Roy Klumb Plugs Fireshelby Website!

Date: Apr 15, 2004

Roy Klumb Plugs Fireshelby Website!

Date: Apr 15, 2004

We must puruse 'shared vision'

LETTERS

This week's mail, postmarked Hattiesburg but sent anonymously, brought yet another message in a long line of material aimed at attacking the current administration at Southern Miss. This is just one of many messages I have received anonymously.

This time I received a CD Rom copy of an ESPN editorial about the errors in hiring Larry Eustachy. While this appeared to be an ESPN editorial, there was no hard evidence to suggest its validity, and I question if it was even a legitimate report. Had it not been sent anonymously I could have answered my own questions about the report.

To those who take offense at my support of the USM administration - either via letters to me or in chat rooms on the FireShelby Web site - if you truly believe in your position, you should get out of the shadows and voice your feelings to me openly and not use the crutch of anonymity.

I will not give consideration to anonymous mail.

To those of you who have been gracious enough to sign your correspondence to me, I have appreciated hearing from you. It is not lost on me that the true battle at USM is not about the firing of two professors or free speech, but rather the future of tenure and how our university campuses will be shaped in the future. With 90 percent of the on-campus letters I have received against Dr. Thames and 90 percent of the off-campus letters in support of Dr. Thames, the matter remains up for debate.

However, we must reconcile ourselves to a shared vision of the future of higher education in Mississippi.

Roy Klumb, member, state College Board Gulfport

!!

Date: Apr 15, 2004

It seems strange to me that equal consideration goes to those "off-campus" as to those "on-campus." In my opinion, those off-campus supporters are either close friends of Thames or are supporters of USM athletics. It makes absolutely no sense that SFT puts the athletics above academics, therefore, caring more about what athletic supporters think. I know he wants to run the university like a business, but academics have to be involved in some way, considering this is a university.

Date: Apr 15, 2004

quote:
Originally posted by: Websitebrowser
"To those who take offense at my support of the USM administration - either via letters to me or in chat rooms on the FireShelby Web site - if you truly believe in your position, you should get out of the shadows and voice your feelings to me openly and not use the crutch of anonymity."

My first reaction to this statement is that he's basically telling the snipers to come out in the open where he can shoot back. Some of us have jobs that we don't want political wannabes like Roy Klumb taking scattershots at.

My second reaction is, "Where is the chat room here?" Have I missed something? Either Klumb doesn't know a bulletin board from a chat room (possible) or he's playing on the negative connotations of "chat room" (hangout of deviates, child molesters & copyright infringers).

One think Klumb has right is the last 3 letters of his name.

Fire Shelby · Status: Offline

quote:
Originally posted by: Websitebrowser
"Well, not really but do go read his HA letter to the editor...Go FS and anonymous letter writers!"

Well, all I have to say is........

Fire Shelby · Status: Offline

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

Date: Apr 15, 2004

Does anyone know Mr. Klumb's e-mail address? I'll be glad to write to him and use my name, but surely he should understand why many people at USM are terrified just now of speaking openly: look what happened to the two fired professors for daring to challenge the administration! If he needs any evidence that the vast majority of the faculty at USM are concerned about the Thames administration, he need only look at the results of the no-confidence vote.

Date: Apr 15, 2004

quote:
Originally posted by: usmstudent
"...I know he wants to run the university like a business, but academics have to be involved in some way, considering this is a university."

I promised that the next time someone said "run the university like a business" I was going to respond this way. What kind of business? Enron? Garment Industry Sweatshops? Defunct Start-Ups? If USM were being run like a business, its employees would have unionized and gone on strike by now. There is NO excuse for bad management in any organization, whether that organization is a business or a university.

Date: Apr 15, 2004

quote:
Originally posted by: Robert Evans
"...surely he should understand why many people at USM are terrified just now of speaking openly..."

No, he doesn't understand. He really doesn't get it. He doesn't understand that people might fear for their jobs, because he's never had to fear for his. People with "family owned" businesses generally don't worry about getting fired, particularly when their last name is the same as the company name.

As I said before, what he's really saying is "Come out in the open where we can get a fair shot at you."

As far as sending a signed letter to him, you might as well write in on Charmin & flush it.

Date: Apr 15, 2004

It also hasn't occurred to him that perhaps the people writing to him and signing their names and the people writing on Fire Shelby . . .

ARE THE SAME PEOPLE.

Mr. Klumb, listen up. I've written to you three times. I've never gotten a response.

Date: Apr 15, 2004

He doesn't have a clue. His mind is made up about the hearings already (he all but says so in his letters to the newspapers). I don't think Robin Robinson sees things any clearer either (sounds like a mouthpiece).

