(October 21, 2010) The Farm News Briefs from Southern Miss Looks Like She’s Doing Stuff According to her 18-Oct-2010 blog,
USM president Martha Saunders points out that the executive cabinet has approved a USM faculty senate request to provide
Career Services support to all USM faculty who were terminated by the Saunders administration in dealing with FY 2012
budget cuts totaling $15 million. Additionally, the executive cabinet has extended tuition reductions for up to three years for
children of these same terminated professors.
ARTICLES CONCERNING
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN MISSISSIPPI'S
FINANCIAL PROBLEMS
(October 24, 2010) Dear USM Colleagues, My heartfelt sympathy goes to Dr. Greer for trying to work with President
Saunders and her fellow administrators. (See text of Dr. Greer’s email to faculty.) President Saunders and her colleague
administrators are different than you. They do not adhere to the same academic principles you do. Integrity, for example,
means something entirely different. They have in “their minds” a fuzzy notion of lockstep institutional public relations, not
personal honesty. We’ll discuss “integrity” in detail nother day. However, you will get an inkling of what President
Saunders’ means by integrity in this report.
(October 25, 2010) . . . breaking news . . . AAUP-USM Taking a Stand The USM chapter of the AAUP is taking a stand against
the Martha Saunders administration’s process for terminating 29 tenured and tenure-track faculty in response to the $15
million budget cut facing the institution. On 22-Oct-2010, AAUP-USM president Tammy Greer e-mailed USM faculty (see
insert below), stating that the “budget reduction strategies” of 2009 and 2010 which were developed by Saunders et al.
entailed “. . . LITTLE OR NO CONSULTATION WITH THE FACULTY.”
(October 26, 2010) . . . breaking news . . . Another USM Student Steps Up to Plate on Budget HATTIESBURG – USM students
are stepping forward at unprecedented rates to offer solutions to the many problems plaguing the institution. From tough
questions at student Q&A sessions on the budget, to explaining to religion, philosophy, and other USM students who are
affected by program eliminations that the USM approach to “teaching out” is one that will likely leave them “high and dry,”
USM students are calling into question the motives and capabilities of the Martha Saunders administration’s handling of the
major issues of the day.
(October 27, 2010) Foundation of Sand A Guest Column USM sophomore Daniel Miles’ plan to save several of USM's
academic programs, by splitting in half each student’s “athletics assessment” and giving one half to academic affairs, will
work. It will, as pointed out, also expose Richard Giannini’s athletics department, which will, under Miles’ proposal, have to
generate at least $3 million in ticket sales to cover the lost tuition taxes.
