What is USM's "nitche" in life? - USM Forum -- Message Board

Date: Aug 6, 2004

RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: What is USM's "nitche" in life

Date: Aug 6, 2004

RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: What is USM's "nitche"

Date: Aug 6, 2004

quote:
Originally posted by: Invictus "The logical place for such a list to be developed is at the specific university. And the logical manner for it to be developed is bottom-up. (Who better knows what the Chemistry Department's peer group is than the Chemistry Department? Who better knows what the English Department aspires to be like than the English Department?)

Wonder why one of our presidents hasn't taken the leadership on this.

Date: Aug 7, 2004

RE: What is USM's "nitche" in life?

Date: Aug 7, 2004

First Ant,

This is not a new question. I remember having a talk with an IHL board member several years ago. The term was mission but the question was the same. Basically, in IHL's view, USM's niche or mission is to be whatever Ole Miss and State is not.

Date: Aug 8, 2004

quote:
Originally posted by: asdf
"First Ant, This is not a new question. I remember having a talk with an IHL board member several years ago. The term was mission but the question was the same. Basically, in IHL's view, USM's niche or mission is to be whatever Ole Miss and State is not."

asdf, what you say doesn't surprise me in the least. That's one reason I believe that having a clear niche or self-image for the university (beyond the rhetoric of the published mission statement) would help insulate it from the whims and fancies of transient administrators. But a transient administrator should not the one who determines what that niche should be. Administrators are come and go, but viable institutions (such as USM) are forever.

Date: Aug 8, 2004

TITLE:
Are the Leadership Practices of College Presidents in the Northeast
Distinct from those of Leaders of Business and Industry?
RESEARCHER:
Margaret Bauer
The University of New Haven
Doctoral Dissertation: December 1993
OBJECTIVE: To determine if the leadership practices of presidents of higher educational
institutions in the economically challenged northeast were different from those of leaders
in business and industry.
METHODOLOGY: All college presidents in New England (N=248) were asked to complete
the LPI-Self (N=142) and distribute five LPI-Observers (N=512). Effectiveness, as per
Kouzes and Posner, was measured by eight items (alpha = .93). Internal reliability for the
LPI-Self ranged between .71 to .84, for the LPI-Observer from .85 to .93, and combined Self
and Observer reliabilities ranged between .84 to .92. Principal factoring extraction
technique combined with the equamax rotation achieved comparable factor structure with
Posner and Kouzes (1993).
KEY FINDINGS: LPI-Self scores for academic leaders were significantly higher than
business leaders; as were the LPI-Observer scores for Challenging, Inspiring, and
Modeling. Enabling was ranked highest by college presidents (as was true for business
leaders), followed by Inspiring (5th), Challenging (2nd), Modeling (3rd), and Encouraging
(4th). The rank order on LPI-Observer scores for college presidents was the same. The
rank ordering was identical between the LPI-Self and LPI-Observer when examining each
sample separately. The most substantive difference was on Inspiring a Shared Vision.
Using LPI-Observer scores, regression analysis accounted for 55 percent of the
explained variance on effectiveness scores. Enabling accounted for the most significance
(also true for business leaders); Modeling accounting for more variance with academic
leaders than with business leaders. For institutions "undergoing significant change" LPI-
Observer scores accounted for 59 percent of the variance in effectiveness, and for "no
change" institutions R
2
= .53. For both the change and no-change institutions Modeling
and Enabling significantly contributed to predictions of leadership effectiveness.
Institutional ownership (public vs. private) did not affect the leadership practices profiles
of academic leaders (Self or Observers). Neither the mean or rank order of LPI-Self or LPI-
Observer scores for female college presidents (23.4%) were significantly different from their
male counterparts. The effectiveness measure did not vary by respondent gender,
institutional type, or degree of environmental change.
The author discusses the possibility of two meta-practices: Envisioning
(Challenging, Inspiring, and Modeling) and Implementation (Enabling and Encouraging).

Page 2

A university needs a statesperson, not a politician, as its president. That statesperson's role is that of representing the university to the legislature and to the public, and for fundraising from private sources.

The provost serves a far more important role than does the president. Academic affairs should be left to the provost who is the chief academic affairs officer.