Date: Apr 15, 2004

I too have written Mr. Klumb, along with the other board members. (I have no problem signing my name since I am a student) Of course he did not respond, but I did not expect him to. I don't know his e-mail, but you can mail a letter to him at:

Mr. Roy Klumb

P.O. Box2466

Gulfport, MS 39505

Also, letters to Ms. Virginia Newton would be nice, considering that she is one of the few board members who is on our side of this issue. (right?)

Date: Apr 15, 2004

OOPS! I forgot to give Ms. Newton's addy. It is:

Ms. Virginia Shanteau Nweton

22 Oak Lake Lane

Gulfport, MS 39503

If any other IHL members' addresses are needed, I have them. Sorry that I was not able to find e-mail addresses for all of them.

Oh- I think that there is a link on the home page with all the addys, now that I think about it.

Date: Apr 15, 2004

Is Klumb replacing Colbert as IHL Board Pres.?

Fire Shelby · Status: Offline

quote:
Originally posted by: messy
"Is Klumb replacing Colbert as IHL Board Pres.? "

No, I don't think so. I believe that the board will elect new offices at its May meeting.

Date: Apr 15, 2004

quote:
Originally posted by: messy
"Is Klumb replacing Colbert as IHL Board Pres.? "

http://www.printz.usm.edu/barbour.html

Sorry about earlier post. This is where I got the info. When quoting Klumb in the Student Printz, Matt Hinton wrote:

"We are happy with the governor’s announcement of four fine people to serve on the IHL College Board," said incoming board president Roy Klumb of Gulfport.

Fire Shelby · Status: Offline

quote:
Originally posted by: messy
" http://www.printz.usm.edu/barbour.html Sorry about earlier post. This is where I got the info. When quoting Klumb in the Student Printz, Matt Hinton wrote: "We are happy with the governor’s announcement of four fine people to serve on the IHL College Board," said incoming board president Roy Klumb of Gulfport."

OMG! That is cause for huge concern. Usually, commissions and board elect new officers AFTER new appointees are seated. I guess the board elected him president BEFORE the four outgoing members' terms expired. That he has been elected president by the board speaks volumes--not very good news at all. Isn't he presently the VP?

Thanks for catching this not-so-trivial bit of information.

Date: Apr 15, 2004

The IHL website lists him as VP.

Could Hinton have made a mistake?

I surely hope so, b/c with Thames buddy Klumb at the helm of the board we definately have a much tougher struggle ahead.

Date: Apr 16, 2004

RK is the new president -this has been known for awhile.

Fire Shelby · Status: Offline

quote:
Originally posted by: Topplethetop
"RK is the new president -this has been known for awhile."

Thanks, TTT. :goosebumps:

Date: Apr 16, 2004

Dear Mr. Klumb:

   Surely even you can understand why my colleagues are afraid to come out publicly with their questions about your positions on the current crisis at USM. Surely even you can figure out that your vocal support of the Thames administration's wreckage of our university doesn't give ANYBODY any confidence that you won't use whatever we say against us, much less that you will give any of us a straight answer? While most of your colleagues on the IHL Board have at least maintained a public policy of neutrality in this crisis, you, in your public support of Thames, have gone very much out of your way to be partial. How can we trust you to deal objectively with whatever "evidence" Thames and his crew throw at our colleagues and friends?

    You, sir, have behaved very badly in all this. You have violated the implied terms of your appointment on the College Board to serve and to work in the best interests of the university and the state. If you in fact do support Thames, you would have done well to have kept your mouth shut, at least until you had had a real chance to see the "evidence" and to come to terms fairly and honestly, as any redblooded American male" would insist upon doing, with our colleagues' responses to the charges. By openly supporting Thames before knowing what the charges are, you have disqualified yourself from sitting on the Board when it examines the three reports it will be asked to examine and decide upon. I believe any redblooded American male, and females too, now understand that you cannot be fair in your judgments, and I herewith DEMAND that you recuse yourself from the Board's consideration of the reports on the evidence. It is utterly unthinkable in America that you would now presume to sit in judgment on our colleagues.

   I'm also amazed that you dont seem to understand the relationship between tenure and free speech and, frankly, sir, that fact gives us all reason to consider your qualifications to be on the College Board. Don't you know, don't you really and truly understand, that tenure and free speech are, in the classrooms, identical and crucial to the proper operation of a university? Where have you been the last quarter century if you dont know that? Aren't new appointees to the IHL Board provided with materials to read and digest that explain what a university is? I for one will be happy to try to explain tenure to you if you like; I'm sure others would, too, if we thought we could trust you: if you want free speech, you have to provide the atmosphere in which it can flourish. You haven't done that.

