Sun Herald's bulletin board posts - USM Forum -- Message Board

Date: Jul 4, 2004

Sun Herald's bulletin board posts

Date: Jul 4, 2004

The saddest thing about this post are the spelling and grammar errors.

Date: Jul 4, 2004

quote:

Originally posted by: N2ME
". . . this university can have both a liberal arts program and a research program but with the attitude of the hippie faculty it won't help."

N2ME, you suggest that the USM faculty might learn something the above statement taken from the SunHerald Bulletin Board. Whomever wrote that statement seems to believe there is a difference between a liberal arts program and a research program. About all I can conclude about that statement is that whomever wrote it doesn't seem to know a rats patoooty about what research is all about. Every bit as much "research" occurs in the liberal arts disciplines as occurs elswhere. Sometimes it is even better. Very fine research occurs among the liberal arts disciplines right here on the USM campus. And you believe faculty can learn something from such naive statements? By the way, N2ME, my academic discipline is one of the experimental, research-oriented ones.

Date: Jul 4, 2004

quote:

And you believe faculty can learn something from such naive statements?

Yes, it shows how the faculty are hurting themselves, USM, and me by going to the media with our local and personal problem. It shows how some members of the public are viewing the faculty. Again, it is good for the faculty to know how they are being perceived by the public.

Date: Jul 4, 2004

quote:
Originally posted by: N2ME
Yes, it shows how the faculty are hurting themselves, USM, and me by going to the media with our local and personal problem. It shows how some members of the public are viewing the faculty. Again, it is good for the faculty to know how they are being perceived by the public.

""

Ooops, N2ME you forgot to mention that SFT chose to ignore the principle of "shared governance", a method by which all sides have their views heard INTERNALLY. He, not the faculty, caused the debate to "GO PUBLIC".

SFT knows the public is generally ignorant of the principles of shared governance and academic freedom. He knows they will generally be on his side because 1) they think, "The boss is always right where they work and if I don't like it I can leave". and 2) Hattiesburg is his hometown and faculty are the "outsiders" and those "liberals" who came down here to cause trouble back in the 60s.

I agree it is good that faculty be informed about how "some members" of the public view us. But all we can try to do is educate them. It would be unethical for the faculty to just be quiet and let the public be deceived.

Now that you know this, isn't it unethical for you to repeat your charges over and over.

p.s. If you run into Seeker, say hello for me.

Date: Jul 4, 2004

quote:

Originally posted by: Otherside
"Thames . . . He knows they will generally be on his side because . . . Hattiesburg is his hometown and faculty are the "outsiders" and those "liberals" who came down here to cause trouble back in the 60s."

Otherside, your response to N2ME was quite good. I don't know what "He" knows or thinks, but if he or those in the community believe all faculty members are "outsiders" who came down here to cause trouble back in the 60's, he/they are dead wrong. I was born, raised, and educated in Mississippi. I registered to vote in Missisisppi the very day I became eligible (back in that era one had to pass an examination on the Consitution. I don't recall the question they asked me when I registered, but I do recall my answer: "What goes up must come down." I then paid the $2.00 toll tax, and the Registrar responded, "Let that boy vote." In the era when Mississippi politicians appealed to voters by giving orations in public parks, I was once seated so close to Theodore Bilbo (the man who once descicrated Mississippi's system of public higher education) that I could see his famous, shiny horseshoe-shaped tie-tack. I was once visiting in Jackson at beginning of the James Meredith era at Ole Miss, and I saw the "Rebel" flags flying on the automobiles driving down Capitol Street (and, contrary to what those "outside" TV commentators reported, I knew those flags were flying because Ole Miss was about to play a football game). I am proud of my Southern accent, and despite many years living elsewhere, I am happy to say it is still intact. I appreciate Mississippi's contributions to Delta Blues music, and also to Country and Western. I like to eat catfish in those little places where everybody wears a bibbed cap. Former poster Seeker said his family was here back when USM opened its doors. Well, my Mississippi roots go back a generation or two prior to that. In no way can I be described as an "outsider" who came down here in the 60's to make trouble. I believe that one reason that DC Berry's works are so meaningful to me is that he never really forgot his Mississippi Delta roots. And I am sure Noel Polk never really forgot those interesting experiences he had as an undergraduate at Mississippi College. No, we are not "outsiders." If "He" thinks we are, then he is dead wrong.

