(February 1, 2009) Winning the Brandt Award — A Boon or a Curse? A number of reports have popped up at
USMNEWS.net of late setting the stage for the CoB's 2009 Louis K. Brandt Research Award. That award, which will
be presented in just a few weeks at the CoB's spring awards banquet, is expected to go to associate professor of
decision sciences Fujun Lai.
ARTICLES CONCERNING
DR. FRANKLIN MIXON, FORMER PROFESSOR, ECONOMICS
(March 22, 2009) Our Most Talented Colleagues Unique A-Level Hits of Current & Former CoB Faculty – Economics
In May of 2007, untenured assistant professor of economics Sami Dakhlia, a first-year CoB faculty who, to use EFIB
chairman George Carter's term, had just been "canned" by the University of Alabama, took the floor at the end of the
CoB's spring 2007 convocation. He then proceeded to blast the USMNEWS.net editor and various CoB faculty for
speaking out against the CoB's administration in a way Dakhlia felt encouraged his (Dakhlia's) most talented
colleagues to leave USM. Of course, Dakhlia wasn't speaking out in support of those CoB faculty who had been
abused by CoB administrators, as management professor Sharon Topping had spoken for only minutes before
Dakhlia was handed the rostrum by then-interim CoB dean Alvin Williams. The faculty Topping referred to were
beginning to leave the CoB as well by spring of 2007. Dakhlia, however, was, according to sources, speaking on
behalf of CoBers (and Dakhlia's friends) like Zaher Hallab (tourism management) and Akbar Marvasti (economics),
CoB administrators' favorites who were either leaving the CoB at that time or expressing a desire to do so.