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Originally posted by: Robert Campbell
" Heather, When did the Industrial/Organizational program evaporate? Were the I/O faculty not replaced because USM won't offer vaguely competitive salaries?  Because the Thames regime scared off their potential replacements?  Or was something else going on--such as a turf battle over control of the program? Robert Campbell PS. Degree holders in I/O get good jobs in industry.  There are some pretty good prospects for grant funding in I/O as well.  Allowing an I/O program to wither on the vine makes no sense given Shelby's declared agenda.  Of course, it makes excellent sense given his undeclared agenda..."

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Bob, I was chair of the USM psychology department  when its I/O doctoral program was first established.  I believe I can answer some of your questions. For the 10 years immediately prior to moving to USM, I was department head at Virginia Tech when their I/O program was established. I saw the I/O students at Virginia Tech complete the program and take positions at places such as  Pepsico/Frito-Lay, Virginia Electric Power, and Quaker Oats, and I could foresee a comparable level of success for graduates of an USM I/O program. There was no other I/O program in Mississippi when the USM program was established. USM's location seemed to make it a "natural" for such a program. The department was fortunate enough to already have on board an experienced person qualified to serve as its first I/O director. The USM I/O faculty established training relationships for their students in settings from Jackson to the Coast (Stennis Space Center, for example), and in some instances as far away as Washington, D.C. Some of those off-campus I/O training settings provided a stipend for the students, thus freeing assistanship funds for graduate students in other departmental programs.The USM I/O Training Committee established a no frills, no nonsense basic curriculum. The quality of its students was high.The program in no way jeapordized the other departmental programs. The number of undergraduate psychology majors, for instance, increased from 167 to 450 during that period. The doctoral programs in school psychology and clinical psychology received APA reaccreditation. Graduates of the I/O program were obtaining good positions (applied and  academic). The I/O program was, by far, the most economically efficient of all of the Psychology  Department's four doctoral emphasis areas (experimental, clinical, school, and I/O). It is true that it was difficult to recruit I/O faculty, largely because of non-competitive salaries, but it was also difficult to recruit I/O faculty at Virginia Tech where faculty salaries were and still are much greater. Someone using the name qwerty  posted a comment following your questions. Qwerty's understanding was that ". . . the past profs were more in the habit of securing consulting contracts which brought money into their pockets but not the university."  That was definitely not the case while I was department chair. I don't know what  has happened recently to the USM I/O program, as I currently reside  in Blacksburg, Virginia, and I do not hear a great deal about departmental-level  happenings in Hattiesburg.  I hope this has given you some insight about the formative years of the USM I/O program.