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USM Forum -- Message Board -> AAUP-USM MESSAGE BOARD -> Plan B
Post Info TOPIC: Plan B
Delta Dawn

Date:
Plan B
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There were no responses whatsoever to Delta Dawn's "Plan A," which proposed that a longer-term solution to USM's horrendous problem might be to seek a sympathetic legislator who would support a bill establishing, in addition a central overseeing body such as the IHL in Jackson, a separate "Board of Visitors" for each of Mississippi's eight public universities (a model successfully adopted by other states). Given that there was no expressed interest in that suggestion, Delta Dawn herewith submits her "Plan B":


PLAN B: Clearly, some USM higher-level administrators seem to do things differently, and often in a maladaptive manner, than do successful administrators at other major universities. Based on the assumption that some of the folks in control at USM simply do not know better, it seems reasonable to Delta Dawn that key high-level administrators at USM, beginning with your president, be given a one-year sabbatical leave, with full pay of course. During that period, they would apprentice at a major public university and under the tutelage of an experienced and successful university president. Your faculty members already take research sabbaticals, so why not give an administrative sabbaticals to your president or to others who might need a little help in learning how to do their job? Shared governance, academic freedom, due process, role of the Faculty Senate, role of the AAUP, appropriate vehicles for obtaining input from all of the university's constituency, conflicts of interest, how to keep your best faculty members from defecting to Texas A&M, how to run a university without a risk manager, and many of the things mentioned by other posters in other threads, would be modeled. Yes, it would cost $$$. But what is happening at USM has been costly in more than financial ways.


No don't ask Delta Dawn for her "Plan C." You wouldn't want to know.


 



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LVN

Date:
Permalink Closed

Delta, I don't think we ignored your Plan A as much as we felt ill to know such possibilites existed and would never be realized here.  It didn't bear thinking about.  Plan B is quite, quite good.  (Similar to a theory I've long had that public school teachers should be granted sabbatical to come teach the methods courses, and the methods profs should take their places for a semester.)  The problem I see with your plan, however, is locating reciprocal institutions.

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Robert Campbell

Date:
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Delta Dawn,


I think your Plan B is a good idea, but the institutions where USM administrators go on sabbatical would need to be selected with care.  Some of our upper administrators at Clemson, for instance, may be less dangerous than Shelby Thames but are hardly worthy of emulation.


Robert Campbell



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Junk Yard Dog

Date:
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Good idea, Delta Dahling. If we can't find a suitable university president willing to train our administrators on their campus, let's bring the administrative sabbatical experience directly to Hattiesburg. Gary and Frank, now that you can serve in a consulting capacity, would either of you be willing to help out in the dome for awhile? The pay is not great, but your office would be close to JavaWerks.

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foot soldier

Date:
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Remember that Noel Polk is willing to be president for 15 minutes, so he could do it while Frank and Gary go for coffee.

Actually, I think Shelby with actual training would be even more dangerous. He'd be able to accomplish nefarious deeds _without_ shooting off his toes. But Delta D. is certainly correct that we have a dome full of rank amateurs. They also don't seem to have any interest in acquiring a learning curve.


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Michael Kimber

Date:
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Delta Dawn, as I recall from a special ed course I took many, many years ago, there are various levels of mental handicap: trainable, educable, etc. Your Plan B, while laudable in its intent, presumes that those administrators who should take sabbaticals for "apprenticeships" are at least trainable, even if not educable.

Please let us hear about your "Plan C."

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Invictus

Date:
Permalink Closed

quote:
Originally posted by: Delta Dawn
"No don't ask Delta Dawn for her "Plan C." You wouldn't want to know.
 "


Might Plan C be some variant of Dick the Butcher's proposal in "Henry VI?"

"Is not this a lamentable thing, that of the skin of an innocent lamb should be made parchment, being scribbled o'er, should undo a man: Some say the bee stings; but I say, "tis the bee's wax: for I did but seal once to a thing, and I was never mine own man since."


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Good school choice

Date:
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Given the current state of the world, I think SFT and his sycophants should intern at King Fisel (sp?) University. Without body guards of course.

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LVN

Date:
Permalink Closed

quote:
Originally posted by: foot soldier
" But Delta D. is certainly correct that we have a dome full of rank amateurs. They also don't seem to have any interest in acquiring a learning curve. "
I'm a little out of touch.  Is there anyone presently in power in the Dome who has respectable academic credentials? I mean, well-known, nationally or internationally known, recent publication, etc.? Where does the world-class part come in?

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Typo

Date:
Permalink Closed

I think that should be a 'World Crass' administration, not world class.



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