Date: Jul 4, 2004

Junk Yard Dog,
Thank you for an excellent post, you old dog. You really saw and lived through a lot during a tough period. I'm also from the south, but not Mississippi.

I threw in that "liberal" comment because I hear it used so much in the H'burg community when people are against an idea or person. They don't seem to know what it means and just use it for 'bad" guy or idea.
Thanks again.

Date: Jul 4, 2004

quote:
Originally posted by: Otherside
"Junk Yard Dog, Thank you for an excellent post, you old dog. You really saw and lived through a lot during a tough period. I'm also from the south, but not Mississippi. I threw in that "liberal" comment because I hear it used so much in the H'burg community when people are against an idea or person. They don't seem to know what it means and just use it for 'bad" guy or idea. Thanks again. "

For those who believe that academicians are just "outsiders" who have moved South to make trouble, consider this excerpt of an interview with D.C. Berry, the former USM writer who handily disposed of those teaching awards. Following that event, he was labeled all sorts of things (yuppie, liberal, etc.). As Othersaid suggested, when some folks are against an idea or person, they simply label that person as a "liberal" - having no idea what the term means. The truth is, however, D.C. Berry's heritage is MISSISSIPPI. In this interview, Berry cites these to be among the experiences which influenced him deeply during his Mississippi upbringing. This man is definitely no "outsider":

"The Mississippi Delta has its own rhythm section, a low-buzz humid vibe of catfish, fried bacon, prom queens, screeching crickets and dizzy june bugs, sexual frustration, Friday night football, bleached hair and chewing gum, roadside Bible verses, minimum wage, non-unionized light manufacturing, and a dogmatic certainty that everything is Baptist until proven otherwise . . . While Shakespeare
is the finest English writer there ever was, musicians Lyle Lovett and George Jones lay down some righteous blue-eyed Velveeta rants themselves." [from Colleen Marie Ryer's interview with D.C. Berry]

Date: Jul 4, 2004

It IS heartbreaking to see the dialogue about our troubles at USM descend to accusations of "insider-outsider" positions, but I'm not surprised. That's how Mississippi has always responded when it has been threatened: there were plenty of "outside agitators," of course, in the sixties who helped end the more physicall brutal demonstrations of Mississippi apartheid, but there were plenty of "inside agitators" who tried to do the same thing, who faced terrible, even dangerous, opposition in their homes, cities, churches, offices because they knew apartheid was wrong, no matter what insiders said.

I have to say, though, that part of the problem with the state of things NOW is our own fault, if only because we do not make the internal workings of a university part of our coursework---I dont mean just us here at USM, but professors across the state. That is, most university students in Mississippi pass through our classes, graduate, go on to become legislators and IHL board members and most of them, sad to say, haven't heard one word in 4 years about how a university functions; what its goals are; what its relationships to other state institutions are; why tenure is necessary; why academic freedom and freedom of speech are essential; why shared governance is the single, unassailable key to a university's mission; and what happens to that mission when bad people ignore all these essentials.

Most students participate in our end-of-term scantron teacher evaluations without having a clue what they are doing, so I usually take the remainder of the period---after they have given their verdict---to explain what they are doing. I go through the entire process of advertising for and interviewing and hiring professors, then we discuss the evaluation procedures which they have just participated in, the expectations we have for new professors, the rankings of assistant, associate, and full professor: why such elaborate evaluation, where it begins, and why they are important to the university's mission, and why the searches are important at every level of the university. Invariably, the students are fascinated with this information; they have no clue about any of this: even graduate students are amazed to discover how intricate, even byzantine---and essential---the procedure is and why every step in the process is necessary. I confess, too, that nobody in my graduate school told me anything about any of this either; I entered my first job clueless about any of it. This should never happen.

I propose that we all make a concerted effort not just to educate our students in our specialties, but to educate them in the ways of a university; we must find some way to teach them why what we do here is vitally important. We have to: they may be our bosses someday.

quote:

Originally posted by: Junk Yard Dog
""