Here is a copy of a letter I have just forwarded to the Student Printz, asking the Student Government here at USM to actually do something. 

            A month or so ago, I asked that our SGA representatives call for a vote of no confidence in Shelby Thames and ask for his resignation after the firing of two tenured faculty members who have since reached a settlement with the university.  Our representatives, led by then president Jarod Loftus, did nothing.  The new student government administration, led by president Walt Cain, has done nothing except to draft a resolution asking the two sides in this struggle to find some sort of truce for the benefit of the students.  They basically co-opted Rodney King and said “Can’t we all just get along.”

            The resolution put forth amounts to a resignation of no opinion.  That is not what the SGA was voted into office to do.  They were elected to be the voice of the student body when it came to dealings with the University as a whole and with the administration and faculty separately.  According to the Southern Miss website, the SGA “Provides services, ensures the growth and development of self-government for all students, encourages spirit and upholds the pursuit of knowledge, protects the academic rights of those who teach us, and protects the rights of students.”  It is their duty to have an opinion in this matter and to voice the opinions of those who they serve.

            It has become clear that this student body is unhappy with the situation here at USM.  “Paranoia runs deep,” to steal from Buffalo Springfield, and that paranoia is seeping into the classroom and in students’ dealings with faculty.  I’ve seen statements chalked vehemently onto sidewalks stating that Big Brother is watching and reading your emails.  I’ve overheard people talking about wishing they were not in this university.  I’ve seen people wearing and passing out stickers that oppose Thames and this administration.

            The opinions are out there, rumbling on the surface of all that is going on around here.  The opinions can be seen with every release of  the Student Printz.  They can be read on a website.  They can be heard in the halls.  They are out there, everywhere, and yet our student government is doing nothing .  They are not ensuring the growth and development of self-government; they are not upholding the pursuit of knowledge; and considering Thames’ treatment of Ms. Quinlivan, they are not protecting the rights of the students.  By not having an opinion, they are inadvertently playing right into this administration’s hands.

            This administration is corrupt.  It is a tight-fisted, authoritarian entity that is belittling the concept of academic freedom and infringing upon the rights of students and faculty to voice opinions, good or bad.  It appears to be guilty of nepotism and, in the case of enrollment figures, outright fraud.  It is monitoring what you say and even telling you what you can call your university (remember, it’s no longer USM).

            I call, again, for the SGA to have an opinion.  Stand up and say something.  Show the student body that you actually can ask the questions that need to be asked.  Are any of the students’ emails being monitored, now or previously?  Why is an English PhD involved in the economic development program here, presumably teaching?  How can we hope for a quality education when our faculty are treated like second-class citizens who are expected to be seen and not heard?  Why is the president of this university so dead-set on limiting academic freedom and endangering this university’s accreditation?

            The questions need to be asked, and we need to urge this administration to give us the answers.  We need to urge the IHL to give us answers.  We need to have a voice in our own futures, and the SGA was elected to be that voice.  When Glamser and Stringer were first relieved of duties, the only thing that it seemed like the last administration was able to do was to point at the Train concert in the hopes that we’d look the other way while the administration did what they wanted to do.  And the administration apparently paid for it.  Well, I didn’t look the other way, and neither did a lot of people.

            Ask questions.  Seek answers.  Listen.  Think.  Have an opinion.  Don’t just sit around passing fruitless and unnecessary resolutions that mean nothing.  Right now, I don’t even care if it is an opinion contrary to mine as long as it is an informed one.  Stand up and do the job you were elected to do by this university’s student body.  Seek the truth.  Support the students.  Have an opinion.

            If you cannot, if it is impossible for you to have an opinion and come to some consensus on viable and plausible resolutions that don’t straddle the fence and don’t protect the rights of students, then I believe that the student body has every right and even the duty to call for your resignation so that people who have opinions and who can ask the questions can be elected.

Aubrey R. Fowler III