Those who believe that a business/industrial model is best for a university, read this:

Date: Aug 8, 2004

The above posting which I did was printed in reverse order. My comments were meant to appear first, and the research abstract was meant to follow. The comments were mine, not those of the researcher whose dissertation was cited

Date: Aug 8, 2004

I'm late to this thread, but no one has mentioned North Carolina:

UNC= Ole Miss
NC State=MSU
UNC-Greensboro=USM

UNC-G is a former women's college and is historically strong in similar areas to USM: education, creative writing, and music. I believe they have nursing, but not medicine or law.

Date: Aug 8, 2004

quote:
Originally posted by: foot soldier
"UNC-G is a former women's college and is historically strong in similar areas to USM: education, creative writing, and music. I believe they have nursing, but not medicine or law. "

foot soldier, I agree with you that UNC-Greensboro would serve as a marvelous model for USM. UNC-G morphed from a woman's college to coeducational status in 1963. Its president at the time was from Millsaps. Just as N.C. State is North Carolina's land-grant counterpart Mississipi State, and Ole Miss is Mississippi aspirational counterpart of Chapel Hill, with the right leadership USM could become Mississippi's counterpart of UNC-G. Even Greensboro and Hattiesburg have many similarities. UNC-G graduates are proud of their degree. UNC-G was their school of choice. UNC-G does did not and does not play second fiddle to Chapel Hill or to any other North Carolina school.They don't play big league football, but what a great academic model for USM - so many similarities. But that's just one poster's opinion. I'd sure like to know what the IHL sees in store for USM.

Date: Aug 9, 2004

quote:
Originally posted by: foot soldier
"I'm late to this thread, but no one has mentioned North Carolina:

UNC= Ole Miss
NC State=MSU
UNC-Greensboro=USM

UNC-G is a former women's college and is historically strong in similar areas to USM: education, creative writing, and music. I believe they have nursing, but not medicine or law.
"

This is an important thread that has raised good questions about USM's mission. Posters have made some insightful comments.

Another NC university that is a sort of analog to USM is East Carolina University. It was founded at about the same time as USM, and, like USM, it was originally designed to train teachers (its old name was East Carolina Teachers College). ECU has had a medical school for about 10 or 15 years.

Like ECU, USM should focus on serving its region--in our case, the Gulf South. All this talk about "world class" is just so much BS directed to a gullible public. There are about 30 world class institutions in the entire country, and maybe five of them are in the southern states.

I thought the committee on the future of USM that was inagurated back when Fleming first came to USM did a good job. It elaborated a vision for USM in line with our location, student body, and resources. Serving the Gulf South region doesn't preclude striving for excellence. It does, however, focus our efforts and gives us an identity that is distinct from our sister institutions to the north.

One other thing. To even utter Ole Miss in the same breath at UNC-Chapel Hill is to engage in sheer delusion. UNC is a top 25 university. Its the fourth best public univerisity behind Berkeley, Michigan, and UVa. Most of its graduate programs are ranked in the top twenty. Some, like public health and sociology, are top five. More importantly, UNC has a reputation for freedom of thought and tolerance that no Mississippi institution can claim.

Date: Aug 9, 2004

UNC 4th best public university!? maybe. there are a lot out there. Wisconsin-Madison isn't bad; Ohio State isn't bad. UT-Austin's no slouch. i'm sure other posters have their favorites.

as to the Fleming administration's vision/mission. a number of us for years fought to develop USM into more than a "sub-regionalized" university. Ole Miss and State don't see themselves as limited to a particular region--the Southeast. When our "a national university for the gulf south" motto came out, a number of us "about died." we felt we had taken USM further than the gulf south (whatever that is) for a number of years, and to suddenly return to a vision 20 years old was very discouraging.

Date: Aug 9, 2004

Seriously, to be "whirled-class", you have to recruit good students from around the country, if not around the world.

The ELI helped to recruit many foreign students, but thanks to dubya's visa policy, those days are slowly disappearing. Also, the ones that ELI recruited were not necessarily world class, but they usually ended up being very attentive students.

I cannot fathom a high school senior, say a national merit scholar, from somewhere other than the southeast realisitically considering USM. For one, the university offers them little (other than presidential scholarships and honors college), and many schools offer a complete free ride. Florida gives a complete free ride on tuition for any national merit scholar to go to any public university in the state. Mississippi is not that progressive (some would say far-sighted).

There was a sax player in the Pride when I was an undergrad that we called "Joe Montana". Why? Because his first name was Joe, and he was from Montana. Having a student from somewhere other than AL/MS/LA/FL was such a novelty.

