Reports for August 2014
usmnews.net
Click here for reports from July 1, 2014 - July 31, 2014
August 14, 2014
Costs of College Continue to Rise and Rise Faster Than Just About Everything Else CNBC today reported "Purdue's Daniels sees pushback on college costs." The seemingly "unlimited ability" of colleges to increase costs has "run its course" as a business model for higher education, Purdue University President Mitch Daniels told CNBC on Wednesday…"Let's try something different," ..."


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
Exited Stage Left Good to Great Heading West Carr, Kozar, Fisher and Lo Leave the CoB for Bigger OpportunitiesThe 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. This new usmnews.net series looks back on many of those faculty, concentrating mainly on what they have accomplished in the years since exiting stage left of the b-school at USM.
August 26, 2014
Dear usmnews.net, Any news on what the head count [at Southern Miss] will be this year? The overall impression on Campus is headcount will be down again unless President Bennett does something like count the people at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College.
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
Word from the Sports Blogs Rodney Bennett swing and a miss. . . by 2nd St. Eagle " Sat Apr 12, 2014 9:29 am . . . article in sun herald this morning talked about a meeting he had with students and faculty at gulf park campus.
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
Andy Thomason Says Let's Name Plagiarists And Their Silly Defenses Andy Thomason of the Chronicle of Higher Education says let's name plagiarists and reveal their silly defenses. Thomason offers a few of his own examples.

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
More Smoke and Mirrors More Public Relations Nonsense Consider the recent "news" release from USM: Southern Miss, MGCCC Enter Concurrent Enrollment Agreement


August 12, 2014
Dear usmnews.net, I read your article about Southern Miss, MGCCC Enter Concurrent Enrollment Agreement. I'm not sure why they [USM and MGCCC] need a concurrent enrollment agreement, unless they are, as you suggest, up to something.

September 2, 2014
What EaglePosters are Saying In the wake of Southern Miss' 49-0 loss to Mississippi State, football fans are unhappy -

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
breaking news USM Remains in Bottom Tier of U.S. News Ranking HATTIESBURG - With the release of the 2015 edition of Best Colleges from U.S. News & World Report, usmnews.net has learned that USM remains in the bottom tier of national colleges and universities with a ranking of "RNP" or rank not published.

September 11, 2014

breaking news Bad News Continues Everyone Seems to be Ranking Southern Miss Near the Bottom HATTIESBURG - Here's something you won't see in The Hattiesburg American or on Southern Miss' website -- three national organizations have placed the university near the bottom of the nationwide rankings.


September 12, 2014
MORE BAD NEWS USM'S MBA Program Is Still Officially Unranked HATTIESBURG - Bad news continues to arrive. With the release of the 2015 edition of Best Colleges from U.S. News & World Report, usmnews.net has learned that USM's MBA program is once again "unranked".

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."