USMNEWS.NET
Non-Fiction
Fiction
TobaccoPharm
Science Created the Opportunity.
A Collision of Revenge and Greed Created the Risk.
The Truth Could Be Deadly
.
At first, the deaths seem unrelated.
A college student. A Kentucky farmer. Two smokers with little in common except sudden and unexpected deaths.
A disturbing pattern begins to emerge. The evidence points toward an unlikely source: genetically engineered tobacco developed as part of a revolutionary pharmaceutical venture.
What begins as a scientific breakthrough soon becomes something far more catestrophic.
As researchers, executives, regulators, and investors desperately struggle to protect their interests, the body count continues to rise. Hidden agendas collide with scientific ambition, revenge, corporate power, and the relentless pursuit of profit.
Some people are searching for the truth. Others are determined to bury it.
TobaccoPharm is a fast-moving thriller that combines science, business, politics, and suspense in a story where innovation and catastrophe are separated by a single decision.
Science Created the Opportunity.
A Collision of Revenge and Greed Created the Risk.
The Truth Could Be Deadly
.
At first, the deaths seem unrelated.
A college student. A Kentucky farmer. Two smokers with little in common except sudden and unexpected deaths.
A disturbing pattern begins to emerge. The evidence points toward an unlikely source: genetically engineered tobacco developed as part of a revolutionary pharmaceutical venture.
What begins as a scientific breakthrough soon becomes something far more catestrophic.
As researchers, executives, regulators, and investors desperately struggle to protect their interests, the body count continues to rise. Hidden agendas collide with scientific ambition, revenge, corporate power, and the relentless pursuit of profit.
Some people are searching for the truth. Others are determined to bury it.
TobaccoPharm is a fast-moving thriller that combines science, business, politics, and suspense in a story where innovation and catastrophe are separated by a single decision.
More Cash
More Cash offers one and only one skill: identification of profitable mutual funds. What's the problem? Just compare their earnings.
Mutual fund performance, however, is reported in ratios, not dollars. The ratios are difficult to interpret.
More Cash shows how to translate ratios to easily interpreted dollars. The translation is offered in a step-at-a-time process and provides interactive spreadsheets to do the calculations. The spreadsheets are constructed to accommodate YOUR mutual fund investment opportunities and their ratios so that YOU can assess YOUR mutual funds in terms of dollars.
More Cash offers one and only one skill: identification of profitable mutual funds. What's the problem? Just compare their earnings.
Mutual fund performance, however, is reported in ratios, not dollars. The ratios are difficult to interpret.
More Cash shows how to translate ratios to easily interpreted dollars. The translation is offered in a step-at-a-time process and provides interactive spreadsheets to do the calculations. The spreadsheets are constructed to accommodate YOUR mutual fund investment opportunities and their ratios so that YOU can assess YOUR mutual funds in terms of dollars.
Articles
The Failure of Higher Education -- Accreditation
Minding the Campus - Reforming our Universities 8/15/2020
Minding the Campus - Reforming our Universities 8/15/2020
In Ethics Seminar, Lawyers Say They’d Report A Client For Legally Owning A Gun
The Federalist, 05/02/2019
The Federalist, 05/02/2019
Publications: Dissertation and Related Articles
"Testing the Conceptional Framework of Accounting Through an Application of a Formal Structure"
Dissertation
By: Chauncey M. DePree, Jr.
The Graduate School
University of Kentucky
1987
Lexington, Kentucky
Dissertation
By: Chauncey M. DePree, Jr.
The Graduate School
University of Kentucky
1987
Lexington, Kentucky
"Earnings Management and Ethical Decision Making: Choices in Accounting for Security Investments"
Issues in Accounting Education
Vol. 14, No. 4
November 1999
Issues in Accounting Education
Vol. 14, No. 4
November 1999
"An Evolution of Form and Content: A Practical Guide to Use of the FASB's Conceptual Framework"
SSRN, June 12, 2011
SSRN, June 12, 2011
New Reports and Opinion Pieces from Around USM
"The fun money is private money. At Southern Miss, I've got state dollars and I've got Foundation dollars. It's real easy to tell them apart. I tell people I've got two checkbooks. I've got my booze account and my non-booze account. Out of the state money I'm pretty constrained what in I can do. ... Foundation dollars, that's when I take my money out of my booze account, I can pretty much do anything I want with it." D. Harold Doty, former Dean, College of Business, University of Southern Mississippi, former Dean, University of Texas at Tyler. For more re Harold Doty, click here.
Editorial, December 3, 2022
Joe Paul makes $650,000 per year
PressRegister.com reports that Joe Paul, Southern Miss’ new president, makes $650,000 per year. Compare this to the average salary in Mississippi of $72,613 USD per year, with the most typical earnings of $47,012.
