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Post Info TOPIC: What's wrong with this picture
Lily


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What's wrong with this picture
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I was looking at the Admissions information on the USM site. This information is posted. There is so much wrong here I don't know where to begin.

*********************************************
(from the USM web site)

Worth Thinking About

Extensive scientific research opportunities, excellent pre-professional studies, a distinctive fine arts program, outstanding teacher preparation, a solid liberal arts foundation - Southern Miss has attained distinction in all of these areas and more.

Just think about the choices - 94 bachelor's degree programs and 92 graduate programs. Imagine the possibilities that diversity makes available to you. And think about the fact that, no matter what your major is, you'll never feel isolated or insulated. Southern Miss values being an integrated community of scholarship and ideas.

Think about the fact that our faculty is made up of distinguished leaders in their fields who are dedicated to being educators. They give more to the open-door policy than lip service; they make it a real commitment. It's all part of the university's resolution to maintaining a student-centered campus.

* Our polymer science program was ranked among the top programs in the country.
* Our psychology program is one of the few worldwide accredited in clinical, school, and counseling psychology.
* According to the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communications, the School of Communications is ranked among the top 10 programs in the nation.
* Our special education program is one of the largest in the United States.
* Along with Harvard, Stanford, Arizona, and Colgate universities, we are a charter member of the Calculus Consortium.
* Our Medical Technology Department is the largest in the state and in 1998 ranked in the top 10 nationally in terms of pass rates of the national certification exam.
* The College of The Arts was one of only 20 programs in the nation to hold accreditation in four areas of art, dance, theatre, and music.
* Southern Miss has been ranked among the top doctoral institutions nationally in the international studies program.
* The Chemical and Engineering News ranked Southern Miss chemical sciences programs among the top 50 in the nation.
* Our Center for Marine Sciences offers students opportunities in marine-related sciences that are unparalleled in the Gulf Coast region.
* The university's Center for Writers has received national recognition for fiction and poetry.



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LVN


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* The College of The Arts was one of only 20 programs in the nation to hold accreditation in four areas of art, dance, theatre, and music.

This speaks for itself.

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oldtimer


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(from the USM web site)

* Our Center for Marine Sciences offers students opportunities in marine-related sciences that are unparalleled in the Gulf Coast region.

This would certainly be news to the University of Texas at Austin, Texas A&M University, Louisiana State University, Florida State University, and the University of South Florida. Not to denigrate the efforts of the Marine Science faculty, but that program has recruiting problems due to its Stennis Space Center location being completely away from the "main campus," so students face challenges in finding housing, and the program completely lacks all the "campus amenities" of traditional oceanography programs (like those previously listed).

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donedoneit


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LVN wrote:

* The College of The Arts was one of only 20 programs in the nation to hold accreditation in four areas of art, dance, theatre, and music.

This speaks for itself.

Why would they be foolish enough to tout this? If they are suggesting that it was so spectacular back then, why this heck did they reorganize it into oblivion?

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Just Coasting


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The sad part is there actually is no "Center of Marine Sciences"--there is a Department of Marine Sciences at SSC and a Department of Coastal Sciences at GCRL. The "Center" was eliminated with the creation of the "Institute of Marine Sciences" in 1995 (which evolved into the "College of Marine Sciences" which was disolved by S. Thames).

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Lily


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So, in all, how many things on this list don't exist any more, or have been severely hampered (like the psychology dept) by the Thames admin??

Remember this list is still on the USM site.

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Curmudgeon


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Is psychology accreditation available worldwide, or is that a bit of a reach?

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Chez de Guerre


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Curmudgeon wrote:

Is psychology accreditation available worldwide, or is that a bit of a reach?


Cher ami,

One wishes only the admiration most magnifique for our friends in psychologie

One is, however, most astonished at the omission of a publication tres important which although not directly connected to the university, is in the city of the university and I myself am a frequent contributor and thus lend my own "world-class" aura as I so often visit the lovely campus. That, naturellment, is The Journal of the American Attack Poodle, which has been mentioned many times on these pages. One strives always to contribute to the academic atmosphere however possible. Dervish has even a petite gold and black sweater to wear on the days inclement, and has a so small pendant of the Golden Eagle upon his collar. (His daily collar, not the spiked one.)

