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(August 30, 2010) Aunt Martha’s Extravagance Part 4 – “And I said to myself, this is the business we’ve chosen.” Via a Mississippi Open Records Act request, USMNEWS.net recently obtained a large batch of documents from USM relating to USM president Martha Saunders’ university aircraft. This series, Aunt Martha’s Extravagance, provides analysis of these documents. This installment highlights an early March-09 trip, using the USM plane, to Washington, D.C., made by Saunders, Chad Driskell (Saunders’ executive assistant for external affairs), Cecil Burge (USM vice president for research), Julian Allen (USM associate vice president for research), Richard Hadden (USM director of strategic venture development), and David Davies (honors college dean). As the insert below shows, USM charged itself $4,680 for this jaunt to D.C.

(August 30, 2010) Aunt Martha’s Extravagance Part 5 – ‘Debunking the Deplaning’ Via a Mississippi Open Records Act request, USMNEWS.net recently obtained a large batch of documents from USM relating to USM president Martha Saunders’ university aircraft. This series, Aunt Martha’s Extravagance, provides analysis of these documents. This installment departs from the prior four by examining a heretofore overlooked issue regarding Saunders’ $2 million airplane. How, when Saunders flies to Jackson, Gulfport, Mobile, New Orleans, and other locales that are easily within driving distance of Hattiesburg, does she get from the airport (her ultimate destination) to her ultimate destination (the airport)? Images of stretch limos, like those shown below, come to mind.

(August 25, 2010) Aunt Martha’s Extravagance Part 2 – ‘. . . to have and to hold, from this day forward . . .’ Via a Mississippi Open Records Act request, USMNEWS.net recently obtained a large batch of documents from USM relating to USM president Martha Saunders’ university aircraft. This series, Aunt Martha’s Extravagance, provides analysis of these documents. Some in the USM community know little, if anything, about USM’s lease agreement with the USM Foundation vis-à-vis the airplane. Still many more know little, if anything, about the responsibilities beyond the lease payments faced by USM as a result of Saunders’ decision to take on the aircraft. The insert below presents the details of the former subject.

(August 30, 2010) Aunt Martha’s Extravagance Part 3 – ‘In her plane she’s going to Carolina’ Via a Mississippi Open Records Act request, USMNEWS.net recently obtained a large batch of documents from USM relating to USM president Martha Saunders’ university aircraft. This series, Aunt Martha’s Extravagance, provides analysis of these documents. This installment highlights a 28-Nov-09 trip to Greenville, North Carolina, made by Saunders, her executive assistant Chad Driskell, and Mississippi IHL Board Member and local Hattiesburg doctor Doug Rouse. The “Interdepartmental Invoice” from that junket is inserted below, and it shows that USM charged itself $4,600 for the trio to make this trip.

(September 12, 2010) Aunt Martha’s Extravagance Part 6 – ‘Fly Me Out to the Ball Game’ Via a Mississippi Open Records Act request, USMNEWS.net recently obtained a large batch of documents from USM relating to USM president Martha Saunders’ university aircraft. This series, Aunt Martha’s Extravagance, provides analysis of these documents. This installment examines the 6- and 7-June-09 trip in the USM airplane made by Saunders and her athletics director, Richard Giannini. According to the invoice, which is inserted below, USM charged itself a total of $2,640 for this trip to watch the USM Golden Eagles baseball team compete against Florida in a 2009 NCAA Baseball Super Regional series.