(February 8, 2011) Dear usmnews.net: Following in the RATR tradition, have you heard anything about [President Martha] Saunders planning to upgrade the airplane so she will have faster trips and greater range? Thanks.

For more articles and editorials concerning how money is spent, please click here.

ARTICLES CONCERNING
HOW MONEY IS SPENT

(February 8, 2011) How Much? How Long? by Duane Cobb “Maybe if . . . they knew better than to blow millions of dollars on a pointless wall in front of campus . . . maybe if they don’t own a jet, maybe then I would have an inkling of respect for the administrative bullshit that we call the leadership of USM.” – USM student Floyd Maseda, TSP interview, 31-August-2010 The USM Remittance Voucher below covers just one month, Aug-2010, of USM’s lease of the Beechcraft King Air that president Martha Saunders uses so liberally. The invoice amount is an astonishing $16,428.40. This amount is paid once a month, every month. Each time, this sum is no longer available to support USM academic programs, or USM faculty members.

(February 8, 2011) The Sting Didn’t Mean a Thing More on Saunders’ Taxpayer-Subsidized ‘Date Night’ with Bailey The USMNEWS.net report entitled, Keeping the Home Fires Burning, provides documentation indicating that USM president Martha Saunders and her husband Joe Bailey had a date-night of sorts on 15-Sept-2010. That day they travelled by USM plane from Hattiesburg to Atlanta, reportedly in order to catch a play that was written and produced by a prominent USM alumnus.

(February 8, 2011) CoB News 8-February-2011 Nail’s Hand All over USM Administration’s Growth Report after report here at USMNEWS.net has shown how administration in the CoB, and at USM, has continued to grow throughout the state’s fiscal difficulties that began more than two years ago. Now, through the latest installment in Van Arnold’s “Catching Up” series, we learn that CoB dean Lance Nail has his hand in the administrative growth that has occurred at both of these levels within the institution.

(February 8, 2011) King Air & Queen Martha An Essay by Victoria Tyler Shortly after the beginning of what has become known as The Great Recession, USM Queen (president) Martha Saunders signed a $2 million lease for a Beechcraft King Air airplane. Since then, USM’s budget has been cut $10 million, and now the institution is looking at another cut, which could total $15 million. In dealing with these cut