Reports for August 2014
usmnews.net
August 14, 2014
August 15, 2014
Exited Stage Left Good to Great Losses of Blettner and Trevino Still
Showing in USM’s CoB The 2002-2010 period for USM’s business
school was one of turmoil and loss. During that period, one that was
largely characterized by the failed deanship of D. Harold Doty
(2003-07), hordes of high-quality faculty departed the organization.
August 18, 2014
. . . breaking news . . . USM Softball Coaches Resign HATTIESBURG –
In a shocking move, co-head coaches of USM’s softball program, Jon
Malgradi and Kirsten Voak, resigned on 15-Aug-2014. As reported in
The Hattiesburg American, the duo leaves USM with the dismal
overall record of 49-106, a record that USMNEWS.net has followed
throughout their time in Hattiesburg.
August 19, 2014
No surprise here The fact that Southern Miss' co-head softball coaches
have taken the extraordinary measure of stepping down at the
beginning of the Fall Semester, comes as no surprise to regular readers
of usmnews.net.
August 20, 2014
August 26, 2014
August 27, 2014
Dear usmnews.net, I couldn't fail to notice that you hadn't commented
on Tom Lindley's retirement. His departure was, much like his tenure
at Southern Miss -- dignified and professional. The CoB is a far worse,
and academically weaker place, for his absence.
August 29, 2014
What's going on? Any ideas? From time to time we have visitors to
usmnews.net that raise our eyebrows. Below are a couple of very
recent visitors that caused us to pause and wonder what's up.
August 1, 2014
What an embarrassment! The 2014 Forbes Best Colleges and
Universities report is out: Of the 650 schools rated by Forbes, in terms
of Mississippi, Millsaps College is #333, Ole Miss is 359, Mississippi
State is 365, Jackson State is 462, Mississippi College is 522 and USM
is 553. That puts USM at the 15th percentile-bottom of the barrel,
August 4, 2014
August 5, 2014
Idiot Administrators and Sports The real sport of the twentieth and
twenty-first centuries is watching idiot university administrators
"leading" their schools' corrupt sports programs into the crapper.
Here's another:
August 6, 2014
August 7, 2014
Hiring More Administrators is the Same Old Nonsense Solution
Rodney Bennett recently provided the following critique of his Gulf
Coast critics and a defense of his proposals. We've heard it all before
many times. At what point in history do we ignore any leader who
offers the same tired ideas? You decide.
August 8, 2014
Dear usmnews.net, The word around the water cooler is that now
that Gwen Pate has become Director of the SofA [School of
Accountancy], Mary Morgan Anderson is once again hopeful that she
may become a full professor. As you probably know Anderson's
father [Jerry Morgan] was chairman of the accounting department
when Southern Miss supported Pate's doctoral program.
August 11, 2014
August 12, 2014
September 2, 2014
September 3, 2014
Dear usmnews.net, Any word on Martha Saunders' quest to once
again become a university president? Southern Miss was lucky she
didn't stay on longer.
September 5, 2014
Picking Leaders at Southern Miss Gwen Pate was recently named
Director of the School of Accountancy at Southern Miss. Let's assume
Pate is typical of the type of person USM puts in leadership positions.
September 9, 2014
Martha Saunders and Ellis Johnson One of Martha Saunders' final
head coaching hires was Ellis Johnson. As we all know, Johnson lost
every game as head coach and was fired at the end of the season.
Under the terms of Johnson's contract, he was paid in full his entire
salary for his contract -- even though he was making more money as
an assistant coach at Auburn than he made as head coach at Southern
Miss.
September 10, 2014
September 11, 2014
September 12, 2014
September 23, 2014
Dear usmnews.net, Maybe you have the answer to a popular question
around the water cooler (if we actually had one). Where are Rod Posey,
Charles Jordan, and Patty Munn? They precipitously retired from the
School of Accountancy about the same time you did, but no one seems
to know what they are up to?
September 24, 2014
Rate My Professor Let's take a look at what students are saying about a
few current and former professors at USM's School of Accountancy.
September 25, 2014
Dear usmnews.net, You are apparently too modest to draw a contrast
between your former colleagues' skills as teachers and your own.
However, I hope you are not too modest to publish my email to you.
When I checked your RateMyProfessors review, you were consistently
rated Good -- the highest score permitted. Your overall rating was 4.8
(out of 5) as compared to Mary Anderson's 1.5. Nobody, and most
particularly your students, thought you were an easy teacher who gave
away grades.
September 26, 2014
Message From President Bennett Let's take a critical look at USM
President Bennett's recent message (which is copied in full below).
Here's common knowledge: B = f(E): e.g., the greater the enrollment,
the greater the budget. For a school like USM, the better the quality of
students, i.e., the higher the admission standards, the fewer the
number of students enrolled, i.e., admitted.
September 29, 2014
Are you a member of PERS? Many of us are members of PERS. Many
of us spent decades contributing to PERS, counting on the benefits of
those contributions. Many of us receive monthly checks. Many of us
count on the checks to support our families. The question is whether
money will be there when we need it.
September 30, 2014
Are you a member of PERS? Part 2 From yesterday's report: "According
to Moody's, Mississippi's PERS is badly underfunded, with
approximately $.58 of each dollar needed to honor its obligations to its
retirees available to satisfy its pension requirements."