[published in April 8 edition of Student Printz]

As an outside observer who is following the current controversy on your campus from a distance, I am not sure that all USM students truly understand the serious impact this affair may have on their individual futures. 

Thanks to the actions of President Thames, the reputation of the university has already been severely damaged in the eyes of academics around the country.  This is true not only because of the abrupt firings of two highly-respected professors but also because those firings have helped call attention to many other aspects of USM that look highly peculiar to unjaundiced eyes.  (For a full list of these peculiarities, visit the Web site www.geocities.com/fireshelby.)

How will this mess affect the future of USM students?  Well, any students applying to graduate or professional schools will discover that their degrees are taken much less seriously now than they were a few years ago.  The university is on the verge of losing its reputation as a serious place of higher education.  USM will also have difficulty attracting and retaining top faculty members, and this fact will also have a negative long-term impact on the futures of USM students. Why would any serious professor volunteer to come to a campus where his job was at risk if he simply dared to raise questions about the wisdom of presidential decisions and appointments?  Why would any professor want to stay at such a place if he had the chance to leave? 

Finally, for all the reasons mentioned above, USM will have difficulty attracting and retaining the best graduate students - the people who often have the closest day-to-day classroom contact with freshmen and sophomores and who are crucial in building the basic skills of entering students. 

In short, the current crisis at USM will affect students far more than it will ultimately affect Professors Glamser or Stringer or President Thames.  The two professors will easily be able to find jobs elsewhere (not only because they are highly distinguished faculty but because they are now regarded as martyrs for academic freedom).  President Thames, no matter what happens, will retire with a very comfortable income.  Only the students and remaining faculty at USM will suffer the long-term consequences of President Thames' hasty and ill-considered actions.

Of course, it is not too late to turn this whole situation around and make USM look very good in the eyes of the rest of the country.  Achieving that outcome, however, will require students to take an active role in voicing their concerns about the firings of the two professors and the various peculiarities described on the Web site mentioned above.

Robert C. Evans
Professor of English
Auburn University Montgomery