IHL Nov. 2006 meeting highlights

http://www.ihl.state.ms.us/ADMIN/downloads/BdNov06.pdf

Mr. Aubrey B. Patterson was absent. (p. 1)

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1. System Administration - Approved the requests to confer the following degrees in December,
2006.

[summary]

DSU 419
JSU 193
MSU 1179
MUW 79
UM 694
UMMC 11
USM 1171  (pp. 2-6)

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A motion was made by Ms. Whitten, seconded by Dr. Davidson, to approve agenda item
#1j below.  After discussion, Mr. Owens requested that item #1j be pulled from the agenda.

j. USM - Establish the Bachelor of Science in Business Administration in Pharmaceutical Sales
degree program (CIP 52.1499) within the Department of Management and Marketing in the
College of Business.  (THIS ITEM WAS PULLED FROM THE AGENDA.)  (p. 8)

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12. USM – Approved the Construction Documents and authorized advertising for the receipt of bids for GS
114-009, Campus Building Repairs, Gulf Park Campus, and request approval by the Bureau of
Building.  The project budget of $1,400,000 is available from SB 3315, Laws of 2000, and SB 3197,
Laws of 2002.

13. USM – Approved the Construction Documents, and authorized advertising for the receipt of bids for
IHL 208-258, Utility Relocation – Stadium Expansion. (Permission for construction of the stadium
expansion will be requested at a later date).  Funds are available from university sources in the amount
of $980,000.  (p. 11)

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28. USM – Approved the purchase of property at 303, 305, 307, 309, 311 and 313 North 37th Avenue in
Hattiesburg, MS.  The apartments on the property will eventually be demolished to allow for university
expansion in the future.  The purchase price of $1,205,000 is the average of two appraisals.  A Phase
I Environmental Assessment has been obtained.  University funds will be used for the purchase.

29. USM - Approved the request to enter into a commercial lease agreement with the Hattiesburg Historic
Downtown Association for the use of the Historic Hattiesburg High School Building located at 846
Main Street in Hattiesburg, MS.  The university intends to use the space for its Department of Art and
Design and for its museum.  The lease is for twenty years with payments to begin upon January 1, 2009.
Annual payments are $250,000 for the first ten years and zero ($0) for the next ten years.  The university
shall be responsible for all utilities and maintenance.  The agreement has been reviewed and approved
by the Attorney General’s Office.  (p. 13)

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3. MSU - Proposed operational agreement with The Bulldog Foundation, Inc., a Mississippi non-profit
corporation, recognized as tax exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.  The
agreement, which has been reviewed and approved by the Attorney General’s Office, is included in the
bound November 15, 2006 Board Working File.  (THIS ITEM WAS PULLED FROM THE
AGENDA.)  (p. 14)

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Payment of legal fees for professional services rendered by Adams & Reese (Statement dated
9/11/06) from the funds of The University of Southern Mississippi.  (This statement represents
services and expenses in connection with the Servedio case.)
TOTAL DUE...................................................... $2,695.25  (p. 15)

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System Administration - Approved the request to renumber and amend Board Policy 901.0706
Disaster Preparedness Plan to 711.08 Incident Preparedness Plan, as follows:

901.0706 711.08 [strike]DISASTER [replace with] INCIDENT PREPAREDNESS PLAN (p. 17)

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COMMISSIONER’S REPORT

1. I have a couple of articles here for those of you who might need them.  They are both about BlackBerry
addiction....

6. Many of you will travel to the Gulf Coast tomorrow for a tour of the portions of The University of
Southern Mississippi that were affected by Katrina.  We encourage any interested Media to attend.  The
tour is being coordinated by Mr. Robert Bass, IHL Project Director— Gulf Coast operations, and the
university administration.
7. Some classes will resume at Gulf Park in January, mostly evening classes.  The enrollment figures for
the Fall came in this morning.  After all of the disruption, Southern Miss is only down by 253 students.
Congratulations again for this amazing recovery.
8. We had a group the other day visiting the Biloxi Sun Herald for an editorial board meeting.  Several
trustees made that trip.
9. We continue to look at property on the coast for an additional campus for Southern Miss.  The process
is going nicely.  There are several options that the informal Real Estate and Facilities sub-committee
is considering.  I believe that they will bring a proposal to the Board soon.
10. The searches for President at Alcorn State University and Southern Miss are progressing well. Yesterday
Trustee Robinson, your search consultant Dr. Jan Greenwood and I met with the newly-formed Southern
Miss Search Advisory Committee to review your expectations.  I have asked Ms. Robinson to bring you
up-to-date on the progress.  

