Dear Colleagues,

The past week at Southern Miss has been one filled with activities and I am
taking this means of communicating to relay them to you.

The President's Council met for a second time this week. I provided a
written and clear statement of the purposes of the Council and I provide that
herein.

The President's Council is an ad hoc, advisory, non-governing focus
group, whose purpose is to assist with and facilitate communications
throughout the campus - faculty, staff and students.

The council requested that Dr. Bobby Middlebrooks facilitate the group
meetings and asked David Johnson to serve as secretary and keep notes for each
meeting.

Faculty Handbook
The first item of discussion after the selection of a facilitator was the
faculty handbook. I reported to the council that the Faculty Handbook
Committee had approved the handbook with only one or two items not being
unanimously approved. Since I would prefer unanimity, I have asked that the
items not approved unanimously be reviewed.

I proposed that the handbook be in placed effective July 1, 2004, with the
exception of the items that did not have unanimous approval. I will approach
Dr. Taylor, who chaired the committee and has since retired, to meet with the
academic deans to solicit further input on the remaining issues. In this
process, the deans will solicit input from their faculty and discuss the
issues during the fall semester. I was asked about the potential problems
involved with approving only part of the handbook. I explained that I thought
it was important for the part of the handbook that was unanimously
agreed upon be enacted so that new hires would have a current handbook of
which to refer, but in listening to members of the committee, I agreed to
refrain from enacting any portion of this handbook until fall, 2004.

Security Policy
Next, we discussed the university's security policy. Our current policy has
been in existence for many years. It is very clear that computers we use
every day are the property of the university and can be monitored at any time.
This is well known and each of us should understand that e-mail is not a
secure method of communication. For specific wording and guidelines in the
policy, please visit, http://www.usm.edu/infosec/policy.

I want to each of you to know that e-mails are not currently being monitored
and that the e-mails monitored during the past few months were directly
involved with events and issues surrounding specific, inappropriate actions.
Monitoring was very focused and very specific.

In talking with the council, I recommended that the security policy be altered
to state that prior to the monitoring of e-mails by, or on behalf of the
university, the matter will be discussed and approved by either a
representative of the Attorney General's office or by an appropriate judge.
I had originally suggested that a City or State Court judge be contacted but
our attorney, Mr. Lee Gore, recommends the use of "an appropriate judge," and
I concur.

Drug and Alcohol Policy
I proposed to the council a three-stage process for development of a new drug
and alcohol policy.

1.) The academic deans will collect comments from faculty and staff and will
also collect drug and alcohol policies from similar academic institutions and
submit them to me for review.
2.) Next, an external review will be requested from Pine Grove.
3.) A recommended Drug and Alcohol Policy will be compiled based on steps one
and two and this recommended policy will be circulated to the university
community for commentary before enactment. It must be understood that the
drug-testing component of the policy must comply with state and federal laws.

The council discussed whether or not the policy would apply to students. Since
the meeting I have discussed this matter with Mr. Lee Gore, University Counsel,
and he advises that law requires that all university employees must comply
with the policy, student or otherwise. The council also agreed that the policy
would be an addition to the Faculty Handbook, Staff Handbook, Graduate
Bulletin and the Undergraduate Bulletin.

I will work with the deans to recommend a suitable timetable for the
implementation of the drug and alcohol policy.

Interaction with Elected Bodies
I was asked about interaction with various elected bodies currently in
existence at our university. In response I commented that I would continue to
meet with the members of the Faculty Senate Executive Committee, as I have
since becoming President. The next meeting is scheduled for June 9, 2004.
I will also continue my Tuesday's at Two with Thames meetings with our students
in the fall of 2004.

As always, I will attend any meeting of the Staff Council, Academic Council,
Graduate Council, Faculty Senate or the Student Government Association when I
am asked to do so. I also continue to welcome any faculty member, staff
member or student who wishes to visit with me one-on-one.

At the suggestion of David Johnson, I will make a concerted effort to be out
in our academic community more frequently. I will communicate our university
challenges so that you are better able to provide input and assistance.

The next meeting of the President's Council is scheduled for the week of May
24th, during which I will address what I see as our greatest challenges in the
year(s) ahead.

College Board
I had the opportunity to visit with Mr. Ed Blakeslee and Ms. Robin Robinson
during the past week. We talked about our financial challenges and the goals
of The University of Southern Mississippi. As always, I shared with them my
primary goal of increasing faculty and staff salaries. I am encouraged with
their optimism and their desire to help higher education and Southern Miss.
I will soon seek to meet with Mr. Bob Owens and Mr. Aubrey Patterson who are
also newly appointed Board Members.

I had the opportunity to meet with the entire Board at the Thursday meeting.
We discussed the many accomplishments of our University community and our plan
for the future. I was pleased with their supportive comments for our efforts.

The Board Members unanimously passed our request for the outsourcing of our
food services and bookstore operations. Additionally, the probability of
tuition increases at all universities was a discussion item. While a tuition
increase is not this administration's desire, the rising costs faced by
higher education may well require a tuition increase. I will keep you informed
as discussions of tuition increases continue.

The week ahead brings challenges and opportunities. I hope you will work with
me to better our university in every way. Please let me know if I can be of
assistance to you in the week to come.

Very Truly Yours,
Shelby F. Thames