budgetcrisis

(August 18, 2009) "... It is time for some straight talk, starting with the realization that organizations that can't or won't adapt will fail. This recession has caused many of the nation's largest retailers, banks, airlines, manufacturers, and brokerage houses to do so. Millions of Americans have lost jobs and homes. Why would we think colleges, and those employed by them, would be exempt from the same fate? The market sorts itself out at times like these. Industries realign...". A Straight-Talk Survival Guide for Colleges, by Peter A. Facione, Chronicle of Higher Education

(August 20, 2009) Ironic Cruelty: A Guest Editorial by Victoria Tyler "If the harms of the past weren't so significant it would almost be humorous to read what the CoB's economists are now saying - that they are victims of cruelty - in response to the Southern Miss administration's decision to save $1 million in taxpayer funds by cutting economics at the institution...".

(August 21, 2009) Klinedinst vs. von Herrmann: How the Elimination of ECO is Affecting Relationships at USM "The big news around USM may be the recent drop from Tier III to Tier IV status (as per U.S. News & World Report's America's Best Colleges 2010), but the battle brewing between economics professor Mark Klinedinst (pictured below) and CoAL dean Denise von Herrmann did not escape most readers of the 20-Aug-09 issue of The Student Printz...".

(August 21, 2009) Fewer Programs = Better Programs by Duane Cobb "If someone told me that USM sold the CoB's 9 economists (the current ones) for $1 million per year into perpetuity, I would have told him or her that I thought that the buyer got played...".

(August 24, 2009) ECO Faculty to Appeal, Students to Protest "According to The Hattiesburg American's Ed Kemp, in his 23-Aug-09 article entitled 'Students against faculty cuts,' USM students have delivered a petition to USM president Martha Saunders asking that she delay the termination of the CoB's 9 tenured/tenure-track faculty...".

(August 23, 2009) Dakhlia Joins The Chorus: Cob Eco Faculty Speak To The Hattiesburg American About Plight "The CoB's economics faculty have officially gotten The Hattiesburg American in on the action over USM's decision to eliminate the economics majors and its 9 tenured/tenure-track faculty. In his 23-Aug-09 article entitled "USM professors upset by cuts proposal," THA higher education reporter Ed Kemp spoke to a number of USM officials about the proposed cuts, including several CoB economists...".

(August 19, 2009) TELL US ABOUT IT A Look at Sami Dakhlia's Journal Publication Record "The quality, or lack thereof, of CoB associate professor of economics Sami Dakhlia's journal publication record has been the subject of much debate over at Economics Job Market Rumors in recent days...".

(August 24, 2009) Answering the Call: How The Four Struggling Cob Units Responded To Nail's Charge "When CoB dean Lance Nail assumed the reins of USM's b-school on 1-July-08, he identified four problem units with respect to majors/enrollments - economics, fashion merchandising, management information systems and tourism management...".

(August 24, 2009) # ECO Majors > # ECO Protestors "According to a 24-Aug-09 report filed by The Hattiesburg American, only 9 USM students showed up at the Aubrey K. Lucas Administration Building on 24-Aug-09 in order to protest the USM administration's recent decision to eliminate the CoB's economics programs and terminate its 9 tenured/tenure-track faculty...".

(August 25, 2009) Ifs and Buts, Candy and Nuts "Former CBA dean, and current CoB economics professor, William Gunther told The Student Printz's Meryl Dakin that 'the economics department [at USM] could only be considered as overstaffed if the number of majors was the only factor considered.'..."

(August 25, 2009) "Anonymous" Describes Why ECO is Doomed: Ominous News from USM Forum-Message Board "A recent posting to the USM Forum -- Message Board relayed some ominous news to the CoB's 9 tenured/tenure-track faculty who were slated by USM administrators for elimination in early Aug-09...".

(August 27, 2009) ECO Will be “Rescued” "The oral appeals are over, and now the USM administration has until 1-Sept-09, a handful of days from now, to decide whether to stick with their original decision to cut the CoB’s economics majors and its 9 tenured/tenure-track faculty or phone in a pardon...".

(August 18, 2009) CoB Economists Now Threatening to Leave at Year's End "If a recent anonymous post to Economics Job Market Rumors by a CoB economist is accurate, then the CoB economists' response to being terminated by year's end is to state that they aren't returning to USM after this year...".

(August 28, 2009) THE LATEST NEWS ON THE USM BUDGET CUT OF 2009-10 "Lyman Gives Up the Goods -- USM provost Robert Lyman was once again interviewed by The Hattiesburg American's higher education reporter Ed Kemp about the $8 million Aug-09 budget cut at the institution...".

(August 31, 2009) Fruit from the Grapevine "As talk continues to swirl around the campus at Southern Miss, more and more of the focus is on the more clearly emerging triad of President Martha Saunders, Provost Bob Lyman, and Dean Denise von Herrmann (College of Arts and Letters [CoAL])...".

(September 1, 2009) Unanswered Questions "Take a look at today’s Hattiesburg American: USM Terminates 3 Professors. The report leaves some open questions...".

(August 29, 2009) Be sure to read "Questions Linger on USM Plane", by Ed Kemp. Lingering questions still remain, including why President Saunders now hides information about the flights of her plane, ID number N777AQ.

(August 26, 2009) You Can't Handle the Truth "N777AQ may be familiar. If not, it should be. It is a tail number used for identifying and tracking airplanes. This particular number is the found on President Saunders’ plane...".

(September 2, 2009) ECO Plan Calls for Sacrifice of Five Faculty According to higher education reporter Ed Kemp’s 1-Sept-09 article in The Hattiesburg American entitled "USM terminates 3 professors," the CoB’s senior economists proposed a plan to the USM administration...".

