A Brief History of Dr. Saunders' "Lease" of Airplane
N777AQ During a Recession

Dr. Saunders smiles as she announces termination of faculty and staff. (press conference, August 30, 2010)
(August 30, 2010) How Much Does President Saunders’ Plane Really Cost? "At the Faculty Senate Meeting of December 5, 2008, Provost Lyman told the Senators: ”total cost is approximately $200,000 per year.”  Let’s take a look at what the plane really costs based on documents provided by the University in response to an Open Records Act request.  During the first seventeen (17) months the total costs of Dr. Saunders’ airplane was a cash outflow of $591,231.71.  That averages $34,778.34 per month.  $34,778.34 x 12 = $417,340.08
A Brief History of Saunders "lease" of Airplane N777AQ During a Recession "... Dr. Saunders and Dr. Lyman’s representation of “total cost is approximately $200,000 cost per year” is nothing more than the cost of the monthly lease. ($16,482.40 x 12 = $197,140.08) The “approximately $200,000” is disingenuous because Drs. Saunders and Lyman knew or should have known that the lease agreement requires USM to pay all costs associated with the plane.  Furthermore, the costs are even greater because Drs. Saunders and Lyman did not consider or factor in the $907,053.85 balloon payment due on the 60th month of the lease.  If Drs. Saunders and Lyman amortized the balloon payment over the 60 month period, the cost of the lease agreement alone would increase by more than $15,000 per month.  ($907,053.85/60 months = $15,117.56 per month).  However, for purposes of the analysis we will not consider the balloon payment.  The costs of Dr. Saunders’ plane without the $907,053.85 balloon payment are sufficiently egregious to make the point...".

A Brief History of Saunders’ “Lease” of Airplane N777AQ During a Recession When a student asked Dr. Saunders about the use of her airplane, she told the student it was in the air two or three times a week. She advised the student to check his references. We have undertaken to provide the references, not only to the student, but to usmnews.net’s readers. Perhaps Dr. Saunders should undertake to review the University’s records and check her references before chastising a student or claiming that the plane is used “two or three times a week”. However, as demonstrated in earlier reports , Dr. Saunders has shown little interest in facts.
A Brief History of Saunders "Lease" of Airplane N777AQ During a Recession "... Remember, Dr. Lyman “emphasized strongly that the deal [lease of airplane N777AQ] is still in negotiation, and is not complete.” The question, if it was not a done deal, why had Dr. Saunders already spent $3,472 for recurrent training for her pilot, $1,187.25 for a line description “Orlando, FL, an unspecified reimbursement of $18.05, and hangar rental for December - all of which are paid by taxpayers and students.  Again, are President Saunders and Provost Lyman dishonest, incompetent or both?
A Brief History of Saunders "Lease" of Airplane N777AQ During a Recession "... In an equally absurd argument presented to the faculty senators, “President Saunders stressed the extensive amount of travel (over $8 million last year alone) among the faculty, administration and other offices including athletics and development.” Why include this bit of information? Is Saunders proposing her airplane will save the $8 million in travel costs? Of course not. But why make such a statement if it is not meant to divert attention from the facts that should be considered when purchasing N777AQ? Irrelevant information overload serves the purpose of distracting the audience and confusing the relevant issues...". 
A Brief History of Saunders "Lease" of Airplane N777AQ During a Recession "... Dr. Saunders now claims the mission of her plane is to provide improved efficiency for upper administration. The reality is that Saunders could do a lot of work in the back seat of a car while one of her public relations assistants drives her to IHL meetings in Jackson on $50 in gas. Instead, she chooses to fly her airplane at .9 flight hours times $6,187.67 cost per flight hour at a trip cost of $5,568.90.  (This amount does not address the cost of someone driving to the airport, collecting Dr. Saunders, driving her to the meeting, perhaps waiting patiently until the meeting is complete, returning Dr. Saunders to her plane, and driving back to work.) Who in their right mind believes a trip to an IHL meeting near Jackson, MS at $5,568.90 saves Mississippi taxpayers and students money?...". 
A Brief History of Saunders "Lease" of Airplane N777AQ During a Recession "... Now this admission is rich. As discussed in Parts 1-5, the admission that the costs of President Saunders’ plan “might be slightly more expensive (about $800 per hour) than commercial rates” is amusing, if the joke wasn’t on us-taxpayers, students, faculty and staff who are about to lose their jobs.  Try “slightly more expensive” by a factor or more than five times the projected flight hour cost or $5,387.67 ($6,187.67 actual cost per flight hour - $800 Saunders’/Lyman’s budgeted/expected cost per flight hour.). Do you think spendthrift administrators would be more attentive with regard to our money, if they had to pay the difference between their publicly represented estimates and the hidden actual costs? We could consider their estimates as honest, if they paid the difference. Call it a cost of administrative integrity....". 
A Brief History of Saunders "Lease" of Airplane N777AQ During a Recession "... What question is there about the “relationship between the Foundation and E&G monies”? Once the facts are in (See Parts 1-6), the idea of USM’s Foundation paying for President Saunders airplane is absurd.  Again, once the facts are in, and facts Saunders and Lyman were well aware at the time of the December 5, 2008 Faculty Senate meeting, a serious question is, was Saunders and Lyman intentionally misleading everyone by even discussing that the Foundation would pay for the airplane? As of December 5, 2008, who would pay-taxpayers and students-had already been agreed in the terms and conditions of the lease signed by President Saunders in November 2008 - more than a week before “[t]he Provost emphasized strongly that the deal is still in negotiation, and is not complete.”  To date, they persist in this deception..". 
A Brief History of Saunders "Lease" of Airplane N777AQ During a Recession "... “All agreed that the presentation of the data justified this purchase will be important” but time passed and the reality and facts became lost in a fog of the past.  It wasn’t in President Saunders’ or Provost Lyman’s interest to present the data justifying this purchase.  If they had chosen to present the facts about the costs of Dr. Saunders’ airplane, they had the information in their hands and could have “released [it] to the public”. They didn’t, of course, because details and facts showed that the plane was an unnecessary and wasteful extravagance.  In fact, Dr. Saunders no longer claims that her airplane saves any money, has a published schedule, or has replaced Delta or other common carriers.  Instead she tells us that it improves administrators’ efficiency.  And, since some of the other Universities have planes, Dr. Saunders has to have one, too.  Of course, none of these Universities are dealing with budget problems by terminating faculty...". 
A Brief History of Saunders "Lease" of Airplane N777AQ During a Recession "... Does President Saunders mean her budgets about expenditures such as her airplane will be open and honest? That her representations will be transparent so that we won’t need pry the information loose with a Mississippi Open Records request?  And that we will get all of the information with the first request and not have to return a second time, and perhaps a third time for obviously missing documents.  And, oh boy, watch out for administrators who talk about “more flexible models.” That cogent sounding admin-speak typically precedes manipulation of financial information and contributed to bringing you (and hiding from you as long as possible) the financial crises in recent history.