April 17, 2004

An open letter to the Board of Trustees, Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning:

In response to the most recently published letter by the Mississippi College Board's newly appointed president, I write this open letter to all members of the Board to express my dismay and disgust at such fatuous grandstanding, pretending to authority in matters obviously far beyond his ken.  I know from years of professional association with the University of Southern Mississippi, its personnel, and its programs that USM up to now has not been a fascist institution.  But the appointment of persons such as the College Board's new president, and of course his henchman, the latest president of USM, are transforming the university's inner workings and public image.  

The language used by such men resembles the language used by Nazi party functionaries placed in charge of German institutions of higher learning the the 1930s, institutions that were swiftly coopted and converted into political oppressors of free speech and democracy.  For example, consider this language used by Roy Klumb:  "the future of tenure and how our university campuses will be shaped in the future"—this is the coded language of ruthless power, without regard for principles of academic freedom.  The purpose of such language is not reasoned policy but coercion and intimidation, and both this way of using language and the coercion and intimidation it implies have been pungent in the atmosphere at USM since the present administration took office. 

Slander and character assassination have been published; due process has been ignored or subverted; collegiality has been replaced by fiat decided on in secrecy; and unqualified cronies who will carry out orders have been placed in positions of responsibility they are unworthy to fill. Whatever strategy or lack of strategy may lie behind these steps taken by the Thames administration and its sponsors, these are undeniably fascist tactics.

I trust that due process will make clear the injustice that has been committed against Professors Glamser and Stringer.  It will be up to you members of the Mississippi College Board to acknowledge this injustice and to prescribe the remedies, among which must be a reformation of the unsavory conditions brought upon USM by the Thames administration.  Please do your duty.

Yours sincerely,

Dennis Flynn

Professor