Thanks so much for finding this, Miles.  Makes me love DC all over again.  What a loss for USM and the Center for Writers.

quote:

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Originally posted by: Miles Long
"Here's what USM just lost. Thanks, Shelby. You bastard. http://adirondackreview.homestead.com/interviewberry.html "

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Although I'm sure that Dr. Berry had good intentions, I believe his display yesterday does more harm than good for the cause.  The general public just sees another "nutty" professor breaking awards that Thames didn't even give him.  Then alumni sees him trashing Southern Miss and saying he hopes his son never considers going to school there.  In my view it perpetuates the myth that there are just a bunch of kooky faculty wanting to get rid of Thames.

I was very sympathetic and moved by Dr. Berry's actions.  My mother, however, who is a non-academic person, though very sensible and usually very understanding, was quite put off by it and didn't "get" it at all.  She may be more representative of the public at large.  However, you have to admire a person who would sacrifice such treasures to make such an important point.

Well, it was my pleasure to have had David serve as my major professor and director of my disseratation when I was in the Center for Writers at USM.  I was, by the way, the first PhD out of there.  It was also my pleasure to share a house with him--the Deer Camp, so named because then we didn't have to clean it up--for quite some time.

I never EVER saw a demonstration of anger in that man.  He was just too laid-back.  When D.C. Berry lets go the way he did against the USM administration, it tells me an awful lot about the state of the university.

Paul Ruffin, Distinguished Professor of English, Sam Houston State University, and author and editor/co-editor of twenty books

Dr. Ruffin, have you signed the online petition? written to IHL board? We need all the help from alums that we can get. If you've already done these things, thanks!