I still think that USM's niche is to be a niche player. USM should lead in teacher education, and one or two other selected fields. Given the board's knack for establishing "leadership" roles for favored institutions, it will have to be. To this day, it ****es me off how MSU has the "leadership" role over USM in computer science. This, when USM had, in the early 1980s, the largest ugrad CS program in the country.

Once again, USM doesn't have the endowment or the political clout amongst its alumni to be anything more than a niche player.

You want to change this? SFT is inconsequential. Change the makeup of the board.

Date: Aug 9, 2004

miles--agree with most. the computer science program in the early-mid 80's is a different issue. it's accrediting agency said it was too big and don't try to get it accredited. it didn't meet its standards--worked for quantity not quality. Charlie Moorman taught in it--AKL bragged about that--but the accrediting agency was not impressed.

Date: Aug 9, 2004

quote:
Originally posted by: stinky cheese man
"miles--agree with most. the computer science program in the early-mid 80's is a different issue. it's accrediting agency said it was too big and don't try to get it accredited. it didn't meet its standards--worked for quantity not quality. Charlie Moorman taught in it--AKL bragged about that--but the accrediting agency was not impressed."

What did Charlie Moorman teach? Chaucer for CS majors??? Seriously, I didn't know he had a computer background. I did know that he was into ceramics (i.e. pottery), though, in addition to be a top-notch Chaucer scholar.

Date: Aug 9, 2004

in the early '80's he taught an intro to computer science course. don't remember the details much. it was because of a faculty shortage there--computers were beginning to get big then. i am probably mistaken, but the computer science dept. began to brag about having majors about 1000. AKL was very embarrassed when an accrediting agency came in and complained about having people like moorman teaching computer science. their major count declined and they became more respectable.

Date: Aug 9, 2004

quote:
Originally posted by: Miles Long
"Given the board's knack for establishing "leadership" roles for favored institutions, it will have to be. To this day, it ****es me off how MSU has the "leadership" role over USM in computer science."

Miles, I don't think the "leadership" designation (or "flagship" designation as some have called it) ever meant very much. Our deparment had such a designation, but I never saw that much of anything came from it. First, we didn't deserve the title at that time. Second, having that title didn't seem to matter one iota when it came to resource allocation. Third, another doctoral program in our discipline was established at another public university in the state at the time our department held that designation (which resulted in three doctoral programs in our discipline!) And fourth, some of our accreditation site visitors, when they heard the term used in reference to our department, seemed to be nonplused. I once asked a USM administrator what the designation meant, and was told something like this (and I paraphrase): "We don't know what it means, but we want it - whatever it means." My personal position is that which university really has the "leadership" or "flagship" role will be determined by our peers in the discipline at the National level - not by the IHL at the Hinds County level. Similarly, which universities are truly "world class" will be determined by our academic peers nationally - not by some self-professed local statement.

Date: Aug 9, 2004

Howdy.

I had Charlie Moorman for CSS 100. It involved a little bit of BASIC programming on TRaSh-80s, and a survey of the state of the industry. 1982, I believe. About 1 in 3 was a CS major. Great teacher, without a doubt. We had about 45 students in the class.

There was no accreditation board (CSAB) for CS until 1986 or 1987. By that time, the 'boom' had busted, and CS enrollments everywhere shrank.

The biggest problem with USM getting accreditation was not necessarily having Moorman teaching 100, it was a) the lack of PhDs in CS teaching CS classes (many of the faculty had MS as highest degree, and people like Moorman did not have a PhD in the field), and b) the fact that the chair did not have a PhD.

#1, it was my impression that a university had to have the leadership role in order to have a PhD program. At least, that's what the CS faculty told us, and that's why they said USM has no PhD in CS. They do have an end run; you can get a degree in "Scientific Computing". Not quite the same.

In any case, USM needs more political clout via strong, influential alumni. This can, theoretically happen (although in geologic time) as the finance (and influence) center of the state migrates to the coast.

Date: Aug 9, 2004

quote:
Originally posted by: Miles Long
"it was my impression that a university had to have the leadership role in order to have a PhD program. At least, that's what the CS faculty told us, and that's why they said USM has no PhD in CS."

Miles, that was definately not the case in my discipline. Nor do I believe it was the case with other doctoral-granting departments at USM. I can't imagine why you were told that. On the other hand, I can't say that I am surprised. Lots of strange things were happening.