   Finally, I wish I could make you understand how unwise it is for the Board to take the position of listening only to the presidents and NEVER to the faculty---never openly and publicly anyway. We are the only "constituency" in the state who are by policy and practice excluded from having a voice in higher education in Mississippi. Don't you understand that the only recourse faculty in this state have when we have complaints about our presidents is to go public? Wouldn't it be wiser, saner, for the Board to consider us as colleagues rather than as antagonists---as you, by your public statements, seem to consider us? If the Board had made regular attempts to listen to faculty, we could all have been spared the public debacle at MUW a few years ago and the one now ongoing at USM: wouldn't we all be better off to have solved these problems behind our own closed doors, rather than airing them so publicly?

    We all have the same goal in mind, I assure you: the education of Mississippi's young and the betterment of the state. One really good thing you can do as Board President in the coming year is to have some regular face time with faculty; you might get an entirely different view of our campuses than you get from the presidents. Simply, you OWE it to this excellent, well-trained, highly professional, and highly-productive faculty to include us in the deliberations about our state's system of higher education.

Yours truly,

    Noel Polk

    Professor of English

    USM

Originally posted by: Websitebrowser
"We must puruse 'shared vision' LETTERS This week's mail, postmarked Hattiesburg but sent anonymously, brought yet another message in a long line of material aimed at attacking the current administration at Southern Miss. This is just one of many messages I have received anonymously. This time I received a CD Rom copy of an ESPN editorial about the errors in hiring Larry Eustachy. While this appeared to be an ESPN editorial, there was no hard evidence to suggest its validity, and I question if it was even a legitimate report. Had it not been sent anonymously I could have answered my own questions about the report. To those who take offense at my support of the USM administration - either via letters to me or in chat rooms on the FireShelby Web site - if you truly believe in your position, you should get out of the shadows and voice your feelings to me openly and not use the crutch of anonymity. I will not give consideration to anonymous mail. To those of you who have been gracious enough to sign your correspondence to me, I have appreciated hearing from you. It is not lost on me that the true battle at USM is not about the firing of two professors or free speech, but rather the future of tenure and how our university campuses will be shaped in the future. With 90 percent of the on-campus letters I have received against Dr. Thames and 90 percent of the off-campus letters in support of Dr. Thames, the matter remains up for debate. However, we must reconcile ourselves to a shared vision of the future of higher education in Mississippi. Roy Klumb, member, state College Board Gulfport !! "

Date: Apr 16, 2004

To Professor Polk: Thanks for your eloquence, here and elsewhere! Your performance throughout this whole mess has been inspirational!

To others on the board: is there any way to ensure, legally, that Mr. Klumb recuses himself? He really does seem to have forfeited any claim to objectivity in this matter? Can he be required, in any way, to step aside?

Date: Apr 16, 2004

Sometimes I wonder if he doesn't do the non-neutral thing on purpose so he will have to recuse himself. That way, when a decision comes down he might be less a part of a civil suit.

Date: Apr 16, 2004

quote:
Originally posted by: Robert Evans
"To Professor Polk: Thanks for your eloquence, here and elsewhere! Your performance throughout this whole mess has been inspirational!
To others on the board: is there any way to ensure, legally, that Mr. Klumb recuses himself? He really does seem to have forfeited any claim to objectivity in this matter? Can he be required, in any way, to step aside?
"

This might be a stupid question, but can't Rueben Anderson, or even Adleman (sp?) make a recommendation to AG Hood that Klumb recuse himself? Barring that, I guess it's time to blast the editors of the newspapers again and make their own articles bite Klumb in the a$$ for being so "open and honest" about his opinions of the Thames administration in the newspapers.

Just my 2 cents. I'm not familiar enough with the laws on all this.

Date: Apr 16, 2004

I will be mailing this to Klumb and to every member of the Board today under my own name:

Dear Mr. Klumb,

There is little wonder, given the gestapo tactics and environment of fear, that more people are not willing to openly declare their positions , because the system has shown itself for the monster that it is. As an outsider, however, I suspect that I am not within reach of this particular monster, so I will say what you obviously know, but aren't willing to admit. You say: However, we must reconcile ourselves to a shared vision of the future of higher education in Mississippi. Roy Klumb, member, state College Board Gulfport !! "

I'm frankly glad I don't have to share this vision. I went to the IHL Strategic Planning statement for a description of this vision. I find it disturbing that the administration of USM, especially President Thames, has violated every bulleted statement in the declared mission of the board of higher education. This vision appears on the IHL website (http://www.ihl.state.ms.us/strategic_plan.asp). It is remarkable to me that, given the Board's own acknowledgement of the "state's troubled past and systemic educational shortcomings," that anyone connected to USM or education in Missisippi would consider supporting these actions which expose the state and the system to ridicule, scorn, and--one can only hope--financial and legal liabilities. This sort of exposure surely cannot qualify as the means to "become nationally recognized."

