DONNA DAVIS, PROFESSOR OF MANAGEMENT
INFORMATION SYSTEMS
(October 31, 2008) Perks for Buds XXI Where Now? Donna Davis has just a few weeks left as Interim Graduate Director
until the new Assistant Dean for Graduate Programs takes over the controls. She may be allowed to hang around in the
big office she craves for a little bit, but she is on the clock. Since she once again decided against retiring, where does she
go next? She has played at assessment and accreditation. Perhaps she will be tabbed for Interim Director of Accounting
if the two candidates being interviewed are not acceptable to Nail or the Dome. Maybe she will be awarded the
McCarty Professorship to encourage Chang Hsieh to leave, not that she is producing sufficient research to deserve it.
(November 25, 2008) Guest Editorial Happy Thanksgiving Speaking of getting along, how will the CoB, or perhaps even
USM for that matter, get by post-Donna Davis? She teaches, administrates, assesses, and sometimes does research.
Take her out of the CoB and there is a hole that is left that can.t possibly be filled by a single individual. It will actually
take less, which is good for the CoB given USM.s dire budget situation.
(January 23, 2009) As the Curtain Falls on Ed When Donna Davis becomes Chair of BEDS in the CoB on July 1st, Ed
Nissan’s world is going to change more than it has in the past 30 years. There will be no George Carter, Farhang
Niroomand, Bill Gunther, or Ty Black to protect him. There will not be even a pretend puppet like Mark Klinedinst. The
interesting thing about all this is Dr. Davis will not do anything to “get” Ed;
(April 30, 2009) Decision Sciences' Donna Davis to Chair BEDS The 29-April-09 e-mail announcement from CoB dean
Lance Nail informing CoB faculty that decision sciences' Donna Davis will chair the new (starting 1-July-09) department
of business economics and decision sciences (BEDS) completely lacked the suspense usually accompanying such
announcements. For weeks reporters and editorialists here at USMNEWS.net have been predicting that Davis would be
elevated to chair the BEDS. Nail's e-mail only served to make the unofficial official.
(May 4, 2009) And the Winner is . . . How Much Faculty Governance is Occurring in the Selection of CoB Dept Chairs?
Nail's choice of Donna Davis sounds more like the sort of fait accompli that carried the day in the EFIB throughout the
Harold Doty administration of the CoB (2003-07). Given that, one might conclude that a little bit of "faculty governance
took the day off" is just what the doctor order vis-à-vis the CoB's all-too-politicized economists. One can, and should, still
hope, however, that Nail confines any faculty governance lapses to matters concerning the CoB's economists. If such a
policy becomes widespread then CoB faculty will be left wondering just how much, and how good, the "change" being
ushered in by the Nail administration really is after all.