If USM were truly a business, these fools would have been handed their a** long ago.  We are bleeding all our reputational capital, which determines our market value in the educational world.  It hurts most the students of this institution who have graduated or will graduate.  Their stock has dropped.  Basically all that we are doing is selling off all our parts.  There goes English.  Music has been auctioned off.  Half of business is gone to greener pastures.  We are merging with mediocrity. 

As Kid Rock says, "I feel like Jackson, Mississippi"    

Sometime in the past two years the Chronicle has run long pieces where schools all over the country report data. USM is never listed. It is as if it doesn't exist. (All the other state schools in Mississippi appeared, I believe.) We're too world-class to respond, huh? Harvard and Princeton respond. Ole Miss responds.

Idots in the dome.

Ms. Mader is living proof that USM students enter the business world unprepared for their jobs.
Does she realize how incompetent she, and hence the university, sounds when "we didn't see it in the mail." Does she understand she's teaching future USM graduates they should shrug personal responsiblity when things get tight?
I may have made a mistake coming to USM as a freshman. I thought the school teemed with academics, a focus on students and a faculty that just wouldn't quit. Now the Aubrey K. Building teems with incompetence and good-ole boy back slapping.
What a shame.
Since graduating from USM I've gotten nothing from the Alumni ASSociation showing the university cares that I even exist. Now, Mader can't acknowledge the obvious and move on to try to affect change.
Certainly, I will choose to donate funds to Mississippi State University when I receive my masters degree, rather than a backwards school in Hattiesburg that can't see that the sky is falling.
I wonder if the College Board even notices, sipping cold drinks in Alabama.

quote:

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Originally posted by: starkville eagle
Since graduating from USM I've gotten nothing from the Alumni ASSociation showing the university cares that I even exist

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Having not heard from USM, A member of my family who graduated from USM a few years ago contacted the Alumni Office to make sure that office had the former student's correct mailing address. The Alumni Office said they would put the former student on their mailing list when they received membership dues. Most colleges and universities send information to their former students soliciting contributions even if the former student is not an Alumni Association member. No comment. No wonder. No quarter. Not even a single dime.

quote:

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Originally posted by: LVN
"The alumni association of a school from which I did not even graduate sent me materials for at least twenty years. They could get stuff to me when no other mail reached me. It was incredible. "

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What a coincidence, LVN. The USM graduate I was talking about attended another university for only two quarters before transferring to USM. Although the student receives no information or solicitations from USM, the school which was attended for only two quarters still sends information in the way of newsletters as well as solicitations for contributions.

I am probably comparing apples and doughnuts here, but I, too, have been impressed with the perseverance of one of my maters.  I dropped out of the alumni association years ago. They continued to send solicitation material for about three of four years, but finally stopped.  However, I still receive an annual magazine similar to the USM Alumni News, even though I am no longer a member. There is always a drop out card for me to re-up, should I be so inclined, but never a hard sell.  Nor have they lost my address. (Incidentally, this particular school was also included in National, tier four on the recent rankings.) The school, not the alumni association, also sends periodic requests for my assistance with student recruitment and graduate job placement.

By distinction, the school where I earned my terminal degree has an active campaign to locate and involve "lost" alumnae and alumni.  The send out semi-annual news about the school, faculty, grads, etc., by hard copy and e-mail.  They almost always include a list of folks for whom they are seeking up-to-date information. (This school is a much smaller, regional institution.)

Of course, neither of those schools are getting their mail returned with notations to the effect that former members will join again after an administrative change. (This from a school that is a national tier four institution and proud to be a Carnagie I Research Extensive . . .)

 

quote:

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Originally posted by: Robert Campbell
"The debacle at USM may be a consequence of Shelby Thames' decsion to gut the Institutional Research office."

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Credit where credit's due: Horace Fleming started the "gut institutional research" cycle. Thames' unique contribution was to put someone in as director who didn't have any idea what she was doing. This is, of course, the Thames' placement philosophy...

quote:

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Originally posted by: Invictus
" Credit where credit's due: Horace Fleming started the "gut institutional research" cycle. Thames' unique contribution was to put someone in as director who didn't have any idea what she was doing. This is, of course, the Thames' placement philosophy..."

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My unit received the survey section relevant to us, and when I asked how to proceed, I was told to send it over to IR and that SS was handling this task. As I recall, this was around the time when a lot of stuff hit the fan (remember the enrollment fiasco?). When we (faculty and administrators) are focused on putting out one fire or another day after day, the mundane tasks required to run a university "efficiently" just never get done. I doesn't make a difference if you are corporate, a non-profit, a religious entity, or an educational institution. Without some stability and a sense of pupose, an organization will drop the ball on tasks necessary for it to flourish.  

quote:

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Originally posted by: Invictus
" Credit where credit's due: Horace Fleming started the "gut institutional research" cycle. Thames' unique contribution was to put someone in as director who didn't have any idea what she was doing. This is, of course, the Thames' placement philosophy..."

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Invictus,

Can you elaborate concerning Fleming's "contribution"?

And who did Thames put in as director?  Is there any connection with another poster's reference to SS (who I assume is the person who took the fall for the padded enrollment numbers)?

Robert Campbell

robert--what did you find about where the USNWR graduate surveys were sent at clemson?  i saw that Ole Miss didn't respond to the education graduate program survey.

if you look at the fine details in the USNWR survey methodology, a significant number (40%+)  of programs didn't respond or didn't file complete data.

There was an interesting article in Psychological Science last year. It seems to have strong practical application to cases in the dome and ihl.

 

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Why people fail to recognize their own incompetence. Dunning, David; Johnson, Kerri; Ehrlinger, Joyce; Current Directions in Psychological Science, Vol 12(3), Jun 2003. pp. 83-87. [Peer Reviewed Journal] Abstract: Successful negotiation of everyday life would seem to require people to possess insight about deficiencies in their intellectual and social skills. However, people tend to be blissfully unaware of their incompetence. This lack of awareness arises because poor performers are doubly cursed: Their lack of skill deprives them not only of the ability to produce correct responses, but also of the expertise necessary to surmise that they are not producing them. People base their perceptions of performance, in part, on their preconceived notions about their skills. Because these notions often do not correlate with objective performance, they can lead people to make judgments about their performance that have little to do with actual accomplishment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2003 APA, all rights reserved)

i inquired here and the graduate ones are sent to the graduate programs.  they then get whatever information they need from IR.  some of the survey has to be completed by the relevant dean.  don't know who's responsible for returning it.  as the fine print by USNWR indicates the response rate is not real hot.  either non-returned surveys on incomplete data.

scm,

Some institutions don't want to answer all of the questions on the USNWR forms, for fear that their answers would make the institution look bad.

I think USNWR's assessment procedure could be improved on (for instance, they do not ask how much is spent on administration, probably because no university bothers to track that in the first place).  But they have learned over time what not to put their trust in.  That's why raw student to faculty ratios (which every institution shamelessly pads) no long carry much weight.  A couple of years ago, which is the last time I read a USNWR ranking book carefully, student to faculty ratio contributed just 5% to the overall score.

Robert Campbell