ARTICLES CONCERNING
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN MISSISSIPPI'S
FINANCIAL PROBLEMS
(June 14, 2010) lastweek w/ usmnews.net 14-June-2010-Transcript Moderator: Well, $15 million in budget cutting is
almost upon us now. Comments? 31st & Pearl Columnis: I think the CoB will likely see some faculty eliminations.
One or two in fashion merchandising, one or two more in decision sciences, and maybe some number from tourism
management. Of course, some of these possibilities have been discussed many times before.
(September 8, 2010) 31st & Pearl Got Confidence? With all of the incompetence at the top of the management
hierarchy at Southern Miss, there is still nothing resembling even a whisper about holding a “no confidence” election
regarding USM president Martha Saunders. Sure, the fact that the institution has had to shave $25 million from its
state allocation in 2010 and 2011 is not Saunders’ fault. But, she did respond to the cuts by issuing almost 50 terminal
letters to various tenured and tenure-track faculty in Hattiesburg and Long Beach, while none of the state’s seven
other public universities has responded by canning its tenured/tenure-track professors.
(September 9, 2010) . . . breaking news . . . Did Philosophy & Religion Get Hosed? HATTIESBURG – An anonymous
reader recently sent a copy of the University Priorities Committee report to USMNEWS.net offices. From the
information contained in the document, it appears that the UPC ranked academic programs at USM on an
“efficiency” or “productivity” basis. What is astounding is that USM’s philosophy and religion programs – both of
which were hammered in recent weeks by the USM administration – were ranked higher than many USM programs
that ultimately dodged any program cuts, program consolidation, or faculty terminations.
(September 12, 2010) Aunt Martha’s Extravagance Part 6 – ‘Fly Me Out to the Ball Game’ Via a Mississippi Open
Records Act request, USMNEWS.net recently obtained a large batch of documents from USM relating to USM
president Martha Saunders’ university aircraft. This series, Aunt Martha’s Extravagance, provides analysis of these
documents. This installment examines the 6- and 7-June-09 trip in the USM airplane made by Saunders and her
athletics director, Richard Giannini. According to the invoice, which is inserted below, USM charged itself a total of
$2,640 for this trip to watch the USM Golden Eagles baseball team compete against Florida in a 2009 NCAA Baseball
Super Regional series.