If the Board operates as it should and has any interest in its own Vision Statement, it will act to restore these professors and begin the process of assuring a return to normalcy by removing Thames and anyone in his administration who has contributed to this injustice.

Sincerely,

Audell Shelburne (credentials listed as identification only; views are those of the author, not necessarily the school)
Associate Professor and Chair
Department of English
Unversity of Mary Hardin-Baylor
Belton, TX 76513

Fire Shelby · Status: Offline

Bless you, Audell Shelburne and Noel Polk.

Date: Apr 16, 2004

quote:
Originally posted by:
" OMG! That is cause for huge concern. Usually, commissions and board elect new officers AFTER new appointees are seated. I guess the board elected him president BEFORE the four outgoing members' terms expired. That he has been elected president by the board speaks volumes--not very good news at all. Isn't he presently the VP? Thanks for catching this not-so-trivial bit of information."

No -- each "class" (4 incoming board members) decides on the order they will serve as Presdent. Klumb is 2nd in the current class: he currently serves as VP and will step in as President. Virginia Newton will become VP and will step into the President's role same time next year. Klumb was elected by his other three colleagues before the crisis hit.

Fire Shelby · Status: Offline

quote:
Originally posted by: present professor
"No -- each "class" (4 incoming board members) decides on the order they will serve as Presdent. Klumb is 2nd in the current class: he currently serves as VP and will step in as President. Virginia Newton will become VP and will step into the President's role same time next year. Klumb was elected by his other three colleagues before the crisis hit. "

Thanks for that clarification, Present Prof. This is peculiar to the College Board, I guess, because othe state agencies with which I have been associated elect new officers once a year.

Great news that Ms. Newton will be the prez next year, though. Wonderful news!

Date: Apr 16, 2004

Dear Mr. Klumb,

If you would schedule a visit to the USM campus, I am sure that very many faculty members, staff, and students would be available to attend a session to discuss the crisis at USM with you, if you are, in fact, willing to listen to us with an open mind.

Consider this an official invitation. I'm sure everyone who writes anonymously on this board would be happy to talk to you in person.

Date: Apr 16, 2004

Professor Evans: Thank you, too, for keeping us reminded that we are not alone in resisting these folks. It would be nice to think that Mr. Klumb would see that in all fairness he must recuse himself, but I doubt he will. Perhaps Justice Anderson will intervene.

quote:

Originally posted by: Robert Evans
"To Professor Polk: Thanks for your eloquence, here and elsewhere! Your performance throughout this whole mess has been inspirational! To others on the board: is there any way to ensure, legally, that Mr. Klumb recuses himself? He really does seem to have forfeited any claim to objectivity in this matter? Can he be required, in any way, to step aside? "

Date: Apr 16, 2004

quote:
Originally posted by:
" Thanks for that clarification, Present Prof. This is peculiar to the College Board, I guess, because othe state agencies with which I have been associated elect new officers once a year. Great news that Ms. Newton will be the prez next year, though. Wonderful news!"

Yeah -- guess why Roy Klumb wants to get USM in shape THIS YEAR?

Rumor is that he has promised insiders that he intends to clean up all these faculty troublemakers when he becomes prez. Don't know if he actually said these words, rumnor being what it is. But I do think he has communicated his distrust of faculty quite clearly.

Roy, if you are reading this . . . know that I am writing this from my office at 9:03 at night. I am at work . . . . and as soon as I close off I'll be back to doing the university's business.

Just wanted to let you in on the big nasty secret of what a faculty member's life is really like. And, oh yes to top it off I am a tenured faculty member -- I think I'm supposed to take it easy now that I have job security right?

Bye everyone until later!

Date: Apr 16, 2004

present professor,

watch out or Thames will have university security driving around campus looking for someone who is dedicated enough to his or her job to be at work at 9:00 at night. Then he will have your computer seized so that your work (and this web-site) is no longer available to you.

Date: Apr 16, 2004

quote:
Originally posted by: usmstudent
"present professor, watch out or Thames will have university security driving around campus looking for someone who is dedicated enough to his or her job to be at work at 9:00 at night. Then he will have your computer seized so that your work (and this web-site) is no longer available to you. "

Thanks for the advice. I'll turn my lights out!