financialsituation10

(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.

(September 3, 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. Now, with the 3-Sept-09 publication by The Hattiesburg American of two articles about happenings on the Hattiesburg campus, more questions are certain to arise, and many of these will be aimed at USM president Martha Saunders.

(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 forthcoming reception of the ECOers over in the CoAL will likely be somewhat icy, even though the merger is scheduled for balmy 1-July-10. Those comments began with a passage from “cleetus,” who noted that the way Dakin’s article was written did little to inspire confidence in the idea that everything was out in the open. Those comments are inserted below.

(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. That fact exists despite Saunders’ 31-Aug-09 proclamation (before her extended cabinet) to the contrary, and things promise to get worse given the 3-Sept-09 announcement that USM vice president of research and economic development, Cecil Burge, will be retiring at the end of December-2009. With these bits of bad news, reporters at USMNEWS.net decided to check on how things are progressing at USM with regard to the fourmost commonly examined metrics of a higher educational institution’s overall health.

(September 8, 2009) GH Chatter Although various CoB faculty can state that they know bits and pieces of what’s going on with regard to USM’s $8.5 million budget cut, or with regard to the termination of the ECO majors for that matter, it’s amazing how little is known about these issues by the typical CoBer.

(September 9, 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. Those details are now housed on The Student Printz’s website. Sources tell USMNEWS.net that the presentation, which is entitled “Cost/Benefit Analysis of the USM Economics Program,” has the markings of associate professor Sami Dakhlia throughout, particularly with regard to the unit’s accomplishments. This conclusion supports much of what has been reported about the appeal and the surrounding discussion by USMNEWS.net since the drama beganback in early August-2009.