Reader's contribution to Fire Shelby--I'm placing it on the website now:

The summary dismissals of Professors Gary Stringer and Frank Glamser, and the Gestapo-style tactics involved in locking them out of their offices and seizing their computers, climaxed a series of reprehensible actions of an administration which must be recognized for what it is:  a fascist regime.

What "crime" did these professors commit?  They simply dared to seek the truth.  If this has become a crime in the United States of America, heaven help us!

The hearings next week ought to reveal the Thames administration for what it is.  If Thames is not publicly shamed and reprimanded, I will be  disappointed.  If Glamser and Stringer are not exonerated, I will have lost the last shred of hope I still have for justice in this unfortunate place.  And finally, if the IHL board fails to concur with a recommendation that these professors be reinstated, and if the IHL board fails to acknowledge the profound damage that Thames has done to USM and declines to take immediate action to remove him from office, we can all give up any hope for the future of The University of Southern Mississippi.

As a member of the USM faculty I feel that I can speak freely now only because I have chosen to leave this university.  This is sad indeed.

I sincerely regret that my departure, and the departures of so many talented and dedicated faculty who oppose President Thames, must make him feel very happy.

Received 25 April 2004

Name withheld