ARTICLES CONCERNING
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN MISSISSIPPI'S
FINANCIAL PROBLEMS
(September 21, 2010) . . . breaking news . . . USM Student Lays It Down, Some Faculty Still Oblivious
HATTIESBURG – With his 21-Sept-2010 opinion piece for The Student Printz, CoB student Zach Mansell displays
sophistication beyond his years. Having been one of the economics majors who lost his degree program and faculty
from the $10 million FY 2011 budget cuts, Mansell warns those USM students who have been promised that they will
be allowed to complete their degrees in programs cut by the recent $15 million FY 2012 budget cuts that they should
“take the administration’s words with a grain of salt.”
(September 20, 2010) GH Chatter Recent reporting in The Hattiesburg American questioning the final budget cut
choices made by the USM executive cabinet is generating a bit of chatter around campus. Word spreading across
campus, reportedly originating from accounting, is that a CoB professor dared the USM administration to attempt to
cut certain academic areas there, though it is not now known who this person is, or whether a lawsuit was threatened
(there are stories on both sides).
(September 22, 2010) ECO Back From Venus, REL Sent to Mars Recent inspection of the Fall 2010 USM Schedule
Guide reveals that the 206 USM students currently enrolled in two large sections of ECO 202 are likely seeing this
3-hour portion of their class schedule spin off in an increasingly uncertain direction. That is because their course
instructor has changed for the second time, meaning that they are all now on their third instructor and the semester is
only just over one month old. Their new instructor is Charles Venus. An Internet search reveals almost nothing about
Venus, which is enough to know that he is nowhere near as qualified to handle the course as many of the economists
who have departed USM in the past few years.
(September 23, 2010) . . . breaking news . . . Tisdale Story Expanding HATTIESBURG – The recent news that the
Lance Nail administration of the CoB has hired James Tisdale, pictured below, to serve as the CoB’s new “director of
external relations” has some USM faculty upset about what is being done with the institution’s existing budget in
this time of crisis.
(September 23, 2010) Takin’ It to the Streets by Victoria Tyler To the surprise and puzzlement of many USM faculty,
USM president Martha Saunders continues to talk publicly about her administration’s response to the IHL Board’s
mandate that USM trim $15 million from its FY 2012 budget. After giving her 7-minute State of the University (2010)
address just a few days ago, Saunders provided The Hattiesburg American, The Sun Herald and other media outlets
with a copy of that address. Some media outlets chose to include it on their editorial pages.
