WLOX: Fac Resolution Calling Thames to Retire

Date: May 3, 2004

WLOX: Fac Resolution Calling Thames to Retire

Date: May 3, 2004

Here's the text, in case it gets moved from web....

More brilliant quotes from Klumb at the bottom..

05/03/04

http://www.wlox.com/Global/story.asp?S=1836512

USM Faculty Controversy Still Brewing

WLOX News has confirmed the USM faculty is set to take another stand against Dr. Shelby Thames. A settlement reached last week between USM's president and two professors was supposed to put an end to the dissent and protests. But university faculty members remain unhappy.

This Friday, the Faculty Senate at the Hattiesburg and Gulf Coast campuses will meet in Long Beach. Faculty leaders have drafted a resolution calling for Dr. Thames to retire. It's not clear whether faculty members will actually vote on that measure.

The faculty is expected to ask the College Board to end to the university's policy of monitoring faculty e-mails, unless there's reason to suspect criminal activity.

"We will be debating a resolution asking that the board stop email surveillance and the names of people's emails that have been read be published. That any criteria of email searches by any contractor he's hired be published, and that this sort of thing end. I believe that's a very egregious invasion of the freedom communications that ought to apart of a university environment," USM Professor Dr. Pat Smith said.

The email surveillance came to light in hearings last week concerning professors Frank Glamser and Gary Stringer.

Monday, a USM spokesperson told us that only the people directly affected in the investigation were monitored. No student emails were monitored in any way.

Dr. Thames met with deans on the Hattiesburg campus Monday morning to talk about improving communication and moving forward. Members of the college board are also focusing on the future. Board vice president Roy Klumb says that future includes Dr. Thames as president of USM.

"I do not see, from where I sit on the College Board, any desire from any of my colleagues to ask Dr. Thames to resign or to fire Dr. Thames. It's not going to happen."

Date: May 3, 2004

"Monday, a USM spokesperson told us that only the people directly affected in the investigation were monitored. No student emails were monitored in any way."

How does the e-mail between Myron Henry and student Rachel Q. about an ill faculty member fit into this? (For those of you who didn't attend or listen to the hearing the aforementioned e-mail was brought up in the defense's opening statement. It had nothing to do with Glamser, Stringer, Thames, or Dvorak!)

Date: May 3, 2004

Well...

Since when is it prudent to believe anything that a Thames spokesperson says?

Robert Campbell

Date: May 3, 2004

I hope the Faculty Senate will give VERY serious consideration to passing this resolution. If the Senate does not act soon, the summer will be upon USM, and all momentum may be lost -- at least until the fall. Also, a vote needs to be on record to demonstrate that the faculty's problems with the Thames administration go well beyond the Glamser/Stringer affair. Roy Klumb has already begun minimizing the importance of the earlier overwhelming vote of no confidence by the whole faculty.

Date: May 3, 2004

Any possibility of putting this resolution to a full faculty vote? I think I could support a resolution for him to retire, in fact, i can think of a lot of resolutions i could support, none of which i can mention here.

Date: May 3, 2004

To think the email between RQ and MH about JP was monitored by the SFT thought police literally makes me ill. JP would have laughed and told me to calm down, but he can't speak for himself anymore. Don't want to get overly religious with anyone right now, but we have a good person looking out for us, and I believe the tide is turning.