This is so surely an oversight. As no doubt corrections are hastily being made to the web page, this can also be corrected.

Alas, alas -- one does weep for the College of the Arts.

bonne nuit

Monique de Guerre

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asdf


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Curmudgeon wrote:

Is psychology accreditation available worldwide, or is that a bit of a reach?
US and Canada...so in the same sense as the World Series or being the world champion after the Super Bowl.

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Godless Liberal


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asdf wrote:


Curmudgeon wrote:


Is psychology accreditation available worldwide, or is that a bit of a reach?


US and Canada...so in the same sense as the World Series or being the world champion after the Super Bowl.

Another mangled "bragging right" by some staffer assigned a thankless job. The supposed point is that USM is one of the few institutions to have accredited school, clinical, and counseling programs housed in a single psychology department. Many institutions have all three, but they are dispersed in different colleges or departments. How did this come about at USM? Someone way back in the Lucas administration had the not so bright idea that it would be a good thing to merge the psychology department and counseling department into an omnibus psychology department. This caused a decade of discord and, in my opinion, hindered the development of psychology at USM and irrevocably damaged the discipline of counseling here. We have several counseling degrees at USM not in psychology (I am not referring to counseling psychology) that are a shadow of what they could be. In addition, the Lucas merger had the unforseen consequence of now limiting options with respect to shifting components of the psychology department (most notably clinical and experimental and perhaps school) to a college that has a mission more in line with these disciplines than our College of Education (Joe Olmi can fill you in why this might be so for school). In addition, it is a challenge to do three accredited programs well with a Thames-shrunk faculty (in addition to our Experimental Ph.D. and master's in counseling psychology and large undergraduate major). So is having three accredited doc programs a bragging right? Sounds good for the masses, but not really.

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Interested onlooker


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" The College of The Arts was one of only 20 programs in the nation to hold accreditation in four areas of art, dance, theatre, and music."

Though only one of the reorganization's bizarre regroupings, this one would be easy for the new administration to fix. And since excellence in the arts was so much part of USM's identity, it would be worth at least examining the re-establishment of the college.


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Interested onlooker


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On second thought, that sort of re-reorganization should be the last thing on our minds right now.

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Rod Sterling


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* Our special education program is one of the largest in the United States.



I've been told that the enrollment in special education is dwindling; daddy's little girl has minimized its importance.

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Lily


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Maybe Daddy's little girl will find out a lot more about diminished importance before long.

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Curmudgeon


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Interested onlooker wrote:

" The College of The Arts was one of only 20 programs in the nation to hold accreditation in four areas of art, dance, theatre, and music."

Though only one of the reorganization's bizarre regroupings, this one would be easy for the new administration to fix. And since excellence in the arts was so much part of USM's identity, it would be worth at least examining the re-establishment of the college.



Why would the admissions office brag about a college that no longer exists? If it was so good (it was), why was it scrapped? Guess who scrapped it.

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Obviousman


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It is interesting to consider the tense used in each of the highlights.


"The College of Arts was...", "Our pyschology department is..." and "Our polymer science program was ranked among the top programs in the country".


Does this in a way similar to the College of Arts, implicitly acknowledge the demise of the polymer science program? I have heard it is bad over there, this must have spilled over into their rankings.


 


OM



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asdf


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Obviousman wrote:
Does this in a way similar to the College of Arts, implicitly acknowledge the demise of the polymer science program? I have heard it is bad over there, this must have spilled over into their rankings.
The C&EN ranking was based only on funding received by chem, biochem, and polymer in 2003. USM was 49th.
http://www.usm.edu/pr/releases/nov05/chemicalrd.htm

To my knowledge, the quality of the polymer program has not been ranked by anyone of note since the mid/late 90's.

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Obviousman


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Obviously the touting of program being in the top 50 without qualifying that it was based on research dollars and without reference to pork inflated dollars reflects the moral standing of our leadership. Looking at the rest of the story, Southern Miss ranks 175 in Federal R&D dollars, far behind Ole Miss(127th) and State (85th), though it did barely edge out JSU (192nd)(http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/profiles/data/ess_ranking.cfm)


With such juvenile leadership at Southern Miss and the falsehoods in their press releases, I find myself wanting to scream "Liar, liar, pants on fire"...


OM



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