USM's next President - USM Forum -- Message Board

Date: Apr 24, 2006

USM's next President

Date: Apr 24, 2006

Makes sense for Hardy High to have a public school principal in charge.

Meanwhile, y'all that have ambitions of being serious scholars and teachers, get out while you can.

Date: Apr 24, 2006

Uh, who is that?

Date: Apr 24, 2006

LVN wrote:

Uh, who is that?

A fine question. And who might the poster be to hear anything?

Date: Apr 24, 2006

The file name on the photo is "joachim_patricia.jpg."

Date: Apr 24, 2006

Dr. Patricia Joachim
Associate Provost for
Southern Miss Gulf Coast

Dr. Joachim received her doctorate in educational leadership in 1998 from Southern Miss.

Date: Apr 24, 2006

it's coming wrote:

Everything I'm hearing says,

Yeah, I'm hearing the same thing from sources I consider credible. It clearly dovetails with a "closed" search. Wouldn't take much of an academic resume to put this candidate well back in the pack in a real search.

Date: Apr 25, 2006

If for no other reason, the fact that she has been part of the Thames administration should bar her from the job. Of course, there ARE other reasons. Don't we claim to be against academic inbreeding?

Date: Apr 25, 2006

Retiree 3 wrote:

Don't we claim to be against academic inbreeding?

That principle seems to have disappeared after you and I departed.

Date: Apr 25, 2006

I have no idea as to whether she is great or horrible. However, hiring someone with a USM Ph.D. would seem to imply that we were so hard up that we could find no one else. Wouln't quite seem "Wurl Class."

Date: Apr 25, 2006

Ripper wrote:

hiring someone with a USM Ph.D. would seem to imply that we were so hard up that we could find no one else.

The story I heard was that many years ago an accreditation body (maybe SACS, maybe not) expressed concern about the abundance of USM faculty members who obtained their doctorates from USM. It was then that appropriate controls were put into place.

I can think of one good exception to a blanket policy prohibiting inbreeding: When a USM Ph.D. has gone on to establish a national reputation elsewhere and then returns to the USM faculty many years and many publications later.

Date: Apr 25, 2006

I can think of one good exception to a blanket policy prohibiting inbreeding: When a USM Ph.D. has gone on to establish a national reputation elsewhere and then returns to the USM faculty many years and many publications later.

A friend told me that Hudson may have gotten into trouble because this was his view. The powers that be wanted to hire a USM doctorate for a job, but he was on record with the search committee that the scenario Mama Cat sketched out should be USM's practice.

Date: Apr 25, 2006

Retiree 3 wrote:

I can think of one good exception to a blanket policy prohibiting inbreeding: When a USM Ph.D. has gone on to establish a national reputation elsewhere and then returns to the USM faculty many years and many publications later. A friend told me that Hudson may have gotten into trouble because this was his view. The powers that be wanted to hire a USM doctorate for a job, but he was on record with the search committee that the scenario Mama Cat sketched out should be USM's practice.

I recall some litigation at least 10 years ago in which a grad continued to teach for a number of years as an instructor, and therefore expected that his/her employment would continue on tenure track. This was under Aubrey--I think this was one reason this policy was put in place. Any oldtimers recall this?

I agree that hiring a recent grad presents all sorts of problems. But if your grad is more qualified than the other applicants, you may be obligated to make an offer unless some policy is in place. If one looks at education programs across the country, hiring one's own seems to be more common than for other disciplines (but still rare). In the past couple of years, we have hired a number of own grads in some disciplines, and I am not sure that we have any guiding policies (at least public policies) to manage this issue. The problem is that ad hoc precedent setting, like a Genie let loose from the bottle, can produce major headaches in the long run.

Date: Apr 25, 2006

Alzheimer's Institutional Memory wrote:
I recall some litigation at least 10 years ago in which a grad continued to teach for a number of years as an instructor, and therefore expected that his/her employment would continue on tenure track.

If another department is allowed to hire a USM doctorate in a tenure track position, that should be sufficient reason for a faculty member in a similar position in another department to expect to have the same opportunity. I think it has something to do with federal law.