here it is.

http://chronicle.com/daily/2004/05/2004050301n.htm

Settlement at U. of Southern Mississippi Gives Professors Little to Cheer About

By SCOTT SMALLWOOD

Two tenured professors at the University of Southern Mississippi whose proposed firing drew complaints nationwide will retain their jobs for two more years, but they will not return to the classroom.

Details of the deal were announced on Friday, after Mississippi's College Board, as its higher-education governing body is known, held a special meeting to approve it. The settlement was reached between the professors and the university's president, Shelby F. Thames, on Wednesday, cutting short a mediation hearing that had been scheduled for two days.

The fight has roiled the campus for weeks (The Chronicle, March 19). After Mr. Thames moved to dismiss the two professors, others on the campus called for his resignation and the Faculty Senate issued a unanimous vote of no confidence. The entire faculty later passed a similar no-confidence resolution by a vote of 430 to 32.

Now the termination proceedings against Gary Stringer, a professor of English, and Frank Glamser, a sociology professor, have been stopped. And the two professors, who are both nearing retirement, will be paid their full salaries for two more years. But they will not teach classes and will no longer have offices on the campus. The professors also agreed not to criticize the university administration publicly.

Michael Adelman, a lawyer for the professors, said he was frustrated by attempts to characterize the deal. "Everybody wants to read into a settlement like they're reading tea leaves," he said. "Each side gives something, and each side gets something. No one goes home with all the marbles."

Mr. Thames released a statement saying that he never intended to cause financial harm to the professors. "A debate needs not occur to determine who 'won' this matter," he said. "This was never about anyone 'winning,' but rather what was in the best interest of Southern Miss."

In a written statement, Mr. Glamser said he was pleased to have the matter resolved but disappointed that he would no longer be working directly with students.

Mr. Thames had accused the professors of being on a "witch hunt" to discredit Angeline Dvorak, the university's vice president for research.

Mr. Glamser, the head of the local chapter of the American Association of University Professors, has said he was given information questioning whether Ms. Dvorak had stretched the truth on her curriculum vitae. He later asked Mr. Stringer to head a committee of local AAUP members to look into the matter.

Mr. Stringer found that her credentials, as listed on the university's Web site and in two news releases, were misleading. Her biography on the Web site stated: "Before initiating her work in Mississippi, Dvorak served as president and CEO of Ashland Community College in Ashland, Kentucky. She concurrently held a tenured academic appointment as an associate professor at the University of Kentucky."

Ms. Dvorak, however, never taught at the University of Kentucky. She contends that she earned tenure in the University of Kentucky system, of which Ashland was a part.

At the hearing last week, the president said that after he learned of the investigation into her credentials, he ordered a university lawyer to monitor certain faculty members' e-mail messages.

Among the charges leveled by the president against the professors were: making dishonest statements, misusing state property, disclosing Ms. Dvorak's Social Security number, and undermining confidence in the university administration.

According to the Hattiesberg American, a local newspaper, Mr. Thames said at the hearing, "They've disparaged Dr. Dvorak in an attempt to make her ineffective and have done so with reckless disregard for the truth."

Despite the settlement, the furor at Southern Mississippi is likely to continue. Noel Polk, an English professor who has followed the case closely, said many professors are angry that the president has been reading professors' e-mail messages.

"Nobody trusts him, so as long as he is president this university will feel that it has been screwed," Mr. Polk said. "The only way for us to pick up and move forward is for us to be delivered from Shelby and his minions."