ARTICLES CONCERNING
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN MISSISSIPPI'S
FINANCIAL PROBLEMS
(November 30, 2009) CoB News, 30 November 2009 Their Final Semester A number of CoBers are approaching their
final semester (spring 2010) at USM. One of these is Donna Davis, the current chair of BEDS. Davis will be retiring
after a long career at USM. Five CoB economists will be joining Davis in retirement on 30-June-2010. These are George
Carter, Trellis Green, William Gunther, Mark Klinedinst and Edward Nissan. These five have agreed to retire in order
to "save" the four mostly junior economists from the budget-cutting block at USM. Whether these agreed upon
retirements will actually occur remains to be seen. Sources are speculating that the odds are 50-50 at the moment.
(December 1, 2009) Top Stories of 2009 by Duane Cobb Long-time readers of USMNEWS.net are probably aware that I
like to provide “Top __” type lists from time to time. The end of the year is a popular occasion for such a thing. In this
three-part series, of which this is Part 3, I am providing my Top 10 news stories of 2009. Let’s get to the list.
1. CoB ECO Programs Eliminated, Faculty Moved to CoAL
(December 8, 2009) breaking news . . . USM Suspends Admissions into CoB MIS Program HATTIESBURG – USM
provost Robert Lyman reported to the USM Faculty Senate (on 4-Dec-09) that USM will suspend admissions into the
CoB's MIS program beginning in January of 2010. In explaining this decision, Lyman told senators that the MIS
program was slated for elimination by the old APG during the 2010 budget cut talks that took place during
spring/summer 2009, however the APG ultimately decided to place MIS on the second(ary) cuts list instead. The APG's
recommendation to eliminate economics, though, put MIS in continued jeopardy given its departmental affiliation in
the CoB with ECO.
(December 17, 2009) GH Chatter There is still plenty of chatter about the CoB's floundering MIS program. The
university's decision to suspend MIS admissions surely spells doom for the program. This same decision continues to
fuel chatter about MISers transitioning over to FINREBL for 2010-11. Keep in mind that James Magruder and
Chang-Tseh Hsieh have training in economics and finance. That could leave Barry Cumbie, Dale Lunsford and Kuo
Lane Chen out in the cold. Some chatter has Lunsford and Chen being shown the door, with Cumbie sticking on as the
CoB's lone MIS faculty for the future.
(January 26, 2010) GH Chatter As for predictions for 2010, some are saying that the CoB will lose one or two more
academic units (for fiscal 2011). Recent reports and editorials have speculated that MIS and fashion merchandising are
the leading candidates.
(February 17, 2010) An ECoAL Future As regular USMNEWS.net readers are aware, the CoB's economics unit has been
cut from nine economists to three by the Lance Nail/Martha Saunders administration of the CoB/USM. The remaining
three economists, Sami Dakhlia, Akbar Marvasti, and Daniel Monchuk, will be moving into the CoAL after
30-June-2010.
