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(August 2, 2007) Williams: Digging With a Spoon So far, the number is two. Two? Two what? Two fluff articles about the CoB in the Hattiesburg American, that’s what. First it was John Lambert doing online surveys about Mississippians’ attitudes toward insurance companies (Look out, Journal of Risk and Insurance!). Then it was a piece from “submitted reports” highlighting the CoB’s efforts at British Studies, featuring everybody’s favorite scholar, Dave Duhon. As PR pieces go, they’re not too bad, but they reek of something that makes the entirety of the CoB seem very un-scholarly: desperation.

(August 24, 2007) Breaking News More Fait Accompli Governance Williams Releases P&T Policy "Suggestions" HATTIESBURG -- In a surprising move, Interim CoB Dean Alvin Williams released on 23-Aug-07 the latest draft of the proposed new Promotion & Tenure policies for CoB faculty. Before announcing that CoB faculty will be voting (up or down) on these new P&T policies, Williams' e-mail informs all CoB faculty that the "attached P&T document has been approved by the Management Team and the College Advisory Council (CAC)." Williams' e-mail is shown below:

(August 24, 2007) CoB's Mission Statement Completely Overhauled Most of the Work Done During Summer 2007, While Faculty Were Away While most CoB faculty were away, the CoB's Mission statement was revised at least two times during the summer of 2007. The proposed new Mission was circulated via e-mail on 23-Aug-07 by Interim Dean Alvin Williams, and a copy of it appears at the end of this report. Williams' e-mail also notified faculty that the CoB will vote on accepting/rejecting the proposed new Mission statement at its fall 2007 meeting (held on 31-Aug-07).

(August 24, 2007) Special Report P&T Policies Proposal Codifies "The Zantow Rule" An Investigative Series on CoB Faculty Research Credentials The Breaking News piece on the CoB's proposed new P&T policies shows that the CoB's Management Team has actually codified what some in the CoB refer to as "The Zantow Rule." As reported numerous times by usmnews.net, associate professor of management Kenneth Zantow failed 3rd Year Review during the 2003-04 academic year.

(August 28, 2007) 31st & Pearl Codification of "Zantow Rule" Puts USM in Legal Jeopardy According to the proposed T&P policies circulated via e-mail throughout the CoB by Interim Dean Alvin Williams, "Under extenuating circumstances, the Dean of the College of Business may choose to extend the [third-year] review for one additional year, at which time a positive or negative decision must be rendered." That's interesting. The USM Faculty Handbook (9.7.1 and 9.7.2) says something quite different by stating [emphasis added] that third-year reviews "must be conducted for all non-tenured faculty members during their third year of employment as full-]time faculty members," and that the renewal or non-renewal of employment contracts after the third-year review comes "at the discretion of the President . . ." So, once again, the CoB will be voting to codify a provision that is both made from whole cloth and, as we can all expect, will be used inconsistently.