The committee has been extremely busy in South Mississippi and meeting with civic groups.  At each
meeting, we have explained the transparent search process.  Yesterday we had a meeting with the search
advisory committee.  Dr. Peter Faust is going to chair the committee which consists of about 25
community and campus leaders.  Last week on November 9th, we had listening sessions on campus.
Various groups expressed their expectations for the new president.  From these sessions, a profile and
job description will be developed to be used by Dr. Greenwood for advertising and recruiting.  We have
had editorial meetings with the Biloxi Sun Herald and the Hattiesburg American.  I would like to thank
the search committee which is Mr. Ed Blakeslee, Ms. Virginia Shanteau Newton, Mr. Bob Owens and
Mr. Scott Ross.  I also want to thank Mr. Roy Estess who joined us on the listening meetings.  In
addition, I would like to thank Ms. Annie Mitchell, IHL Director of Media Relations, Communications
and Marketing, and Mr. Henry Anderson, IHL Website Administrator, both of whom have worked very
hard on the search website.  Dr. Greenwood calls the website “a state-of-the-art, nationally recognized
website.”

As most of you know, the Southern Miss Alumni Association, the athletic foundation, the Student
Government Association and the Faculty Senate have fully endorsed the search process.  There is
unanimous support across the board.

We traveled to Alcorn on October 6th to meet with the different constituency groups to discuss the
qualities of the next university president.  We were impressed by some of the students who talked to us
about how they ended up attending Alcorn.  We received a lot of feedback.  We felt that the different
groups  understood and were supportive of the search process.  The next step is to designate th people
who will serve on the advisory committee. ...

12. This is the second year for the “Best Practices” competition.  The institutions compete in four different
categories:  1) Academics; 2) Finance, Business or Administration; 3) Student Services and 4)
Technology.  We asked our institutions to submit their very best practices in those categories.  The
submissions are judged by peer groups.  We share the best practices with you and the other institutions
so they can see what best practices are out there.  Then we check back with the institutions to see if they
were able to use any of these practices.  First-place winners in each category receive $10,000 and
second-place winners receive $5,000.  The awards are paid from your incentive pool.

I am going to announce the winners of the 2006 Best Practices Program and then each Institutional
Executive Officer will introduce the people responsible so that you will know who they are.

a. In the category of Academics, first place goes to the University of Southern Mississippi for
“Finding a Voice:  Improving Written and Oral Competencies.”  As the result of assessment
findings, a leadership team worked with faculty in the English and Speech Communication
Departments to design two intervention programs.  First, the university designed a ten-week
faculty development seminar series to assist faculty with integrating speaking and writing
components into their courses and with developing assessment techniques to measure oral and
written competencies.  Second, the university has developed a coordinated Writing Complex and
Speaking Center to assist students with writing assignments and oral communication projects.

Dr. Shelby Thames, President of The University of Southern Mississippi, recognized Dr. Joan
Exline, Assistant to the President, as the principal on this project.  He then introduced Dr. Jay
Grimes, Provost, who assisted with the project.

b. Southern Miss also takes second place in the category of academics for their “Community
College Partnerships.”  To encourage more students to transfer from the community college
to the university, Southern Miss is attempting to create a seamless transition between the
community colleges and the university.   The university began by establishing a new doctoral-
level position to addresses problems, concerns or questions related to transfer students and
academic programming, and to communicate with community college faculty and
administrators.  An ombudsman program was established on the campuses of two community
colleges to provide advice about the transfer process to students who are nearing completion of
their associate’s degree.  Southern Miss also provides onsite registration at interested community
colleges, and has recently developed and piloted a system to electronically transfer student
transcripts.  The university continues to care about students after the transfer takes place by
offering programs like the First Year Experience and by providing a designated point person,
the Manager of Transition Programs, to engage them and support their adjustment to university
life.