(September 2, 2009) USM President Throws Down Gauntlet on CoB "ECOers Reeling from the sting of being told that their academic programs are being cut and that the 9 tenured/tenure-track ECO faculty will be eliminated after 2009-10, the CoB's economists have been "takin' it to the streets" as it were, and telling every media outlet who would listen that the ECOers are being targeted as part of a subterfuge on the part of the USM administration...".

(September 2, 2009) News Flash "Today’s Hattiesburg American reported 'Miss. tax collections 2% short.' Of special interest to higher education is Governor Barbour’s comment that signals future education budget cuts: '… education could be among the first state services to lose money if cuts are needed…' since '…community colleges and universities received record funding this year, while many other state programs already are receiving significantly less money than they did two years ago.'"

(September 2, 2009) Now is the Time for Martyrdom? "Whether or not the ECO group’s plan to save the four untenured professors will work, and that is by sacrificing the tenured professors through retirement, remains to be seen. One thing is certain - if former CoB associate dean and economics professor Farhang Niroomand were still around and on the block, he never would have gone for it...".

(September 2, 2009) ECO Strikes Deal with USM "The topsy-turvy world that is USM these days just got a little weirder. According to Meryl Dakin's 2-Sept-09 report for The Student Printz, USM has accepted the CoB economists' proposal, wherein the 5 mostly senior professors - George Carter, Trellis Green, William Gunther, Mark Klinedinst, and Edward Nissan - will retire at the end of this year (2009-10) so that the economics department at USM will survive.

(September 3, 2009) Dr. Dakhlia and "the Facts": How the Move of ECO to CoAL Continues to Cause Friction "Judging by the online responses being left to Meryl Dakin’s 2-Sept-09 story for The Student Printz entitled “Economics department dodges cut,” the reception of the ECOers over in the CoAL will likely be somewhat icy, even though the merger is scheduled for balmy 1-July-10..."

(September 3, 2009) Dr. Saunders, open the financial records. Let your faculty help. President Saunders presented her views about the University budget crisis before a highly select audience that was unlikely to ask difficult or unpleasant questions. However, IF President Saunders, is serious when she says, "[w]e are still looking for additional efficiencies and are in the discussion stage for most of the recommended changes... We are open to alternate solutions. Final decisions will be made on the basis of reasoned arguments, not public relations tactics.", once again, in the interests of transparency and shared governance we call on her to open USM Financial records in detail, including those of the USM Foundation so that we can make a meaningful contribution "on the basis of reasoned arguments." See open letter, August 31, 2009)

(September 3, 2009) According to the Clarion Ledger, "Gov. Haley Barbour today ordered 171.9 million worth of cuts to the state budget that will fall mostly on education programs...".

(September 4, 2009) Is Saunders Losing Control? More on the Financial Crisis at USM "The recent revelation that the USM administration has accepted the CoB economists' plan to have its five mostly senior professors retire so that the remaining four can be saved (and moved into the CoAL) has many USMNEWS.net readers questioning 'what’s going on over there?' at USM…".

(September 4, 2009) 5 to 25: How Everything that Can Be Good at a University is Bad at Southern Miss "The 3-Sept-09 USMNEWS.net report entitled Is Saunders Losing Control? highlighted the simple fact that USM’s external funding has fallen off by 10.8% since current USM president Martha Saunders took the institutional reins in mid 2007.

(September 8, 2009) Economists Release Appeal Presentation: More on the USM Budget Crisis of 2008-2010 "The CoB’s economists released last week details of the oral appeal that they made to USM president Martha Saunders and Saunders’ executive cabinet...".

(September 10, 2009) On Borrowed Chatter "In case you hadn’t noticed already, USMNEWS.net’s GH Chatter series has been on overdrive lately, all in an effort to stay on top of the stories circulating about the CoB’s economists...".

(September 11, 2009) How Good are the CoB Economists? A Look Back Across the Recession and Financial Crisis for Answers By now USMNEWS.net readers are well aware that USM notified its constituencies back in August-2009 that the institution was seriously considering eliminating all of its b-school economics majors and the 9 tenured/tenure-track faculty who accompany and service them.

(September 28, 2009) USM to Cut more than $4.9 Million during Fall 2009 "USM Chief Financial Officer Joe Morgan has released the details of USM’s response to Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour’s call for state universities to slash their budgets...".

(September 22, 2009) CoB Dean on Mississippi’s Budget Crisis: A Look Back at the "State of the CoB" Address "In his 18-Sept-09 'State of the CoB' address, CoB dean Lance Nail expounded upon Mississippi's budget crisis of 2008-present...".

(September 21, 2009) Observations About Economic Hard Times, Part I Today we start a series of articles recommending what to do during economic hard times facing colleges and universities. The first article we offer is “Take a Hard Look at Academic Programs and Weed Out the Weak” by Charles Miller.

(September 30, 2009) Like We Said Before, Martha "... Now that we all warm and fuzzy, how many staff people are about to be terminated for the most recent round of budget cuts?...".

(October 5, 2009) Observations about Economic Hard Times, Part II "The second article in the series is “Reward Colleges Not for Rankings but for Social Responsibility” by Gary Rhodes from The Chronicle of Higher Education...".

(October 14, 2009) More Budget Cuts Headed USM's Way in 2009 "Based on Elizabeth Crisp's 15-Oct-09 report for The Clarion Ledger entitled "Another higher ed cut likely," much more budget-cutting pain is headed USM's way before the end of 2009. IHL Commissioner Hank Bounds reported at the Oct-09 IHL meeting that state higher ed budgets were cut $32 million in Sept-09 alone...".

(November 24, 2009) Ruminations on CoB Administrative Changes More cuts this year. "Huge cuts in the next few years. Where is the money going to come from in the College of Business (CoB)? Staff cuts seem popular with the current dean, but how much of that can he do,...".