Is he worth it? While usmnews.net has its opinions based on years of academic experience, it seems fair to say that given his self-professed love for Southern Miss and its students he might lead the way for other college presidents and administrators to accept a salary equivalent to an average professor. By doing so, Dr. Paul could set a public example and take a first step toward reducing the terrible burden on students and their parents.
Readers, let us know what you think. Send any comments to marcdepree@gmail.com.
PressRegister.com reports that Joe Paul, Southern Miss’ new president, makes $650,000 per year. Compare this to the average salary in Mississippi of $72,613 USD per year, with the most typical earnings of $47,012.
Is he worth it? While usmnews.net has its opinions based on years of academic experience, it seems fair to say that given his self-professed love for Southern Miss and its students he might lead the way for other college presidents and administrators to accept a salary equivalent to an average professor. By doing so, Dr. Paul could set a public example and take a first step toward reducing the terrible burden on students and their parents.
Readers, let us know what you think. Send any comments to marcdepree@gmail.com.
Editorial, October 31, 2022
Questions
After his retirement in 2015, the IHL has summoned Joe Paul to serve as Southern Miss’ eleventh president. A Southern Miss alumnus Dr. Paul has served various administrative functions for more than 40 years. He replaces Dr. Rodney Bennett who was touted as “… the first African-American president of a historically and predominantly white higher education institution in Mississippi.”
After his retirement in 2015, the IHL has summoned Joe Paul to serve as Southern Miss’ eleventh president. A Southern Miss alumnus Dr. Paul has served various administrative functions for more than 40 years. He replaces Dr. Rodney Bennett who was touted as “… the first African-American president of a historically and predominantly white higher education institution in Mississippi.”
For readers who have requested quicker access to reports about Dr. Saunders' and now Dr. Bennett's airplane, please click here. A good place to start is Cost Per Flight Hour which includes links to the detailed cost and usage data obtained through open records requests.
In August 2011, Martha Saunders smiled as she presented Galaxy Tabs to selected students. Three senior adminstrators were suspended. Two are no longer employees of the University. Saunders subsequently declared herself "tired" and resigned as president. (For more reports re "Tabletgate", click here.)
Farhang Niroomand, AGB Conference, circa 2006
Once usmnews.net published the parody UH-V SBA Faculty Loyalty Pledge, we began to hear from colleagues that the parody was in effect what Niroomand said he expected from them when they were junior faculty. From the personal experience of this editor, Dr. Niroomand is a blowhard and a bully.
The popular press is replete with stories of corruption in higher education such as the recent college admissions cheating scandal. They're immaterial when compared to skyrocketing costs traced to mundane misconduct of faculty and administrators we describe in this report. Former president IHL, former president USM Foundation, and former CPA, Carl Nicholson, Interim Dean Rod Posey, Director Jim Crockett, his underperforming friend, Marvin Albin, and Instructor Patty Munn cannot claim ignorance about the implications of their behavior on University finances because they were all CPAs.
Breaking News: Carl Nicholson Found Guilty on Eleven Counts of Tax Related Fraud Carl Nicholson, former Hattiesburg CPA, former member and President of the Mississippi Institutes of Higher Learning, and former President of the University of Southern Mississippi Foundation found guilty on eleven counts of tax related fraud. After a little more than two hours deliberation by the jury, Mr. Nicholson was found guilty of 11 felony counts, including conspiracy to defraud the United States government, four counts of false statement on income tax return and six counts of willfully aiding/assisting in preparation of false tax returns. No sentencing date has been set, but Nicholson faces up to 35 years in prison and $2,750,000 in fines.
Picture from happier days from USM Foundation website announcing Mr. Nicholson (center front) as president.
Editorial, September 23, 2019
James Crockett
Rod Posey
Marvin Albin
Patty Munn
February 8, 2019
June 16, 2020
The Victoria Advocate is reporting that University of Houston - Victoria Professor Olga Chapa has accused former business school dean Farhang Niroomand of sexual harassment. Dr. Niroomand was an associate dean at the University of Southern Mississippi College of Business until being “relieved” of administrative duties under questionable circumstances. After a tumultuous few years at UHV, including AAUP’s “… concern about reports of coercion of untenured faculty members”, and discrimination lawsuits by three faculty, Dr. Niroomand returned to teaching.
For more reports re Martha Saunders, click here
Once usmnews.net published the parody UH-V SBA Faculty Loyalty Pledge, we began to hear from colleagues that the parody was in effect what Niroomand said he expected from them when they were junior faculty. From the personal experience of this editor, Dr. Niroomand is a blowhard and a bully.
Farhang [Niroomand] Bullies Senior Faculty, Too Readers want to know if Farhang Niroomand's "coercion" of untenured faculty is anything new. The answer is "no." Nor is Niroomand's bullying limited to untenured assistant professors. The following is the sworn testimony of a professor in the CoB at Southern Miss. At the time Niroomand was Associate Dean in the College of Business. The testimony was not questioned or refuted by Southern Miss or its legal counsel.
