ARTICLES CONCERNING
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN MISSISSIPPI'S
FINANCIAL PROBLEMS

For more articles and editorials concerning USM's financial problems please click here.

(August 20, 2009) Fewer Programs = Better Programs by Duane Cobb If someone told me that USM sold the CoB's 9 economists (the current ones) for $1 million per year into perpetuity, I would have told him or her that I thought that the buyer got played. Though there is no real buyer, selling the CoB's economists and economics majors for $1 million per year into perpetuity is precisely what USM has done with its proposal to cut $8 million from the budget.

(August 21, 2009) 31st & Pearl Ifs and Buts, Candy and Nuts Former CBA dean, and current CoB economics professor, William Gunther told The Student Printz's Meryl Dakin that "the economics department [at USM] could only be considered as overstaffed if the number of majors was the only factor considered." Yeah, and if one didn't consider their won-loss record, one could make the case that the NBA's Los Angeles Clippers are an historically successful franchise.

(August 21, 2009) The ECO Terminal A Newsletter Relating to the Elimination of Economics Programs AAUP-USM Calls Upon Saunders to Rescind ECO Terminations The USM chapter of the AAUP adopted, on 20-Aug-09, a resolution calling for the Martha Saunders administration of USM to rescind the decision to terminate more than 10 tenured/tenure-track faculty at USM. Nine of these are represented by the CoB's economics instructors.

(August 22, 2009) Answering the Call HOW THE FOUR STRUGGLING COB UNITS RESPONDED TO NAIL'S CHARGE When CoB dean Lance Nail assumed the reins of USM's b-school on 1-July-08, he identified four problem units with respect to majors/enrollments – economics, fashion merchandising, management information systems and tourism management.

(August 23, 2009) Dakhlia Joins the Chorus COB ECO FACULTY SPEAK TO THE HATTIESBURG AMERICAN ABOUT PLIGHT The CoB's economics faculty have officially gotten The Hattiesburg American in on the action over USM's decision to eliminate the economics majors and its 9 tenured/tenure-track faculty. In his 23-Aug-09 article entitled "USM professors upset by cuts proposal," THA higher education reporter Ed Kemp spoke to a number of USM officials about the proposed cuts, including several CoB economists.

(August 24, 2009) # ECO Majors > # ECO Protestors According to a 24-Aug-09 report filed by The Hattiesburg American, only 9 USM students showed up at the Aubrey K. Lucas Administration Building on 24-Aug-09 in order to protest the USM administration's recent decision to eliminate the CoB's economics programs and terminate its 9 tenured/tenure-track faculty. That number represents even less than the dismal number of CoB students who are now majoring in economics.