financialsituation18

(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.

(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 3, 2010) New Interim CFO to Lead Q&A on Budget Crisis Recently appointed to USM’s chief financial post (on an interim basis), Russ Willis begins his duties by moderating a Q&A session on the USM budget crisis. According to the 2-Sept-10 issue of The Student Printz, the session is scheduled for 9:30am on 7-Sept-10, and will begin with a presentation of the details surrounding the recent $15 million cut for FY2012 that led to the Martha Saunders administration’s decision to terminate the contracts of 29 tenured and tenure-track professors.

(September 12, 2010) . . . breaking news . . . Saunders Pointing Finger at University Priorities Committee HATTIESBURG – With a 10-Sept-2010 update to the USM budget page, sources say that it seems clear that USM president Martha Saunders is setting up the University Priorities Committee, largely made up of USM faculty, to take the blame (or the fall) for the decision to terminate 29 tenured/tenure-track faculty and a number of academic programs. The top part of that updated page, inserted below, shows just how Saunders may now be maneuvering vis-à-vis the controversial cuts – the kinds of cuts that only USM appears to be making among the state’s eight public universities.

(September 12, 2010) Special Report The Nail-von Herrmann Recommendations Proposals from USM’s CoB & CoAL The lack of information surrounding the latest budget cuts (totaling $15 million) at USM has only worsened the mood on the Hattiesburg and Long Beach campuses since late Aug-2010. Recently, however, the Martha Saunders administration began releasing some of the details of the process leading up to its decision to terminate 29 tenured and tenure-track faculty. The insert below presents the reduction proposals made by CoB dean Lance Nail (in Aug-2010).