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Fire Shelby Thames -> Fire Shelby Thames -> Fire Shelby Thames -> Where Will it End?
Post Info TOPIC: Where Will it End?
Jeff Kersh, PhD

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Where Will it End?
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I got my first two degrees at USM, and I'm not afraid to give my name - Thames can't take my degrees away, especially not the PhD, which I got elsewhere.  It seems like Thames has created an atmosphere of absolute terror; even students seem afraid of reprisals by this administration.  I taught part time at USM briefly after returning to MS (this was Summer 01-Fall 02), and I caught the beginning of all this, albeit as an adjunct.  The general depression that cloaked the campus then appears to have gotten worse - is this what we want USM's legacy to be?  Now our legislature is discussing the possibility of cutting higher education yet again to fund a K-12 initiative; there's nothing left to cut at USM but programs and faculty.  Thames should be fighting the legislature and the college board to save all Mississippi's colleges and universities, but he's more concerned with his own little fiefdom and its meaningless battles (not that faculty jobs are meaningless, but you get my point).  This is not what we pay/paid for.  And if this is "running USM like a business," it's a joke.  A CEO who ran a business this way would have been replaced in disgrace long ago.  Take the word of someone who's now in business because there are no college teaching jobs.

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truth4usm

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Hey, Jeff...it's me, Andrea (also with 2 degrees from USM and working on a third).  I totally agree with you...especially living outside MS now, it is so sad to see the reputation of USM smeared by one so short-sighted and egomaniacal as Thames. 


You ask where will it end?  It will end either with Thames' resignation (we hope) or with the completion of Thames' plan to turn USM into a Polymer Science factory.  He's already closing down Van Hook golf course to turn it into a research park.  Do I think his ideas are all bad?  No, I don't. (I'm not that big a fan of golf, anyway).  Do I think his METHODS are all bad?  Absolutely, without question.  He has an "all or nothing" mentality that, coupled with his extreme insecurity, makes his administration work like a dysfunctional family (you're either with me or against me, no middle ground). 


Sad days, indeed, for USM.


Andrea 



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sharon

Date:
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Hi Jeff and Andrea!  Since I have the same two degrees from USM the two of you have, I thought it might be time to say hello.


I agree with both of you.  I don't have much hope that anything will be done about Thames...at least not until the end of his current contract.  But I suppose the question now is "who are the people keeping him where he is, and what would it take to get them to back down?"


I suspect his support hasn't budged much.  I also suspect that his supporters are banking on all of this blowing over soon.


 



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