June 18, 2017
A former colleague of Dean Farhang Niroomand sent the following editorial/parody. Many of us who have had the misfortune of working with Niroomand first laughed, then recalled the bullying and threats used at Southern Miss to keep subordinates in line.
UH-V SBA Faculty Loyalty Pledge I, ____________________, hereby pledge my allegiance to Farhang Niroomand, Dean of the School of Business Administration at the University of Houston – Victoria. In doing so, I affirm that it is only through the infinite benevolence of Farhang Niroomand that I have a salary, health benefits, and a retirement plan with which to support myself and my family. I also recognize that any raise I am to receive, whether secret or made public, comes only through his grace, and that I am entitled to nothing, including the air that I breathe, which comes only through his grace as well. Whether I teach online or face-to-face, in Victoria or in Katy, I am forever indebted to my supervisor, Farhang Niroomand.
June 15, 2017
If you doubt that the parody, UH-V SBA Faculty Loyalty Pledge, is in effect what Niroomand expects of junior faculty, take a look at a copy of a letter from AAUP President of the Texas Conference to the Provost at UH-V "convey[ing] ... concern about reports of coercion of untenured faculty members in the School of Business Administration (SBA) at the University of Houston-Victoria (UHV)." As the letter says, "That this pledge of support was placed before untenured faculty members, several of whom, we understand, are eligible for promotion and tenure this year, and that members of the SBA administration were reportedly present when these signatures were solicited, heightens our concern." As the letter indicates, "... such a request [is] contrary to the fundamental principles of academic freedom."
For more re Farhang Niroomand click here.
" Faculty leaders at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln overwhelmingly passed a resolution Tuesday expressing “no confidence” in Chancellor Rodney Bennett [former USM President] and urging his bosses to reconsider his employment.
It is the first “no confidence” vote to pass against a UNL chancellor in the university’s nearly 157-year history."
It is the first “no confidence” vote to pass against a UNL chancellor in the university’s nearly 157-year history."
November 18, 2025
Available Now
Choking Dead Chickens
By Marc DePree
A wild ride through the absurd, tragic, and astonishingly expensive world of higher education.
Higher education promises knowledge, opportunity, and intellectual growth.
But what happens when bureaucracy, prestige, politics, self-interest, and jealousy begin to overshadow the mission?
Choking Dead Chickens takes readers on a sharp, often humorous, and sometimes unsettling journey through the world of modern higher education. Beneath the surface of academic respectability lies a culture shaped by competing ambitions, administrative excess, and institutional dysfunction.
By Marc DePree
A wild ride through the absurd, tragic, and astonishingly expensive world of higher education.
Higher education promises knowledge, opportunity, and intellectual growth.
But what happens when bureaucracy, prestige, politics, self-interest, and jealousy begin to overshadow the mission?
Choking Dead Chickens takes readers on a sharp, often humorous, and sometimes unsettling journey through the world of modern higher education. Beneath the surface of academic respectability lies a culture shaped by competing ambitions, administrative excess, and institutional dysfunction.
Or Just Plain Dumb
By: Chauncey M. DePree, Jr.
What If the Experts Are Wrong?
The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) is widely regarded as the premier accrediting organization for business schools.
Universities desperately pursue its approval. Administrators joyously celebrate its recognition. Students and parents are encouraged to view accreditation as evidence of educational quality.
But what if that assumption deserves closer examination?
Or Just Plain Dumb investigates the claims, practices, and consequences of AACSB accreditation. Drawing upon decades of experience in higher education, research, and professional scholarship, Chauncey M. DePree, Jr. examines whether the realities of accreditation match the promises made to students, faculty, taxpayers, and university leaders.
The result is a provocative and often surprising examination of one of higher education’s most influential institutions.
By: Chauncey M. DePree, Jr.
What If the Experts Are Wrong?
The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) is widely regarded as the premier accrediting organization for business schools.
Universities desperately pursue its approval. Administrators joyously celebrate its recognition. Students and parents are encouraged to view accreditation as evidence of educational quality.
But what if that assumption deserves closer examination?
Or Just Plain Dumb investigates the claims, practices, and consequences of AACSB accreditation. Drawing upon decades of experience in higher education, research, and professional scholarship, Chauncey M. DePree, Jr. examines whether the realities of accreditation match the promises made to students, faculty, taxpayers, and university leaders.
The result is a provocative and often surprising examination of one of higher education’s most influential institutions.
For more information visit Conlin + Howard Publishers
Watching Higher Ed Plot Against Common Sense
A big announcement!!! USMNEWS.NET is in the process of a major change. Thanks for all the years of reading and writing.