in the community will realize what a huge blow this latest development is to the academic standing of USM. 

By the way, do Roy Klumb and his ilk think that a university with the reuptation of TAMU would hire Gary Stringer if TAMU had the least bit of concern that Gary Stringer was (as Klumb charged) a law-breaking slanderer or rabble-rouser?  No, TAMU merely recognized what everyone except Thames, Klumb, and a few others cannot understand: that Gary Stringer is universally respected as a man and as a scholar and that USM's loss will very much be TAMU's gain.  I am SO happy for the Stringers -- and so sad for USM.

quote:

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Originally posted by: tomcat
" Robert: With only slight changes your post would make an excellent letter to the HA editor. tomcat  "

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Thanks for this suggestion, Tomcat!  I will send it off, although they didn't print the last one I sent (which I thought was pretty good, myself ).

I will, though, send a version of this post to the IHL and to some of the other e-mail addresses provided by USM Sympathizer (at the top of the board).  I really want to rub Roy Klumb's nose in the fact that TAMU is quite eager to hire someone who allegedly committed illegal acts.

 

quote:

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Originally posted by: Robert Evans
"   Thanks for this suggestion, Tomcat!  I will send it off, although they didn't print the last one I sent (which I thought was pretty good, myself ).

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At the risk of seeming immodest, I too have written a couple of pretty good letters that did not get published. I'd be curious to know how many of us have had this experience.

With all of the goofy, repetitive, duplicative letters published in support of SFT, I am surprised that so few letters in support of the faculty seem to get any ink.

I wonder if the big money auto boys who buy all the advertising are influencing the editorial decisions.

There must be a conspiracy to make me this paranoid.

 

 

I ran into Dr. Stinger at a Hattiesburg restaurant this weekend. He smiled and appeared at ease with the way life has shuffled him around for the past half year or so.
I'm fortunate to have met the man. Further, I feel fortunate to have had my entire Southern Miss experience. I look at the person I am now, and remember who I was riding into Hattiesburg as a freshman. They're two different people.
I credit world-class faculty such as Dr. Stringer for being a part of making me who I am today. Although I'm not proud of what's happened at USM recently, I'm fortunate to have learned from quality people. I only hope future students will have the same opportunity before so many outstanding professionals leave the university.
You will carry your integrity to Texas A & M Dr. Stringer. Thanks for being such a stand-up guy.

Sincerely,

Me

quote:

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Originally posted by: Big Bird
"robbie--what class did you have from Dr. Stringer?"

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It probably doesn't really matter whether or not Robbie took a formal class with Dr. Stringer. The best teaching can take place outside the classroom - in the laboratory, in the office, in the library, in the Hub, in the cafeteria, in lecture forums, at student-faculty receptions, and the list goes on. At least that's the way it should be. When I was an undergraduate, I was greatly influenced by faculty members whose classroom I never once entered.