Faculty Departures - USM Forum -- Message Board

Date: Jul 7, 2004

Faculty Departures

Date: Jul 7, 2004

Faculty Departures

Percent Loss

1999-2000

78

12%

2000-2001

110

17%

2001-2002

107

16.5%

2002-2003

112

17%

2003-2004

58

9%

Date: Jul 7, 2004

The most important question to ask about those numbers is this: when was the data taken each year? In other words, was the data from previous years taken before the summer was over? This year's data clearly was and should be marked as such.

Data can be skewed so many ways.

Date: Jul 7, 2004

quote:
Originally posted by: truth4usm/AH
"The most important question to ask about those numbers is this: when was the data taken each year? In other words, was the data from previous years taken before the summer was over? This year's data clearly was and should be marked as such. Data can be skewed so many ways."

And as we've said a gazillion times now...there are NOT 650 faculty members! This is important if it is being used as the baseline for all the percentages. Secretaries (and this is not a slam to administrative staff) who are listed as instructors of record should NOT count as faculty. Also, meaning no insult to many fine instructors, it is the summed tenure-track and tenured faculty that is the number worth watching. That number is going down while adjuncts, instructors, and administrator/profs increase as a percentage.

Date: Jul 7, 2004

what also makes it difficult to do cross-university comparisons is that the universities define faculty differently. what MSU and the Valley and USM "count" as faculty varies.

Date: Jul 7, 2004

When I was in graduate school at the University of Florida, one of my professors had a great definition for "statistics". He said that all statistics is is how to lie with numbers. Thames obviously subscribes to this definition of statistics!

Date: Jul 7, 2004

I know there's a summer reading thread elsewhere, but this one is especially appropriate here: Darrell Huff's How to Lie With Statistics (W.W. Norton, 1954).

Was it Disraeli who said, "Lies! Damned lies! Statistics!"?

Date: Jul 7, 2004

quote:
Originally posted by: Invictus
"I know there's a summer reading thread elsewhere, but this one is especially appropriate here: Darrell Huff's How to Lie With Statistics (W.W. Norton, 1954). Was it Disraeli who said, "Lies! Damned lies! Statistics!"? "

"Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics"

"...After all, facts are facts, and although we may quote one to another with a chuckle the words of the Wise Statesman, 'Lies--damned lies--and statistics,' still there are some easy figures the simplest must understand, and the astutest cannot wriggle out of." Leonard Henry Courtney, "To My Fellow-Disciples at Saratoga Springs," The National Review [London] 26 (1895) 21-26.

Date: Jul 7, 2004

I really think the #58 was counted in May. I know two faculty members who resigned, moved away, but are still getting USM e-mail forwarded to their commercial e-mail accounts (meaning their USM accounts are still active). I doubt they're in that 58. And what about babbs's list?

Date: Jul 7, 2004

If the number came from the USM administration, you can bet that they are skewed to make things look as bring as possible. My guess is that the numbers are May numbers. I resigned on June 30 so I doubt if I am counted.

From afar, it is still sad to see how things are going at USM. The fig leaf of communication spewing from the USM administration is so transparent. Nothing is going to change until the IHL has a change of heart. I doubt that will happen for two years.

Moving (Moved) On

Date: Jul 8, 2004

Moving (Moved) On is right: this administration -- in particular Lisa Mader, who seems to have become the spokesperson for just about every official entity on campus (to prevent anyone from revealing the truth???) -- cannot be trusted to communicate anything but spin. Oh well, isn't that what marketing is all about anyway? You wouldn't want to advertise that your "product" wasn't "world class" now, would you? So I guess it's okay to lie if it's good for business...

This President's Council -- Thames's self-congratulatory letters to the university "community" -- the phoney press releases conjured up in the Dome -- who in their right mind could possibly believe any of this foolishness after all that has happened? Would you buy a used car -- or a can of odorless paint -- or an academic degree -- from this administration?

Now, more to the topic: regardless of the NUMBER of faculty who have departed, what really matters is the REASON so many of us have done so, and if statistics can't reflect this, they mean nothing. Like so many others, I resigned this spring because of the way USM is being run and is likely to be run for some time to come, the irreparable damage wreaked by Shelby Thames, the direction this misguided individual is taking USM, and a number of related factors.

As I no longer reside in Hattiesburg, my moniker, Leaving Soon, no longer fits. I am both glad and sad to be gone: glad to have escaped an intolerable situation, glad also to be living now in a place where education is truly valued and understood; sad because I have left behind many fine colleagues and students who deserve better than to be at USM under Thames, sad also to see USM being destroyed by people who are as perverse as they are powerful -- and being allowed to get away with it!

How long does it take for an institution to regain its respectability after what USM is going through? I hope to see the day, in my lifetime, when I can say, without embarrassment, that I once taught at The University of Southern Mississippi. I hope also to see the day when I can tell people that USM is a good place to learn and to teach.

Meanwhile I would like to bequeath my moniker, "Leaving Soon," to Dr. Shelby Freland Thames in the hope that it fits him very, very well. I will not be posting again to this board as "Leaving Soon;" I have left.

Date: Jul 8, 2004

As one who now is permanently gone from USM, I vasillate between anger at SFT for creating a climate from which I had to escape, sadness at the loss, and excitement at the prospect of being at a better place. The sadness is because most of us were willing to stay at USM, even though the possibility of jobs at better places exister. But we loved the comraderie and the sense of doing something important. What a shame that there is little appreciation of the extraordinary faculty put together over the years and so little regret at its loss.

Date: Jul 8, 2004

quote:
Originally posted by: Already Gone
"As one who now is permanently gone from USM, I vasillate between anger at SFT for creating a climate from which I had to escape, sadness at the loss, and excitement at the prospect of being at a better place. "

I hope that in your conflicting emotions, the excitement of being at a better place wins out. Good luck and best wishes for personal happiness and professional success in your new position.

Date: Jul 8, 2004

The other thing that the statistics don't tell you is when whole programs are in danger because of departures. I'm thinking primarily of nursing (an update from someone on their current status would be good here), and I'm sure there are others. Obviously we hear lots about business here, and I've heard English is in bad shape.

Numbers do not tell you about classes not offered, doctoral students left without advisors or committee members, classes taught by grad students or new PhDs without much teaching experience, or students nameless in huge classes.