Dr. Thames again recognized Dr. Exline and Dr. Grimes for their work.  Dr. Joe Paul, Vice
President for Student Affairs, was also involved but was unable to attend....

c. In the category of Finance, Business, or Administration, the University of Southern
Mississippi again takes first place for “Relocation, Recovery and Rebirth:  Successfully
Moving a University Campus.”  After Hurricane Katrina hit the Mississippi Gulf Coast on
August 29, 2005, just two days after fall classes began at the University of Southern Mississippi
- Gulf Park Campus, a Management Team immediately began working to get the campus up and
running.  A vacated hospital facility and some additional modular units were quickly
transformed into classrooms and faculty offices.  Enough furniture and equipment was salvaged
by the Physical Plant to furnish the makeshift classrooms and offices.  Ultimately, the original
300,000 square foot campus was compressed into a space of 50,000 square feet.  The fall
semester academic schedule was completely redesigned, and the original 18-week schedule was
converted into the traditional summer 10-week schedule with fewer, longer class meetings.  To
overcome the scheduling problems posed by limited space, classes were scheduled at all times
of the day and on Saturdays.  During September 2005, students were contacted and three
advisement and registration sessions were handled.  In the end, despite destruction of the original
campus and 1/3 of the homes of faculty and staff, wise planning, teamwork, and effort enabled
the university to resume classes in just six weeks and retain 78% of the original fall classes and
65% of fall enrollment.

Dr. Thames announced that he was unable to bring his team because it would have involved the
entire faculty and staff and part of the student body from Southern Miss and the Gulf Coast.  He
then expressed his appreciation for their hard work....

13. We have had a problem with bats in the tower building.  They left and now they are back.  We are not
sure why they returned.   (pp. 19-24)

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1. Ms. Robinson recognized Mr. Gene Gouaux, President of the Student Government Association at The
University of Southern Mississippi.  Dr. Meredith recognized Mr. J.R. Love, Student Body President
at Mississippi State University and President of the Student Body President’s Council of Mississippi. (p. 25)

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EXECUTIVE SESSION

On motion by Dr. Magee, with Mr. Colbert, Mr. Patterson and Ms. Robinson absent and not voting, the Board
voted to close the meeting to determine whether or not it should declare an Executive Session.  On motion by
Ms. Whitten, seconded by Mr. Blakeslee, with Mr. Colbert, Mr. Patterson and Ms. Robinson absent and not
voting, the Board voted to go into Executive Session for the reasons later reported by the President in Open
Session and stated in these minutes, as follows:

Discussion of a litigation matter at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.
Discussion of a potential land transaction at The University of Southern Mississippi.
Discussion of personnel matters as follows: 1 at ASU, 1 at JSU, 2 at MSU, 1 at MUW, 1 at USM and
2 at the Board Office.

During Executive Session, the following matters were discussed and/or voted upon:

On motion by Mr. Owens, seconded by Mr. Ross, with Mr. Colbert, Mr. Patterson and Ms. Robinson
absent and not voting, the Board approved the settlement of the Mississippi Workers’ Compensation
Commission claim styled as Alfred Grady Martin v UMMC.

On motion by Mr. Ross, seconded by Mr. Estess, with Mr. Colbert, Mr. Patterson and Ms. Robinson
absent and not voting and Ms. Whitten abstaining, the Board approved the employment of Ms. Lydia
Quarles at the John C. Stennis Institute of Government at MSU for $75,000 per year.  Ms. Quarles will
be the senior research associate and state and local government legal and administrative specialist.

The Board discussed the potential land transaction at The University of Southern Mississippi.  No action
was taken.

The Board discussed personnel matters as follows: 1 at ASU, 1 at JSU, 1 at MSU, 1 at MUW, 1 at USM
and 2 at the Board Office.  No action was taken. (pp. 25-26)

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